摘要

自1850年问世以来，《红字》以其深邃的主题思想和卓越的艺术表现手段，吸引了无数中外文学爱好者、评论家的欣赏和探讨。尤其是作家塑造的人物形象细腻传神，具有深刻的象征意义，产生了强烈的艺术效果，对传达小说的主题起到了重要的作用。与作品中其他三位主要人物一样，被称为精灵孩童的珠儿，由于她特殊的身份、简短的生活经历、美丽的自然天性以及她所蕴含的象征意义，同样给人留下了深刻的印象，具有鲜活灿烂而又耐人寻味的艺术魅力。
然而，对于《红字》中珠儿这一重要的人物形象，学术界的关注并不多。多数学者认为，珠儿只是次要的附属形象，是出于某种“功能需要”而被作家放入故事中的，所以他们对珠儿的分析往往注重她在故事中的“象征功能”，而不作为重要人物来看待，甚至有些学者对珠儿这一形象并未给予关注。但也有少数一些评论家认为，《红字》中有四个主人公，即除了海斯特、丁梅斯代尔、齐灵渥斯外，还包括珠儿。虽然这一观点还未被广泛接受，但珠儿在故事中起的重要作用是不容忽视的。

关键词：珠儿，象征意义，艺术魅力，人物形象

Abstract

Since it was published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter has attracted numerous appreciation and discussion of Chinese and foreign literary fanciers and critics for its profound theme and excellent means of artistic expression. The characters that the author portrayed are vivid and exquisite, with profound symbolic meanings, which resulting to a strong artistic effect and playing an important role of conveying the theme of the novel. As it is the same with the other three characters, Pearl, the girl known as a fairy has also left a deep impression to the reader because of her special status, her short life experience, the natural instincts and the symbolic meanings of her which were endowed with vivid and brilliant artistic fascination.
However, there are few studies and comments concerned with the important character, Pearl. Most of the scholars believe that Pearl is just a minor subsidiary image that had been written into the novel out of a “functional needs.” Therefore, they tend to focus on the “symbolic function” of her rather than treat her as an important figure, and some scholars even pay no attention to Pearl. Delightedly, a few commentators deem that The Scarlet Letter has four protagonists, Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth and Pearl. Though this view has not yet been widely accepted, it still shows that the importance of Pearl has already been noticed.

Key Words: Pearl, symbolic meaning, artistic fascination, character