From the Perspective of Pearl: Hawthorne’s Contradictory Thoughts for Feminism in The Scarlet Letter

Abstract Nathaniel Hawthorne is the greatest novelist in the early 19th century。 He spent most of life finishing his works。 And The Scarlet Letter is regarded as the masterpiece of Hawthorne as well as the most important one of American Romantic fiction。 Feminism is one of the major points for the book and used to be studied from the perspective of Hester。 However, Pearl, the woman’s daughter seldom became the object to analyze Hawthorne’s thoughts for feminism。 This thesis consists of four parts。 The first part is introduction, which mainly introduce the author’s and feminism background and current studies。 The second part is the body。 And it includes two chapters: one is to analyze Hawthorne’s thoughts for feminism from Pearl’s name, beautiful appearance and attire and another is to analyze the thoughts from Pearl’s interaction with her parents and other behavior。 The final part is the conclusion。 Although she is only a seven-year old girl and herself does not have female tendency, Hawthorne’s decision of choosing a girl not a boy and his description of the girl do reflect his contradictory thoughts for feminism。 And this thesis will focus on the character—Pearl to analyze Hawthorne’s thoughts for feminism, furthering current researches。 72120

Keywords: feminism; Pearl; contradiction。

从《红字》中珠儿的角度分析霍桑对女性zhuyi的矛盾

摘要纳撒尼尔。 霍桑是19世纪前半期美国最伟大的小说家。他一生创作了多部短篇和长篇小说，其中《红字》被公认为是霍桑最杰出的代表作，也是整个美国浪漫zhuyi小说中最具有声望的作品。女性zhuyi意识作为《红字》的重点内涵之一，已经被很多学者所研究。通常，不论是角色本身所具有的女性zhuyi意识还是霍桑对女性zhuyi的看法，对《红字》中女性zhuyi意识的研究都是从女主人公海斯特的角度出发。而海斯特的女儿——珠儿很少成为研究者们研究霍桑对女性zhuyi的看法态度的对象。本论文共分为四个部分，第一部分为引言，主要介绍作者的背景，女性zhuyi的背景以及研究现状。第二部分从珠儿的名字，外貌以及服装分析霍桑对女性zhuyi的看法。第三部分从珠儿与其父母的互动和珠儿其它行为中分析霍桑的对女性zhuyi的看法。第四部分是结论。虽然珠儿只有7岁，本身不具备什么女性倾向或者是反对女性zhuyi的意识，但是从霍桑对其的描写以及塑造中可以看出作者本人对女性zhuyi的矛盾态度。本论文将从描写珠儿的角度，分析作者对女性zhuyi的看法，从而对现有的研究做些补充。

毕业论文关键词：女性zhuyi；珠儿；矛盾

Contents

1。 Introduction 1

2。 Pearl’s beautiful name and brilliant beauty 3

2。1 Pearl’s beautiful name 3

2。2 Pearl’s brilliant beauty 4

2。3 Pearl’s attire 5

3。 Pearl’s behavior 6

3。1 Interaction between Pearl and Hester 6

3。2 Interaction between Pearl and Dimmesdale 8

3。3 Pearl’s defy to the authority 9

4。 Conclusion 10

Reference 11

1。 Introduction

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the representatives of American Romantic Literature。 He is an influential novelist with many famous works。 Hawthorne, born in 1804, is the descendent of a long line Puritan ancestor His father and mother fell in love with each other and married after 5 years。 However, out of expectation his mother gets premarital pregnancy which is definitely against the creeds of Puritanism at that time。 And according to Nina Baym’s record (1992), there was little time for the family to be together since his father was a ship master。 Women in that period were subordinate to men, and the mother and her children were badly treated。 So Hawthorne leads an unhappy life at that time。 Once Nina (1992) pointed out that although Hawthorne is the only boy in his family, he did not get proper care and attention because he is the result of unmarried pregnancy。 After the death of Hawthorne’s father, his mother made the  decision of leaving the family。 And the most well-known book is The Scarlet Letter, which was written under the condition of the first conference of women which is the result of the industrial revolution of western capitalist class and enlightenment in the 18th century。 In the 19th century, the first feminist movement broke in America。 The main problem of the movement was the equality between males and females。 The supporters insisted that there was no difference in intelligence between men and women。 And females should gain their own right。