Irony And Symbolism: A Research To The Skills Of Character Making In "The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most talented American novelists and story writers of the Romantic Age. IIe was the first American romantic writer who initiated a new tradition in American literature which is called Symbolic Romance. Hawthorne was deeply affected by three systems of thoughts: Puritanism, Transcendentalism and Mysticism. This indecision formed his suspicious attitude towards the world and also made his fictions betray a belief in the fundamental ambiguity of earthly phenomenon; determined his writing style of strong sense of form, as well as himself being a great master of symbolism. Most of his stories represent his points of view and his irony technique in fiction writing, and show a strong tendency toward symbolism, that is , the use or description of some outward object in such a way that we shall discover in it some hidden meaning. This article is a research into the skills in making different characters in Hawthorn' s most important work "The Scarlet Letter" . With the virtue and beauty of the heroine , Hawthorne criticized the vice and evil side of puritan, and he also laid bare the cruelty of the capitalism and the hypocrisy of the religion and law.