As early as in 20th century, this book has been translated into Chinese。 The research about the Scarlet Letter appeared firstly in 1951 and it focused on the writing way ---symbolism in this novel。 Many scholars discussed about the letter “A” symbolic meaning。 And as time goes by, scholars are turning to discuss the characters in this novel slowly。 However, what they focused on most were the heroine Hester or Dimmesdale。
Attentions emerges in large numbers at about in 1950s both from Chinese Literary translation and foreign literature studies。 People did a lot of surveys on the symbolic meaning of the letter ’A’。 Besides the symbolic meaning of ‘A’, critics and scholars turned their eyes to the heroine “Hester” as well。 Hester Prynne is one of Hawthorne’s most enigmatic characters, for Hester has a carefully developed and controlled blind side: her irrepressible and dominating sensuality which informs her whole personality and determines her actions throughout。 They discussed about Hester from many perspectives。 For example, they praises her passion for true love from feminism way。 Since Pearl is her daughter, their relationship is close and their living environment is the same。 Therefore, Hester and Pearl can’t be discussed separately。 In Li Xiao-mei’s work The role of Pearl in "the Scarlet Letter" in shaping the image of heroine（2012）,she thinks that Pearl is the embodiment of Hester’s passion sin and belief。 （Li Xiao-mei,2012）When Hester manages to persuade the Governor to let Pearl is with her, she cries: "She is my happiness!一，he is my torture none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punished me too!'(Hawthorne,2004)文献综述
In this novel, the author Hawthorne describes Pearl as a lovely and sunshine girl。 To some degree, Pearl is an angel in Hawthorne’s eye。 Wang, Yueming discussed Pearl and Hawthorne’s similarities in their family social and religious backgrounds in his work Analysis on the Affinities between Nathaniel Hawthorn and Pearl in the Scarlet Letter。(2014)
What we can find is that every academic journals or essays about the Scarlet Letter, whatever it is about, will talk about Pearl。 But there are few essays that chose Pearl as its main research object。
Surely, there is a tendency that people will not only focus on the hero or heroine or discuss Symbolism in this novel simply but combine them together。 And as the results shows, many scholars are turning their eyes on Pearl。 I read some academic journals which is focus on the relationship between Pearl and Hester。 And there are also many scholars talking about affinities between Nathaniel Hawthorn and Pearl。 Therefore, in my paper , I am going to focus on Pearl, a complex character, and analyze the symbolic meaning of Pearl from the perspective of her relationship with different persons and try to discuss what kind of role Pearl plays in the whole book。
2。 The Symbolic Meaning of Pearl
2。1 To Hester
Hester Prynne is one of Hawthorne’s most mysterious characters in his novel。 On the one hand, her inherent pursue towards true love is irrepressible which makes her committed to adultery。 But on the other hand, from the author’s description 来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766*
“the young woman was tall, with 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。”(Hawthorne,2004)
From these description above, we can find Hester is pretty。 And Hester is a quite complex character。 Since Pearl is the daughter of Hester, we can’t discuss Pearl without Hester because of their close relationship。 And Pearl stands for two completely symbolic meanings towards Hester。 Pearl is the evil and dark side of Hester， but she is her mother's only treasure as well! 《红字》中珠儿分析诞生在罪恶中的天使(3):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_85110.html