《红字》的象征意义 -毕业论文.doc

【标题】《红字》的象征意义 【作者】付可林 【关键词】?红字，象征 【指导老师】刘 敏 【专业】英语教育 【正文】Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered to be the first great American fiction writer in the moralistic tradition. He was a novelist and short story writer as well as a central figure in the American Renaissance. An important feature of Romanticism displayed in Hawthorne’s works is the use of symbols. Symbolism is a literary device with which the author deliberately makes concrete objects evolve into some abstractions, usually moralistic or philosophical. Hawthorne’s unique gift is for the creation of strongly symbolic stories, which touch the deepest roots of man’s moral nature. The finest example is the recreation of Puritan Boston, The Scarlet Letter, which is noted for its allegory and symbolism and is regarded as the first symbolic novel in American literature.?Hawthorne uses symbolism so skillfully that it greatly enhances the artistic effects of his work. This paper explores the symbolism in this novel from the following aspects: the changing symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter, and the symbolic meaning of the names of the major characters.1. IntroductionNathaniel Hawthorne was born at Salem, Mass., on July 4th, 1804, son of a sea captain. His father died when he was four years old. He led there a shy and rather over protected life. He grew up in seclusion with his widowed mother Elizabeth?- and for the rest of her life they relied on each other for emotional solace, yet not wholly uncongenial to his artistic development. Hawthorne turned to writing after his graduation from Bowdoin College. Between the years 1825 and 1836 Hawthorne worked as a writer and contributor to periodicals. He also wrote several successful short stories, which were collected in Twice-Told Tales. Insufficient earnings as a writer forced Hawthorne to take a job in the Salem Custom House. By 1842, he was able to earn enough to marry Sophia Peabody and move to Concord, which was then the center of the transcendental mov