摘要

《胎记》是霍桑有名作品中的一部，在这部作品中出现了很多象征。女主人公乔治亚娜脸颊上的“胎记”是最主要的象征物。“胎记”对于乔治亚娜来说是美丽的标志，而在科学家丈夫——艾尔默眼中是妻子的缺陷，是邪恶的标志。“胎记”包含了很多种象征意义。同时，象征意义也折射出很多有意义的主题，如: 科学不是万能的，女性悲惨命运等等。故事里的多重象征意义帮助读者认识作者的宗教观，对科学观的思考以及对男权社会中女性地位的同情，这具有多重的文学价值。

关键词：象征意义；胎记；罪恶；科学；女性命运

Abstract

The birthmark is the one of Hawthorne’s the most successful works. There are many symbolic meanings in the Birthmark. The prominent symbol is “birthmark” in Georgiana’s cheek which is a mark of beauty, but to Aylmer, scientific husband, is evil and the flaw of his wife. The birthmark includes several symbolic meanings. In the meantime, symbolic meanings of the birthmark point out many themes. For example,  science is not omnipotent，the female fate is tragic, and so on. Multiple symbolic meanings in the story make readers know the author’s view of religion, author’s thought about the view of science and sympathy with the status of women in a patriarchal society. It has multiple literary values.

Key words: symbolic meanings; birthmark; sin; science; female fate

1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the story
The Birthmark is a romantic short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 19 century. In the 19th century America evolved from a largely agricultural to the world's most important industrial power. Bountiful natural resources, a foundation of English law, a free enterprise system, an effective public education system, and immigration combined to make America potentially the most powerful country in the world. In that time, it was very important for science technology to help American progress. In the meantime, it also brought negative side. Many scientists were indulged in science. They thought that science was omnipotent. Their thoughts led to some tragic stories. Georgiana is a microcosm of society at that time. In 19 century, the women’s lives were tragic. They could not attain the equal treatment, such as legal Status of women, jobs of women, women in politics. He Li Deqiong(2007) has done some research in this field. In his passage, he said “they have been considered not only intellectually inferior to men, but also a major source of temptation and evil” (Li Deqiong, 2007). For example, it was a woman, Pandora, who opened the forbidden box and brought plagues and unhappiness to mankind. Early Roman law described women as children, forever inferior to men. Women were long considered weaker than men. For example, to a married woman, defined as being one with her husband, gave up her name, and virtually all her property came under her husband’s control. In the birthmark, Georgiana was a good example. She submitted to her husband totally, even sacrificed her life.