Abstract

 Nathaniel Hawthorne,(1804—1864),is one of the greatest romantic novelists in the 19th century of the United States. His novels are regarded as part of Romantic Movement. The Scarlet Letter is his masterpiece, which promotes the development of American literary works. A lot of scholars have done research and commented on this novel. Some scholars paid their attention to the contents of the novel and analyzed the characteristics of the protagonists; some mainly researched the writing skills of the novel such as symbolism, metaphor and irony; some analyzed the contradiction of the characters in the novel; some studied Puritanism embodied in the fiction which reflected the Original Sin and Redemption. They interpreted the characters in the novel from cultural perspective, historical perspective, the perspectives of sociological criticism and feminist criticism.

     This thesis pays attention to the 3 female characters. They are Hester Prynne, Pearl and Mistress Hibbins. People did many researches on the characters which contained Hester Prynne, Pearl, doctor Roger Chillingworth and clergy Dimmesdale. But they ignored the analysis of some secondary characters like Mistress Hibbins. They did not studied the reason thoroughly why these characters have different characteristics. Therefore, my thesis mainly focuses on the analysis of different characteristics of the 3 female characters and the causes for different characteristics of the 3 female characters in the novel with the combination of the historical background at that time and the author’s experience. In this way, readers can have a better understanding of their behaviors, words of the female characters. Then readers can understand the novel more easily.

Key Words: Female characters; Characteristics; Human nature

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1  Introduction-1

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne And The Scarlet Letter-1

1.1.1 The Brief Introduction of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Background-1

1.1.2 The Cultural And Historical Background of The Scarlet Letter-2

1.1.3 The Structure of the Book of The Scarlet Letter-4

1.2 The Significance of The Research-5

1.3 The Structure of The Thesis-5

2  Characteristics of Female Characters in The Scarlet Letter-7

2.1 Hester Prynne’s Characteristics: Strong Mind And Self-contribution-7

2.2 Pearl’s Characteristics: Innocence And Angel-9

2.3 Mistress Hibbins’s Characteristics: Wickedness And Depravation-11

3  Writing Techniques Employed to Characterize Female Characters in The Scarlet Letter-12

4  Causes for Different Characteristics of Female Characters in The Scarlet Letter-14

5  Conclusion-17

Bibliography-19

Acknowledgments-21