An Analysis of Characterization of Female Characters in The Scarlet Letter_英语论文

摘要

纳撒尼尔·霍桑（1804—1864），是美国19世纪最伟大的浪漫主义小说家。他的小说作品被视作浪漫主义运动的一部分。《红字》是他的杰作。它推动了美国文学作品的发展。国内和国外的许多学者都对这本著作做研究以及书写评论。有的学者把重心放在小说的内容上，研究小说中的男、女主人公性格特色；有的着重研究小说的写作手法，例如象征手法、暗喻、反讽；有的研究小说中人物性格的矛盾性；有的学者把研究重心放在了小说中体现的清教主义，文中表达的原罪与赎罪。他们通过文化视角、历史视角、社会学批评、女性主义批评角度来解读这本小说中的主要人物。

而本篇论文的研究重心则放在小说中的3个女性角色身上。她们是海丝特·白兰、珍珠、西宾斯夫人。人们主要是对小说中的几个角色即海丝特·白兰、珍珠、医生奇灵渥斯和牧师丁梅斯代尔做的研究较多，却忽略了对一些次要人物的研究，如西宾斯夫人。并且也没有深入仔细地研究过造成不同人物不同性格的原因。因此，本篇论文主要是分析小说中这3个女性角色各自的人物性格特点，然后结合当时的时代背景和作者人生经历，探讨造成这3人不同人物性格的成因。从而读者才能更好地理解小说中这些女性的行为，语言等，更好地读懂这本小说。

关键词：女性人物 性格 人性

Abstract

Nathaniel Hawthorne,(1804—1864),is one of the greatest romantic novelists in the 19th century of the United States. His novels are regarded as part of Romantic Movement. The Scarlet Letter is his masterpiece, which promotes the development of American literary works. A lot of scholars have done research and commented on this novel. Some scholars paid their attention to the contents of the novel and analyzed the characteristics of the protagonists; some mainly researched the writing skills of the novel such as symbolism, metaphor and irony; some analyzed the contradiction of the characters in the novel; some studied Puritanism embodied in the fiction which reflected the Original Sin and Redemption. They interpreted the characters in the novel from cultural perspective, historical perspective, the perspectives of sociological criticism and feminist criticism.

This thesis pays attention to the 3 female characters. They are Hester Prynne, Pearl and Mistress Hibbins. People did many researches on the characters which contained Hester Prynne, Pearl, doctor Roger Chillingworth and clergy Dimmesdale. But they ignored the analysis of some secondary characters like Mistress Hibbins. They did not studied the reason thoroughly why these characters have different characteristics. Therefore, my thesis mainly focuses on the analysis of different characteristics of the 3 female characters and the causes for different characteristics of the 3 female characters in the novel with the combination of the historical background at that time and the author’s experience. In this way, readers can have a better understanding of their behaviors, words of the female characters. Then readers can understand the novel more easily.

Key Words: Female characters; Characteristics; Human nature

Contents

1  Introduction 1

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne And The Scarlet Letter 1

1.1.1 The Brief Introduction of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Background 1

1.1.2 The Cultural And Historical Background of The Scarlet Letter 2

1.1.3 The Structure of the Book of The Scarlet Letter 4

1.2 The Significance of The Research 5

1.3 The Structure of The Thesis 5

2  Characteristics of Female Characters in The Scarlet Letter 7

2.1 Hester Prynne’s Characteristics: Strong Mind And Self-contribution 7

2.2 Pearl’s Characteristics: Innocence And Angel 9

2.3 Mistress Hibbins’s Characteristics: Wickedness And Depravation 11

3  Writing Techniques Employed to Characterize Female Characters in The Scarlet Letter 12

4  Causes for Different Characteristics of Female Characters in The Scarlet Letter 14

5  Conclusion 17

Bibliography 19

Acknowledgments 21