Abstract

Nathaniel Hawthorne is the greatest novelist in the early 19th century. He spent most of life finishing his works. And The Scarlet Letter is regarded as the masterpiece of Hawthorne as well as the most important one of American Romantic fiction. Feminism is one of the major points for the book and used to be studied from the perspective of Hester. However, Pearl, the woman’s daughter seldom became the object to analyze Hawthorne’s thoughts for feminism. This thesis consists of four parts. The first part is introduction, which mainly introduce the author’s and feminism background and current studies. The second part is the body. And it includes two chapters: one is to analyze Hawthorne’s thoughts for feminism from Pearl’s name, beautiful appearance and attire and another is to analyze the thoughts from Pearl’s interaction with her parents and other behavior. The final part is the conclusion. Although she is only a seven-year old girl and herself does not have female tendency, Hawthorne’s decision of choosing a girl not a boy and his description of the girl do reflect his contradictory thoughts for feminism. And this thesis will focus on the character—Pearl to analyze Hawthorne’s thoughts for feminism, furthering current researches. 

Keywords: feminism; Pearl; contradiction.

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

2. Pearl’s beautiful name and brilliant beauty-3

2.1 Pearl’s beautiful name-3

2.2 Pearl’s brilliant beauty-4

2.3 Pearl’s attire-5

3. Pearl’s behavior-6

3.1 Interaction between Pearl and Hester-6

3.2 Interaction between Pearl and Dimmesdale-8

3.3 Pearl’s defy to the authority-9

4. Conclusion-10

Reference-11