Hawthorne's Psychological Paradox And His Use Of Double Negatives

The Scarlet Letter was the first novel of Nathaniel Hawthorne as well as thefirst representative work of American symbolism. Its birth was a great sensation inthe literary field of both America and the world. The studies concerning it involvedreligion, ethics, politics, history, aesthetics and so on.Hawthorne was influenced by Puritanism, Transcendentalism and mysteriousphilosophy, living in a period when capitalism developed rapidly and the socialstructure was undergoing great changes. Facing the rigid doctrine of Puritanism andthe so-called "sinners", he was psychologically perplexed.According to traditional grammar and logic, a double negative equals apositive. In my reading of the work, it was found that there was a relativelyexcessive use of double negatives. In comparison with the use of simple affirmation,Hawthorne showed a preference to the use of double negatives.Different from the previous studies, the present paper aims to explore therelationship between Nathaniel Hawthorne's psychological paradox and his use ofdouble negatives in The Scarlet Letter, from the perspective of stylistics. It is foundthat Hawthorne's psychological paradox is well indicated in his use of doublenegatives, and at the same time has a great effect on his linguistic choice of doublenegatives. The two aspects are interactional.The present paper will explore the stylistic function of the use of doublenegatives in The Scarlet Letter, and try to find out its contribution to a betterunderstanding of the theme, characters and even the author Hawthorne of this novel.The paper may stimulate further explorations on the functions of the use of doublenegatives, and encourage further studies on the relationship between language andliterary appreciation.