【正文】 bstone several for both.”“ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER, GULES”[19]To Pearl, she is the living embodiment of the scarlet letter. She is the result from Hester and Dimmesdale’s sins. Pearl plays one of the most crucial roles in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne uses Pearl as a Dynamic character。 therefore permitting the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. One is constantly weighing the natural versus the marvelous reason for an event.The first occurrence of ambiguity is concerning the rosebush, outside of the prison where Hester was kept. No one truly know the origin of the rosebush, Hawthorne leaves it up to the reader to decide the rosebush “had survived out of the stern wildness”[4] or “whether it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson”[5]. There is also an additional instance of ambiguity with the rosebush. But, this time it also concerns Pearl. When passing the rosebush at the Governor’s home, Pearl asks her mother for a rose. Later, when she is being questioned where she came from, Pearl replied, “that she had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door.”[6] The natural reason for this is that Pearl wanted a rose from the Governor’s home. The internal reason for this is Pearl wanted to enter the society. More plex ones, however, are those that Hawthorne sustains throughout the novel, allowing each of them to develop and take on various appearances and meanings as the book progresses. In most cases, recurring events show great significance and elucidate the truth beneath appearance. Take the scaffold in the novel for example, Hawthorne chooses the scenes to show powerful similarities. Each scaffold scene foreshadows the next and brings great understanding of the novel. By beginning with the first, continuing with the middle, and ending with the last platform scene, we can gain a better understanding of the masterpiece. These three important events in the novel have great significance. The first one signifies love。20Bibliography 關(guān)鍵詞：模糊性；不可理解性；令人困惑Title: Ambiguity in The Scarlet LetterAbstract: Nathaniel Hawthorne is an outstanding novelist of American Romanticism in the 19th century. Among his larger works, The Scarlet Letter has been generally rated as his characteristic best. Therefore, like all other great works, it continuously stimulates criticism. A good number of critical studies have been added considerably to Hawthorne’s reputation and stature. As the result of the steady studies, critics, writers and even ordinary readers have e up with many different readings and interpretations of the novel. This eventually leads to the study of Hawthorne’s perplexed ambiguity, which, though sometimes causes difficulty to the reader, helps a lot in making this novel Hawthorne’s masterpiece and a rewarding work to read even today. Hawthorne’s ambiguity is one of the features of his literary and artistic creation. This thesis attempts to argue his ambiguity in The Scarlet Letter through description of natural settings, embodiment of morality in four main characters and the different meanings of scarlet letter “A” in Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale. Hawthorne’s application of the artistic technique of ambiguity does arouse some confusion and invites the reader’s introspection, which gives the book a certain air of mystery. Hopefully, this thesis will help, to some extent, some confused readers of The Scarlet Letter to develop a better understanding of Hawthorne’s novel.Key words: ambiguity。也正是這個(gè)緣由，才使得霍桑的魅力有增無減，經(jīng)久不衰；從而也使他在美國文學(xué)史上的地位愈顯突出。在他創(chuàng)作的幾部長篇小說中，《紅字》一直被列為“霍桑式”小說中最為出色的一部。《紅字》中的模糊性可見與諸多方面，對(duì)自然環(huán)境的描寫，道德觀在四個(gè)主要人物中的體現(xiàn)以及紅字本身對(duì)海絲特，珠兒以及狄姆斯臺(tái)爾的不同意義等等。10IV. Ambiguity in Scarlet Letter “A” 17Notes on the other hand, he takes the fundamental religious dogma as criteria to distinguish good from evil.Since Hawthorne’s themes are often such psychological ones as sin, concealed sin, the consequences of sin, secret guilt, the impingement of the Puritan past, the futility of the prehensive social reforms, the impossibility of getting rid of sin from the human heart, etc., in dealing with these kinds of themes, he is always ambivalent, for he knows that his success as a writers depends upon his keeping psychological analysis of people he meets, while he can never forget that invasion of the sanctity of another’s personality may harden the heart even as it enriches the mind. He knows that there is “something of the hawkeye” about him, and that the line is vague between prurient curiosity and legitimate artistic study of character. Therefore, he is often seen to evade the issues with which he confronts. Hawthorne tried to “mediate between the private vision and the monsense objective world”[2]. In so doing, it seems that he is also trying to cut himself loose from any reality. That is why Hawthorne turns to allegorical method and symbols, which cause a lot of ambiguity.In all these cases lead to Hawthorne’s use of ambiguity, which leaves the solution to the reader。 from her parents, the individuality of her character, and from the evil Chillingworth, Hester’s rightful husband, the property and money that allow her to live a happy life.Chillingworth is another character that contributes to this moral ambiguity. Although he is described as dark, evil, even demonic, the reader’s sympathies favor him somewhat。 Dimmesdale is the selfcontradictory between “polluted priest” and “devout priest”。ll light and darkness are the symbols between wonderful pursuit and bleak future. Secondly, morality in the main characters generates a mixture of confusion of pleasure and disquietude in the readers: Hester is the union between shame and nobility。 as vast, as intricate and shadowy as the untamed forest…Her intellect and heart…roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. ”[8] “The tendenc