Reflection on Hawthorne's Use of Biblical Allusions and Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

摘要

Nathaniel Hawthorne's master work The Scarlet Letter revealed the impact of The Bible on him. The novel is a powerful tale of passion, Puritanism and revenge, which is treated as the foremost romantic classic of American literature, and is truly one of the greatest triumphs in literary history. Meanwhile, there are correspondences among the theme, main characters and plots with biblical allusions. Therefore, the work is endowed with profound symbolic meanings, thus making the whole story with features of symbolism and implications. In this article, it is focused on exploring multiple explanations of the letter "A" to read the text highlighting the most fundamental archetype in The Scarlet Letter.