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1. Literature review
The Scarlet Letter is the representative work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was an American novelist in the 19th century. As a famous writer in American Renaissance, Nathaniel Hawthorne was deeply influenced by three thoughts, Puritanism consciousness, transcendental philosophy and transcendentalism .
Novel The Scarlet Letter is Hawthorne's most remarkable masterpiece. It thoroughly response to people's spirit wreck of Puritanism and unbridled pursuit for happy life. Meanwhile, The Scarlet Letter also makes Nathaniel Hawthorne known all around the world.                                                     “Hawthorne uses the symbolism so skillful that it enhances the artistic effects of his work greatly. We need to research the symbolism in this novel from the following aspects; the changing symbolic meaning of the scarlet letter, the names of the major characters and many objects that are described in the novel to make the symbolism clear to the readers.”(苑文良 2005: 12)
Aiming at analyzing the usage of symbolism in this novel, I am reading some papers and books which criticize the Scarlet Letter and its symbolism. Following is my limited viewpoints and some literature reviews about the novel and its symbolism.
1.Symbolism in letter “A”.
In this novel ,the scarlet letter “A” changes its meaning many different times. This change is significant. It shows growth in the characters, and the community in which they live. “The letter “A” begins as a symbol of sin. It then becomes a symbol of alone and alienation, and finally it becomes a symbol of able, angel and admirable.” (苑文良 2005: 12)
The letter “A” is also be compared as a Biblical Archetype. It refers to sins. “The scarlet letter “clergymanA” also can be seen as the symbol of Adam. It tells us that Hester's sin is the original sin of human being, it is forgivable.”(陈素英 1997: 4)
2.Symbolism in characters.
There are four main characters in this novel. They all have their own symbolic meanings under the author’s pen.
Hester Prynne is one of the major characters in The Scarlet Letter. The writer gives her much symbolic meaning by giving her this name. Hester sounds like Hestier, Zeus' sister in Greek mythology, who is a very beautiful goddess. This gives us a sense that Hester is a passionate beautiful woman. In this novel, she is the symbol of the truth, the goodness and the beauty. Nathaniel Hawthorne describes her in Chapter Two like this: “The young woman was tall, a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale, she had dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes…”(Nathaniel Hawthorne 2001: P50) For so many years, Hester refuses to speak out the name of her partner in sin, but takes over all the punishment by herself. Instead of running from the hostile colonists, Hester withstands their insolence and pursues a normal life. She proves her worth with her uncommon sewing skills and provides community service. Hester's ow
n sin gives her “sympathetic knowledge of the sin in other hearts.” Even though the people she tries to help “often reviled the hand that was stretched forth to succor them,” she continues her services because she actually cares. At last, the colonists come to think of the scarlet letter as “ the cross on a nun's bosom”, which is not small accomplishment.
Arthur Dimmesdale is a well-regarded young minister, whose initials are AD, which also stands for adultery. The author obviously tells us Author Dimmesdale is the partner in sin of Hester Prynne by giving him this name. The word Dimmesdale also has many symbolic meanings. Dim means dark and weak, and dale means valley, so the Dimmesdale here is actually a symbol of the “dim-interior” of the clergyman. He loves Hester deeply, and he is the father of Pearl, but he can only show his passion for her in the forest or in darkness. His response to the sin is to lie. He stands before Hester and the rest of the town and proceeds to give a moving speech about how it would be in her and the father's best interest for her to reveal the father's name. Though he never actually says that he is not the other partner, he implies it by talking of the father in third person. Such as, “If thou feel
est it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer”(Nathaniel Hawthorne 2001: P63).
Roger Chillingworth, like all of Hawthorne's main characters, is complex and difficult to see through. The words “chilling” and “worth” compose the surname Chillingworth. Chilling comes from the word “chilly”, which means this man is a merciless avenger. He is calm in temperament, kindly, but keep evil intentions. Being a man already in decay and misshapen from his birth hour, he married Hester, a woman with youth and beauty, deluding himself with the idea that intellectual gifts might veil physical deformity in a young girl's fantasy. He married Hester not because he loved her but because he wanted to light a household fire in his lonely and chilly heart. He is a bookworm who spends his best time in libraries, and shows no love to his young wife. It is he that has destroyed Hester's flower like youth, and indirectly leads to Hester's tragedy. After he discovers that his wife bore another man's child, Roger gives up his independence. He used to be a scholar, who dedicates his best years “to feed the hungry dream of knowledge,” but his n
ew allegiance becomes finding and slowly punishing the man who seduces his wife. He soon becomes obsessed with his new mission in life, and when he targets Reverend Dimmesdale as the possible parent, he disguises himself as one trust friend of the minister, attaching himself to him as a parishioner. “For seven years, he digs into the minister's heart with keen pleasure. He searches the minister's thoughts; he causes the poor minister to die daily a living death. He searches into the minister's dim interior for a long time, and turns over many precious a tread, and as wary an outlook, as a thief entering a chamber where a man lies only half asleep,—— or, if it may be, broad awake,—— with purpose to steal the very treasure which this man guards as the apple of his eyes,”(Nathaniel Hawthorne 2001: P119)

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