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. Because of this feature, there are some symbols in this book. The symbolism in this novel can be pided into three parts: “Ontological symbol”, “Allegorical symbol” and “symbol of sign” (Li Qingxin, 1997:76). To compare symbolism in two books easily, this paper analyses symbolism in this novel into three parts: symbols of names, symbols of characters and symbols of the gem stone. Through some symbolism examples of this novel, the author expresses his distaste of realistic society and unpredictability of life.

1.1 General Description of the Study

Through the analysis of symbolism, this paper aims to discover the differences and similarities of symbolism in these two books and it will discover the symbolism of two books from the symbols of names, symbols of object and symbols of characters. Through the analysis in detail, this paper will give the proper explanation for them and prove the rationality of the result. In the end, this paper needs to find out deeper value about research symbolism, which helps other fields.

1.2 Significance of This Paper

The Scarlet Letter and A Dream of Red Mansions are the masterpieces which are filled with typical symbols. This paper mainly talks about the analysis of symbolism in the book The Scarlet Letter and the book A Dream of Red Mansions. Besides, this paper finds out the similarities and differences of symbolism between two books. These two books have some symbols of names and indicate the religious culture. They have various symbols of identity. For differences, different philosophy and religion give them different directions about choosing abstract or concrete objects. This paper gives some explanations to these similarities and differences from culture and thinking aspects. In order to support the explanation of features, this paper uses some documents and theories. From the paper, it is obvious and evidence that the background of culture and the mode of thinking do influence the symbolism in literature. This result can be applied to other language fields.

2.  Literature Review

Last ten years, there are about 70 literatures that choose The Scarlet Letter as their target to research. And we can see there are some different aspects in their literatures. 

2.1 Researches Abroad

2.1.1 An Image of New Female

Some literatures analyze this novel from the aspect of woman’s rights: 

The heroine of the novel—Hester Prynne, though on a binary position as a woman in Puritan society, defies power and puts up a tenacious fight against the colonial rule combined by church and state. From her rebellious actions, we can see Hester’s feminist consciousness. With this noble character, she becomes totally different from the traditional women who are always obedient to the unfair rules enacted by men. (Wang, 2010:893). 

This document pays more attention to heroine Hester and gives us an image of woman’s change through the whole book. And it shows that the changing meanings represent the growth of heroine Hester. This literature picks up a positive and hot aspect to understand this novel. However, this literature is just analysis one example of symbolism and its keynote is not symbolism but an image of new female.

2.1.2 Topics of Love, Freedom and Shame

Besides, there are some literatures researching love, freedom and laws in novel. Hester’s bravery and rebellion, Dimmesdale’s ambivalence and Chillingworth’s evil can be shown by their names and the latter “A” in Luo Lanlan’s literature. Because of these different personalities of three characters, the story is full of contradictions. This literature analyses the whole novel from emotion aspect and sums up the reasons that cause the tragedy of love. This literature gives me some ideas about the reasons that lead to the tragedy of love and give me some evidence to prove my opinions. Hawthorne’s unfortunate youth (2011:78) did influence his work. And it reminds me of the similar factor of Cao Xueqin. Other literatures state the importance of law and freedom. “ reflect changing normative, cultural and legal perceptions of the freedom to love, and of the power to control the exposure of love in public.  gives way to a loosening of sexual fetters and more freedom” (Cohen, 2016:210). It thinks we should balance rights and change values. And another literature thinks this novel explore conflicts, dynamics and defenses characteristics of shames deeply (Benjamin, 2005). 比较《红楼梦》和《红字》中的象征手法(2):http://www.chuibin.com/yingyu/lunwen_206565.html