摘　 要

霍桑是美国历史上伟大的小说家之一，在他的著作红字中，他成功并巧妙地的运用了象征手法，不但给小说中许多事件和现象提供了更深层次的意义，而且也赋予了小说中的四位主人翁名字以极其丰富的内涵。作为红字中重要的的写作手法，本文将介绍从小说中红字，人名，场景的随着剧情的发展而具有的不同的象征意义，共有三个部分。第一部分主要是介绍红字的象征意义，文中的红字主要有Hester Prynne胸前的红字，Arthur Dimmesdale 心中的红字，Roger Chillingworth所认为的红字以及Pearl—活着的红字。第二部分，作者从人物在小说中的象征意义着重讨论。作者在第三部分分析场景中的小说中所代表的象征意义。最后，作者得出结论，霍桑在红字中不同事物所运用的不同象征意义和象征手法。

关键词：象征；红字；罪恶；救赎；场景；清教
 
Abstract

Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered one of the greatest novelists in the history of American literature. In his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter he skillfully used symbolism, which not only gives the various things and phenomena a deeper level of meaning, but also gives an extremely rich connotation to the four main characters’ names. The Scarlet Letter offers an extraordinary insight into the norms and behavior of the 17th century if American Puritan society. The female protagonist has borne a child out of wedlock and has been jailed for over three months and sentenced to wear a symbol of her adultery, a scarlet “A” on her dress at all times. But while reading this novel, it gives me a feeling that in addition to regard “The Scarlet Letter” as a tragedy, it seems that its significance is difficult to have a certain understanding. And the novel’s contradictions and complexity of character psychology is so difficult to find a simple answer on its significance. In the first part, this paper will focus on the analysis of the different meanings of the scarlet letter “A” with development of the story. And in the second part, this paper mainly interprets the meanings of names of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth and Pearl, trying to analyze and interpret the symbolism. And in third part, this paper will narrate the symbolic meanings of scene Hawthorne had used in The Scarlet Letter. In the last part, the author makes a brief conclusion about it.

Key words: scarlet letter; contradiction; adultery; significance; symbolism

1 Introduction
    In the book the scarlet letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne used famous symbolism to narrate the story and in the description of some scene, and even in the names of heroines, there are still some symbolic meanings. Last but not least, the letter A goes through the whole story. Begin with “A” and end with “A”, which endow the different symbolic meanings in different parts of the story. That is why so many scholars analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter to search how he can use the symbolism throughout the whole story. Symbolism is a writing method that uses the symbols to represent ideas or qualities. While reading The Scarlet Letter, you can know more about the meaning than the story superficially represents. The uses of symbolism endow the story more space of imagination, which embodies the excellent writing skills.