Abstract

The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s masterpiece, which was published in 1850. It mainly tells a tragic love story happened in North American colonial period. The heroine Hester Prynne married to the doctor Chillingworth, but there was no love between them. In solitude, Hester fell in love with a minister Dimmesdale and not long after, Hester gave birth to a baby called Pearl. Prynne was punished in public and was forced to wear a letter “A” (which stands for Adultery) in front of her chest. While Prynne didn’t give in and refused to speak out whom the baby’s father is. The dissertation mainly talks about the symbolic meaning, which is divided into two aspects. One is the meaning of letter A. Another is the special names appeared in this novel. The dissertation will explain the different symbolic meaning“A”， which stands for Angel etc. And the special names, such as Hester, Chillingworth, Dimmesdale and why the author uses these names and the symbolic meaning of the names. 

Keywords: Hawthorne; romanticism; Angel; symbolic meaning.

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction1

2.The Symbolic Meaning of Characters 2

2.1 Hester Prynne.2

2.2 Arthur Dimmesdale 4

2.3 Roger Chillingworth.5

2.4 Pearl..6

3．The Symbolic Meaning of the Letter A7

3.1 A symbol of Adultery 8

3.2 A symbol of Amour 9

3.3 A symbol of Able, Arrogance and Amazon.11

3.4 A symbol of Aid, Admiration and Angel.12

3.5 A symbol of Art.....13

4. Conclusion 14 References16