Abstract:
The Scarlet Letter is the first long novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who is regarded as the most influential romantic novelist of the nineteenth century   America. Due to the influence of family background and environment, feminist movement, and thought of transcendental philosophy, Hawthorne creates vivid and symbolic images in The Scarlet Letter that embody feminist consciousness and Puritan thoughts. The heroine Hester owns a contradictory character from the perspective of feminism. On the one hand, Hester’s persistent character and independent spirit encourage her to rebel against the Puritan society and strive for her love and her rights. She owns maternal consciousness and feminist consciousness. On the other hand, she makes compromise with the Puritan society. The scarlet letter which is on the breast of Hester’s gown represents her self-redemption. Actually, Hester regards herself as a sinner. From the contradictory character of Hester, we can find that Hawthorne doesn’t completely appreciate Hester’s rebel. On the contrary, he approves the value of patriarchal authorities of his age. And The Scarlet Letter especially expresses the central Christian ethics: the universality of sin and redemption of human individuals.

Key Words: Hester; The Scarlet Letter; Rebel; Compromise

摘  要：
《红字》是美国十九世纪最有影响的浪漫主义小说家纳桑尼尔•霍桑的第一部长篇小说。由于受家庭背景、成长环境、女权运动、及超验主义哲学思想的影响，霍桑把女性主义意识及清教思想融入了《红字》中，并创造了许多生动的人物形象。从女性主义视角来看，海斯特是一个充满矛盾的女人，一方面她坚强个性和独立精神使她有勇气与宗教社会对抗并捍卫自己的爱情及权利，并且具有母性和女性意识。而另一方面海斯特又屈服于清教社会，她胸前佩戴的A字体现了她的自我救赎。事实上，海斯特视自己为罪人。由海斯特的矛盾性格我们可以看出，霍桑并不是自始至终地欣赏海斯特的反抗，他在作品中仍宣扬和肯定了在当时社会上占统治地位的男权思想，而且作品中处处折射了基督教伦理核心：人的普遍罪性以及对这罪性的悲悯和救赎。

关键词：海斯特；红字；对抗；屈服

1 Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne is the most influential romantic novelist in the 19th century. His The Scarlet Letter is regarded as a masterpiece of writing in western literary history, in which Hawthorne creates vivid and symbolic images that embody feminist consciousness and Puritan thoughts. In particular, he is adept in making use of symbols to represent the theme.
1.1 Nathaniel Hawthorne and His The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Some of his ancestors were men of prominence in the 17th century Puritan New England. His American ancestor, John Hathorne, was an infamous “Hanging Judge” of Salem. He presided over the 1692 witchcraft trials, during which an accused witch cursed him with the cry: “God will give you blood to drink﹗”