Abstract：The Scarlet Letter became a classic immediately after its publication in 1850 and it was the first symbolic novel to be written in the United States. A Dream of Red Mansions is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature, which gives various research material and questions to generations of people. And it is a novel that combines realism and romanticism.
This paper discusses the symbolism between the Scarlet Letter and A Dream of Red Mansions. To discover the differences and similarities, this paper analyses some examples of symbolism in these two books. This paper compares the symbols of two books from the symbols of names, symbols of object and symbols of characters. Comparing with some symbols, this paper finds out the differences and similarities and gives the proper explanation for them. And the explanation has two parts: background of culture and the mode of thinking. At the end, this paper gives some ideas that symbolism is of benefit to other language field – translation.
Key words: The Scarlet Letter; A Dream of Red Mansions; symbolism; comparison; translation
比较《红楼梦》和《红字》中的象征手法
摘要：《红楼梦》和《红字》都是享誉世界的文学巨著，它们成功地借助象征手法表达了作者的思想与感情。本文不只是分析两部作品中的象征手法异同，更是希望从分析象征手法的路途上找出象征手法上的联系与其形成的各种因素。
本文采用文献分析法，通过搜集、鉴别、整理文献，得到两本著作中最普遍的象征手法案例。之后通过一个个案例的分析，得到案例中象征手法的异同，并以此为基础，作为进一步探究造成此异同的因素。本文在分析比较两本著作的象征手法后，也对象征手法的影响做了一定的展望。希望通过分析象征来得到一些对于其他语言领域如翻译上的影响。
关键词：《红字》；《红楼梦》；象征；比较；翻译
Contents
1. Introduction ... 1
1.1 General Description of the Study 1
1.2 Significance of This Paper.. 1
2. Literature Review 2
2.1 Researches Abroad.. 2
2.1.1 An Image of New Female.... 2
2.1.2 Topics of Love, Freedom and Shame...2
2.2 Researches at Home2
2.3 Summary.. 3
3. Symbolism in Two Novels 4
3.1 Symbols of Names.. 4
3.2 Symbols of the Object.6
3.3 Symbols of Characters 7
4. Explanation of Differences and Similarities.. 8
4.1 Background of culture.8
4.1.1 Influence of Chinese Culture 8
4.1.2 Influence of Western Culture... 8
4.1.3 Similarity of Culture 9
4.2 Mode of Thinking 9
4.2.1 Different mode of thinking... 9
4.2.2 Similarity of Thinking 10
5. Conclusion 11
References 12
1. Introduction
The Scarlet Letter became a popular novel immediately after being published in 1850 and it was the first symbolic novel to be written in America. In this novel, there are numerous symbols. For example, symbols of names. Names of leading roles have their deeper meaning or express writer’s like and dislike. And letter “A” is a fundamental symbol in this book, which runs through all the paper. Besides, symbols of characters are valuable to analysis characteristic of different groups. According to these symbols, this novel presents the author’s understanding of human nature, sin, guilty and pride. 比较《红楼梦》和《红字》中的象征手法:http://www.chuibin.com/yingyu/lunwen_206565.html