浅析《红字》中"A"对海斯特的象征意义

宋筱

摘要：納撒尼尔•霍桑被称为美国第一位最有成就的小说家。他的作品《红字》，因其寓意和象征被称为美国史上第一部象征主义小说。小说围绕着一个主要的象征："A"，本文主要研究"A"对主要人物的象征意义。对于海斯特，红字"A"经历了从"Adultery"到"Able"最后到"Angel"的改变，她获得了纯洁的心灵和力量，最终赢得人们的尊敬。本文对红字"A"对海斯特的象征意义作简要分析，使读者对书中的象征手法有一定了解，从而对《红字》的内涵有更深刻的理解。

关键词：红字A;象征主义;背叛;疏远

中图分类号：G648 文献标识码：B文章编号：1672-1578（2014）19-0021-02

Analysis of the "A" Symbolic Significance "of Hester in "The Scarlet Letter"

Abstract：Nathaniel Hawthorne is regarded as the first great American fiction writer. He is successful in the employment of symbolism. His work The Scarlet Letter that is notable for its allegory and symbolism is regarded as the first symbolic novel in American literature. There are many symbols in the novel, but it revolves around one major symbol: the scarlet letter "A". This paper analyzes the "A" symbolic meaning for Hester of the novel. For Hester, it changes from "Adultery" "Alone and Alienation" to "Able and Angle", the changes throughout the novel and she gains what she wants at last. Through the analysis of diverse symbolic meanings of the letter "A", the reader can understand the story and the theme deeply.

Keywords: the letter A; symbolism; allegory; adultery; alienation

1. Introduction

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most significant writers of the romantic period in American literature. His name is often associated with New England. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He died at Plymouth, New Hampshire, on May 18, 1864.

The Scarlet Letter is the first symbolic novel, and its success dues to the employment of symbolism. Symbolism is a traditional artistic form; it also is a major feature of Romanticism. It uses specific performance of the image and meaning of abstract things to evoke the readers' imagination and association.

2. Analysis of the symbolic meaning of "A"

As a famous writer of Romanticism, Hawthorne is skillful at the employment of symbolism in his woks. The symbols in The Scarlet Letter make the novel a work of the world. It describes a love tragedy of Hester Prynne in the Puritan society in the Colonial period. The novel analyzes the characters' psychological conflicts through many detailed descriptions, the purpose of which is to reveal the" darks idea" of the Puritan society. That is to say, the Puritan society suppresses the human nature. The symbolic significances of the letter A are important and worthy to study.

3. "A" to Hester Prynne

3.1Adultery.The letter "A", worn on Hester's bosom, is a symbol of her adultery against Roger Chillingworth. This is the Puritan way of treating her as a criminal, for the crime of adultery. The letter first appears in the second chapter, when Hester comes out of the prison: "On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with elaborated embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter 'A'" (Hawthorne, 2001:10). Her refusal to reveal Pearl's father leads her to suffer the public humiliation. When Hester walks through the streets, she will be looked down upon as if she is some sort of demon that commits a terrible crime from hell.

Hester is a symbol of the sinner in the Puritan society and she herself represents guilt. The letter "A" is meant to be worn in shame and to make Hester feel unwanted. "Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment… (Hawthorne, 2001:54). The letter "A" on her bosom reminds Hester of her adultery. When Hester talks with Dimmesdale, she feels youth and beauty return to her and the letter leaves her body; however, when she wears it, she feels the sin and misery around her (侯靜，2006). Hester is ashamed of her sin, so she chooses not to show it. She commits this sin in the heat of passion, and fully admits it because though she is ashamed, she also receives her greatest treasure, Pearl, out of it. Pearl always keeps her aware of her sin. However, she is a very strong woman to be able to hold up so well against what she must face. At last, Hester realizes that the letter "A" hanged on her bosom is the heavy load that she can not bear. If she wants to change it, she must change the Puritan laws and the whole society.

3.2Alone and Alienation.The letter A also stands for Hester's lonely life in New England. In this strictly controlled Puritan town, the habitants live in harsh laws and fierce prejudices. They can not stand such a woman like a criminal living in the town near them. After she is released, Hester lives in a cottage near the outskirts of the city. "It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation…" (Hawthorne, 2001:54).

Hester's social life is virtually eliminated as a result of her shameful history. There is nothing that makes her feel as if she belongs to the society, when she has chances to talks with other people or listen to them , she feels that she is banished by them and as if she is living in another sphere. Hester has no friends in the world. Every time she sees her hidden lover, Dimmesdale, a complex feeling comes up. She must keep the secret for him. She is lonely and the little Pearl is the only companion and the only hope in her life.

There is a more important thing need to be pointed out. Although Hester suffers enormously from the shame of her public disgrace and the isolation of her punishment, in her inmost heart, she can never accept the Puritan interpretation of her act (陶洁，2005). For her, the act is inseparable from love, love for Dimmesdale, love for Pearl and love for other people. Hester does not believe she has done an evil thing, so she retains her self-respect and survives her punishment with dignity. The alienation from the town gives her freedom of thought and a resulting independence of spirit.

3.3Able and Angel.Later, the letter "A" changes its meaning into being able and angel. The townspeople who condemned her now believe the scarlet letter to stand for her ability of her beautiful needlework and also for her unselfish assistance to the poor and sick. Her sensitivity with society victims turns her symbolic meaning from a person whose life was originally twisted and repressed to a strong and sensitive woman with respect for the humanity of others. "Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself …" (Hawthorne, 2001:58). She just argues with Governor Bellingham to strive for the right of a mother to raise Pearl. And she never battles with the public but she is self-ordained a Sister of Mercy (张伯香,1999). She moves to work out her penance by becoming a charity for the very community that scorns her. Though her true charity is weak, she endures silently and with immense fortitude the humiliations visited upon her by the people she serves. She supports herself and her child as a seam stress. She gains the respect of most townspeople. "They said that it meant Able, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength" (Hawthorne, 2001:186).

Even the Puritan community sees the letter as meaning of "Able" or "Angel", her sensitivity with society's victims turns her symbolic meaning from a person whose life was originally twisted and repressed to a strong and sensitive woman with respect for the humanity of others. In her final years, "the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence, too." Since her character is strongly tied to the scarlet letter, Hester represents the public sinner who changes and learns from her own sorrow to understand the humanity of others. Often people who suffer great loss and life-changing experiences become survivors with an increasing understanding and sympathy for the human losses of others. Hester is such a typical example. She gets the power of pure soul and kind heart, even be an angel in people's mind.

4. Conclusion

All my paper focuses on the symbolic significance of the letter "A" in The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter is the model work for Hawthorne in using symbolism. It is an important and influent novel in American literature. The symbolic meaning of the letter "A" runs through the novel. With the different symbolic meanings of the letter "A" to Hester, he reveals the relationship between good and evil and the subject idea of the work that the essence of the world is the unity of contradiction and reality.

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