| From his own time to the present, Nathaniel Hawthorne has remained a famous writer in American literary history. Down through the decades, his status and reputation have never been seriously challenged. Both Hawthorne the man and Hawthorne the writer remain popular topics in the literary circle; besides, critics and readers are greatly interested in the"Hawthorne Problem", that is, he remains an unsolved riddle, although many studies have been made on him during the years.In his lifetime, Hawthorne has written ten novels and about 100 short stories, which are grouped into two types: tales and sketches. However, it is a great pity that these short stories have been somewhat neglected by domestic readers and reviewers. Biographical facts tell us that it is his short stories that help to establish his status in the literary circle; and Hawthorne is fond of them as well, claiming that they have"the pale tint of flowers that blossomed in too retired a shade". Therefore, the present thesis chooses Hawthorne's earliest collection of short fiction, Twice-Told Tales, as the text of study. Based on the chosen text, the thesis aims at studying the unique writing style of Hawthorne: ambiguity.Ambiguity haunts almost all Hawthorne's writings and has given them richness and complexity which will otherwise be impossible to achieve. The thesis intends to represent a new perspective in this field, that is, it attempts to work out the causes of formation of Hawthorne's ambiguity.The originality of this thesis lies in the following facts: first, Hawthorne's short stories are not thoroughly studied by Chinese readers and reviewers, who are more familiar with his romances, especially The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Second, although some of the prominent critics have noted Hawthorne's ambiguity, such a trait lacks systematic studies, and the causes of its formation have not been mentioned.The collection of Twice-Told Tales is full of ambiguity. The thesis analyzes the manifestations of ambiguity from two aspects: first, the sequence of the tales and sketches in the collection is not a haphazard gathering but Hawthorne's application of his"Neutral Territory"theory; and second, the thesis analyzes the traces of ambiguity in six short stories in the collection with different focuses:"The Gray Champion","The... |
