Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

During the years of the 19th century, the movement of European romanticism, which proliferated and refused to accept rationalism which had been the prevailing way of thinking among intellects and artists, made the great effects on American people who had been under the rigid providence of Puritanism.
In spite of his growth and education under the impact of the Puritan way of life, he was also one of its severest critics. In fact, he joined Brook Farm Community in 1841 but left fairly soon. However, Hawthorne could not share their optimism regarding human nature; he perceived human nature as potentially evil rather than innately virtuous. He knew the Puritan doctrines of predestination and the decay of Puritanism. Hawthorne's subtle criticism of early Puritans in New England, especially their self-righteousness can be traced by reading his works and paying due attention to his Puritan background.
Hawthorne distinguished "fact" and "truth", "fact" was "external: and "truth" was "internal." In presenting truth, he used his imagination and created the neutral territory between th real world and fairy land, where the factual and the imaginary may meet. In the preface to The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne distinguished a romance from a novel. And our attention must be paid to the fact that Hawthorne's romance is different from other romances of his day and Gothic romance. His romance breaks through the surface and reaches the inner reality of human being. It may be called "psychological romance."
Symbolism is Hawthorne's favorite device for presenting his psychological perceptions. In short, symbolism dominates The Scarlet Letter. Some symbols represent the harsh restrictions of society and its laws (the prison, the pillory, scaffold, and the governor's uniform), while some represent the free world outside this society (the Indians, the sailors, the wild rosebush, and the forest). And some involve the moral sense of man, while others involve the necromantic ad the supernatural. He often uses names and colors symbolically, as with the scarlet "A" in The Scarlet Letter. Light and darkness, woods and flowers, moonlight and sunlight are also among his favorite symbols. Science is addressed to "head', while humanity is addressed to "heart."
He also uses various literary devices, such as dichotomy, parallelism, and juxtaposition between two opposites corresponding to each other. And he uses the stage method called "chiaroscuro', the interplay of light and shade, as used in the forest scene of The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Letter is one of Hawthorne's four romances, and the most famous story and also one of the world's classics. All for his successes in writing a beautiful novel and using his complex techniques, if we should read carefully the work into its morality, we can come to the conclusion that there are too many ambiguities derived from his literary devices, which make it difficult to grope for their meanings. In consequence of those ambiguities, it is not easy for the reader to reach the final morality of the work, the ultimate reality of humanity. Of course, there are several serious themes in the work, but the themes are not necessarily moralities in the novel. In his ethics, Hawthorne is a total skeptic who" stands between the two horses for him to ride: his Puritan background and social responsibility, and his real artistic inspiration.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. Nathaniel Hawthorne(1904-1864)은 Herman Melville(1819-1891)
• II. The Scarlet Letter에는 상징이 매우 풍부하게 사용되고 있다.
• III. Symbol과 allegory는 실제에 있어 그 구별이 매우 까다로운
• IV. D. H. Lawrence는 Adgar Allan Poe 논에서 Poe 시대의 미국문학을