摘　要

《红字》是大作家霍桑的代表作，是一部为世人称道的不朽佳作。小说中的女主人公海斯特白兰更是成为了勇敢女性的经典代表。《红字》因其深刻的涵义而为世人所喜爱，其中就不乏专业的学者和研究人员。他们从不同的角度进行探讨和研究，范围从宗教伦理道德主题，人性主题到女性主题。其中对女性主题的探讨往往是围绕女主人公海斯特展开的。她的命运，她的清教价值观，道德观，女性观，人性观都会成为研究的对象。本文亦是主要探讨女主人公海斯特，研究的重点在于海斯特的形象以及其成因。17世纪的新英格兰清教主义盛行，对人的言行要求十分严格。海斯特天生的性情似乎与这样一个充满束缚的年代相抵触。最终她通过自身的努力，实现了对真爱的追求，改变了人们对于红字世俗的看法，并赋予了它更多反映女性精神的积极意义。

关键词：海斯特白兰；形象；原因

Abstract

The Scarlet Letter is a representative work of Hawthorne. It is an immortal work of great importance that is beloved by people. Meanwhile, the heroine of this novel Hester Prynne has become a representative of those women of bravery. The insightful meaning hiding in the Scarlet Letter helps this novel win a great popularity among people especially those professional scholars and researchers. They conduct their researches from various perspectives which include the theme of religion, ethic and morality; the theme of humanity and the theme of feminism. The study of feminism is always around the heroine, Hester. Her fate, her value of Puritanism, morality, feminism and humanity all have been discussed. And this paper here will focus on Hester as well. It will mainly study the image of Hester and the reason for its formation. The New England in the 17th century is one period that is dominated by Puritanism. People living there were strictly manipulated. The nature of Hester seems to be in conflict with such an age full of restraint. In the end, Hester, through her own effort, realized her pursuit for true love. She changed the way people see the scarlet letter and at the same time gave it much more positive meaning of female spirit.

Key words: Hester Prynne; image; reasons

1 Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is an outstanding representative of American romantic writer of the Nineteenth Century. As a writer who has made a great contribute to the American literature and the literature of the world, Hawthorne created many impressive and classic works: The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, Tanglewood Tales, The Marble Faun and Moss from an Old Manse. In the year 1879, the famous novelist Henry James in his book named Hawthorne appreciated the Scarlet Letter as the most imaginative work in American History as well as a quiet qualified one that should be introduced into Europe. Readers may have a variety of interpretations about a great work, but none of those interpretations can reveal the complete inside meaning of a great work.