【正文】 of her peers even show their trust and admiration for her honesty and skillfulness. At one time Hester plans to leave America and flee to Europe, where the true lovers can live with Pearl as a family. The day before the ship is to sail, Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon for the townspeople. Afterwards he impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and daughter and confesses his sin and hypocrisy at public gathering. He falls dead, as pearl kisses him.Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth died a year later. But in the very withering he makes his last will and testament and bequeaths a very considerable amount of property to little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne by Dimmesdale. As heiress to his fortune, Pearl grows up to be married into a noble family of Europe. Ⅱ．Causes the Aspects of Loneliness in The Scarlet LetterA. Hawthorne’s Loneliness in His Personal LifeHawthorne’s father, who is a well known ship captain died at sea and left his wife. Then his wife at the age of twentyeight, with children aged 6 and 4 and an infant of a few month. She withdrew entirely from society, and permitted the habit of solitude to grow up to such a degree that she actually remitted a strict hermit to the end of long life. Hawthorne himself though that such an unhealthy and separated family atmosphere provided a morbid consciousness that paralyzed his powers. When Hawthorne after leaving the Bowdon College, he returned to his uncle’s old house in Salem. He devoted himself to reading and writing with less contact with the family members as well as outside world. One of his close friends Jonathan Cilley wrote:I love Hawthorne. I admire him, but I do not know him. He lives in a mysterious world of though and imagination while he never permits me to enter (Rubinstein, 1988:82).From his family and his friends provided clues to Hawthorne’s life were feelings of gloom and alienation.B. Social and Cultural Backdrops of the novelThe story in The Scarlet Letter was happened in Boston in the 1600’s. At that time, the puritans were prosecuted in England because they refused to abide by the rules of the Church of England, and then they left their home and came to American as permanent settlers. They were forced to settle in a new land far from homeland. The Pilgrim Fathers suffered terrible hardships during the first winter and half of them died. In order to survive, they had to fight against the natural disasters and endure loneliness in the new world. Ⅲ. Four characters’ Loneliness in The Scarlet LetterA. Hester Prynne’s Lonely Pursuer for LoveHester Prynne is the main character in the novel。 sometimes with a glimmering lamp。 it is simply itself, and it stands for something other than itself. In other words, a symbol is a way of telling a story and a way of convening meaning. Hawthorne was a master of symbolism. For example, the scarlet letter “A” on Hester’s bosom can give us symbolic meanings, such as “Adultery”, “Able”, “Admirable”, and “Angel” (Li Cuiting, 1998: 224225). In addition to the wildly quoted example concerning the symbolic way of writing to represent the loneliness and alienation of the four characters.First, the settings were described with symbolic meanings. In the first scaffold scene, Hester was standing on the scaffold aloft and far away from the crowd and the physical distance here manifested an internal alienation. Later Hester resided in a small cottage which was abandoned by an earlier settler. The cottage was located on the outskirts of the town, and there were no other habitations around. The detailed descriptions about the little and lonesome dwelling suggested that Hester was isolated from the munity. Whenever Hester appeared, there was wide space separating her from other citizens. ‘As was usually the case wherever Hester stood, a small vacant areaa sort of magichad formed itself about her, into which though the people were elbowing one another at a little distance, one ventured, of felt disposed to intrude’(Nathaniel, :198). The fact that Hester stood in a circle and others kept apart was a typical symbol of Hester’s solitude. Sunshine always symbolizes love and warmth whereas darkness is an emblem of alienation and loneliness in literary works. In the governor’s hall, ‘the shadow of the curtain fell on Hester Prynne, and partially concealed her’ (Nathaniel, : 66). In the forest, pearl acpanied her mother and jumped in the sunshine. Curiously, the sunshine seemed to shun Hester. When she attempted to gap some of the sunshine’s, it vanished. Here the striking contrasts between pearl who happily romped in the sunshine and Hester upon whom the shadow fell also implied Hester’s loneliness.Second, the names of the four characters also expressed extra meanings. “Hest” means “to mand” and “pry” means “to inquire too cautiously”. The name “Hester Prynne” predicts that Hester would live with endless inquiries from the public about her secret sin, and therefore she would be an unreliable outsider instead of a trustworthy member of the munity. There is another explanation and hastier refers to the kitchen goddess in the Greek mythology. “Prynne” sounds like “purifying” (Tina Junwu, 1999:100). So the name “Hester Prynne” can be understood as a goddess with a purified mind, who does not belong to the human world. Both explanations of the name “Hester Prynne” are acceptable and they tell in advance that Hester would suffer isolation and alienation. The wronged husband took a false name Roger Chillingworth and asked his wife to keep the secret about his identity. “Roger” is phonetically close to “rogue” meaning scoundrel and rascal. “Chill” means “the unpleasant felling of coldness” and “chilling” means “frightening”. “Worth” is the approximate homophone of “worse” (Tian Junwu, 1999: 102). Therefore the name “Roger Chillingworth” may refer to a frightening devil. As his name suggested, Chillingworth was a man deficient in human warmth. The loss