The Scarlet Letter에 나타난 Hawthorne의 상징주의에 관한 연구 = A Study of Hawthorne's Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a literary writer of New England, was researching an understanding of the truth concerning the human heart. He regarded the depths of human nature as his literary entity, and in The Scarlet Letter used his artistic talent to explore the psychological influence of guilt upon human beings. "Romance"was his vehicle to grasp the truth of human psychology and thus, at the end, the reader.
The Scarlet Letter, his most remarkable literary product, is the masterpiece that conveys his profound and penetrating insight into human psychology. A number of symbols found in this literary work communicate the depth of this work and his understanding of the human spirit. "Color symbolism,""symbolism of light and darkness,""the symbol of the scarlet letter 'A',""The symbol of nature,"and the chiaroscuro effect flowing in the first part of the work are used among other things, all leading to the culmination of his romance.
The symbolism in the work implies many things. First of all, the scarlet letter "A"is the
mysterious symbol which invites infinite interpretations, just as in the story its picture appears in various forms. The letter "A"originally stands for the word adultery. But it also stands for the words,"Abel, affection, Angel, art, atonement, ascension, Alpha, America, the original sin of Adam, and Dimmesdale's first name, Arthur."
In this work, Hawthorne employs not only the use of various colors but also the effects of light and darkness in order to depict the characters and Nature. The sharp contrast between light and darkness, particularly, contributes to the striking effect to the description of the truth of human nature, as expressed all through this work.
In The Scarlet Letter,"light"stands for "life, a clean conscience, the whiteness of the soul, love, sinlessness, Nature's sympathy, good, the approval of God and Nature, happiness, Grace, exposure, revelation, infinite purity, truth, health, and the spiritual Light of Revelation.""Darkness"stands for "sin, evil, hatred, death, hell,concealment, God's Punishment, revenge, and cruelty."
The colors which are employed in this literary work are diverse. Among them the main featured colors are "red"and "black." "Red"stands for "sin, passion, adultery, and the deep heart of Nature,"and "black"represents "evil, sin, inauspiciousness"and express emotions such as "sadness, sorow, unhappiness."The colors of "green, yellow, brown,"the colors as we often find in Nature, are also used for representing the beauty of vivid Nature.
As moral and psychological concepts, the light and darkness used in the literary work stand for "moral good"and "moral evil,"projecting the mental aspects of the characters and their deepest inner world. The contrasting colors also symbolize both "natural good"and"natural evil"as they are used in describing the appearance of characters and nature. This novel, a tale of human fragility and sorrow, is a tale which begins with the contrast between the tone of the red rose, a sweet moral blossom, and the gloomy tone of the cell, the black flower of a civilized soviety, and which ends up with the contrast between the tones of"Sables"and "Gules"in the last chapter of the novel. Readers may say that this literary work is indeed the work of"symbolic romance,"as it begins with, and ends with symbols.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ.서론
• Ⅱ.A의 상징
• Ⅲ.명암의 상징
• Ⅳ.색깔의 상징
• Ⅴ.결론
• 〈Bibliography〉
• 〈Summary〉