| This thesis aims to explore the character Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter through the lens of fictional stylistics from perspectives of linguistic description, thought presentation and mind style. The Scarlet Letter is surely a novel hotly discussed, but my attention is focused on its hero Dimmesdale and his inner conflicts since he is the very character that is vividly presented while sparsely analyzed.The thesis on the whole follows Leech and Short's arrangement in Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose, and the very term of linguistic description, thought presentation and mind style are all borrowed from this book. The introductory part explains why The Scarlet Letter and Dimmesdale are selected as the analytical objects, why a stylistic approach is favored in the current study and furthermore, why the above-mentioned three terms are picked up specially; the first chapter deals with linguistic descriptions of three excerpts which are all connected with environment portrayal; the second chapter is a discussion of modes of thought presentation and its application in interpreting other people's attitude towards Dimmesdale; the third chapter centers on the definition, approaches and its representation of mind style and metaphor. The author of this thesis believes that linguistic description, thought presentation and mind style are potentially related one another and thus have cooperative forces in text analysis.The whole analysis would base on an objective linguistic description and furthermore dig into the bottom of Dimmesdale's heart. By choosing sentences and language structures which are able to convey and strengthen themes and aesthetic effects, the present study succeeds in finding out how language choices, together with modes of thought presentation and mind style help enrich the image of Dimmesdale and reflect his complex yet changing state of mind.
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