摘　要

霍桑的《红字》被视为美国第一部象征主义小说。它是少数卓有建树的作品之一，因为它涉及罪恶，惩罚，赎罪及内疚。作为一部悲剧小说，整个故事围绕主人公海斯特展开的，理解主人公的爱情悲剧可以更好理解故事中的各种矛盾和冲突。
本论文主要从三个方面来说悲剧性的原因。一是作者的个人背景以及写作意图，作者的个人背景会体现作品的深度和时代意义，他的写作意图会影响故事的情节发展。二是当时的社会因素。社会因素，尤其是当时的清教主义的思想禁锢，让人们更好的了解故事发生的根本原因。三是书中主要人物的性格因素。小说中海斯特的性格以及其他人物相冲突的性格特征也会导致爱情悲剧的发生。关于这三方面原因的论述能让读者更好的理解海斯特，理解这本书的意义。

关键词：《红字》；悲剧；清教

Abstract

Hawthorne’s the Scarlet Letter is regarded as the first novel of symbolism. It is one of the accomplished works because it involves sin, punishment, atonement and guilt. Throughout the story, it focuses on the portrait of the heroine, Hester. This will enable readers to possess a sufficient understanding of her encounters and grasp the conflicts and contradictions involved into the story leading to her love tragedy. The essay demonstrates three main reasons that contribute to the tragedy. First, it is about the author’s life background and his intention to create the work. Definitely, the author’s life background and experience have a profound impact on his writing. His intention will determine the novel’s construction and unfolding. Second, social influence is an indispensable reason. Social influence, especially the confinement of thought from Puritanism, is the fundamental reason which drives the novel to develop at a certain direction. Last, it is about the characters’ personalities. The diverse characteristics of the figures, like Hester’s personality and other people’s, in the novel result in all kind of conflicts among them, which finally give rise to the love tragedy. In short, it is important to. It is better for readers to understand Hester and the meaning of the book by analyzing the cause of the Hester’s tragedy.

Key words: The Scarlet Letter; Tragedy; Puritanism

1 Introduction
 There are many novels in the world. Some are like fairytales which are mostly with happy endings and telling readers the world is beautiful and full of love. They are popular among kids; however, some are with tragic endings. Those are more suitable for adults because they are mature enough to accept the world’s cruelty and reality. Usually a novel, which is tragedy, talking about cruelty and reality, will have more worth to leave a good name forever because the novel will point out some deep things about the world and society. That is why most famous literary works end in tragedy.