An Archetypal Exploration Of The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the greatest American novelist, a short story writer, and an essayist in the 19th century. Many readers and critics have given high credit to him, for he is not only a prolific writer but also is known for his novel The Scarlet Letter. As an embodiment of his literary thoughts and writing techniques, The Scarlet Letter has aroused much critical and academic attention and received criticism in literary circles at home and abroad ever since its publication in 1850.The author of this thesis, from perspective of archetypal criticism, aims to have a detailed and close examination of the biblical archetypes wrapped in the novel from the aspects of its characterization and structure. And the thesis is structured into four chapters.Chapter 1 is the introduction starting with the tremendous influence of Hawthorne's works in American literature, in which the thesis talks briefly about diverse criticism on The Scarlet Letter both at home and abroad.In Chapter 2, great efforts are made to illustrate the characterization in the novel and delve into the Adam-Eve, scapegoat and Satan archetype.Chapter 3 delves into the structure in The Scarlet Letter from two aspects: the comedy process and the tragedy process.Chapter 4 brings the thesis to a conclusion and indicates that the archetypal criticism can also be employed to analyze other characters in the novel.