Abstract

The witch is the embodiment of those women who dare to fight and make the voice differ from the mainstream ideology. Under the circumstance of men have the main voice, men have the negative view on the value of women, and witch became an evil image. This thesis reveals the fact that the cruel oppression to women, especially to the witch from the reality and the theoretical basis of which the witch being persecuted. By interpreting Hawthorne’s masterpiece The Scarlet Letter, this thesis analyses the relationship between women and the witch on the basis of his creative background, character features and scene description. Meanwhile, this thesis explores the manifestation of feminism in The Scarlet Letter through the contradictoriness of the symbolic significance themselves, elaborates Hawthorne’s feminist consciousness. This thesis discloses a cultural phenomenon that women are contorted and their values are repudiated in patriarchal culture. In order to build a brand new angle of view to learn Western culture, analyze how the feminism emerged in that period, reexamine the status of women, and make women know and remodel themselves.

Keywords: witch culture; patriarchy; witch-hunting; The Scarlet Letter; feminism

摘要

女巫是女性敢于反抗，敢于发出异于主流思想声音的形象体现。在当时男权主义有主要发言权的社会环境下，男性对女性价值给予否定看法，女巫也成为了邪恶的象征。本文主要以女巫被迫害的现实和理论基础为切入点，揭示了当时父权文化下对女性特别是对女巫的压迫。通过对霍桑的《红字》的解读，以其创作背景、人物特点以及场景描述为根据,分析了小说中女性与女巫文化的关系，以象征意义本身的矛盾性，探索文中女性主义的具体表现，阐述了霍桑所透露的女性主义意识。本文揭示了女性在父权文化中形象被扭曲，价值被否定的文化现象，从而构建一个新的视角来帮助人们了解西方文化，剖析女性在那样艰难的时代的女性主义思想的觉醒，重新审视女性的地位，使女性了解自我，重塑自我。

关键词：女巫文化；男权主义；猎巫；红字；女性主义