A Research Of Characterization In The Scarlet Letter From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Nathaniel Hawthorn, as a representative of the romantic novelists in American literature in the19th century, initiates a new era of American novels due to his application of complex psychoanalysis to his works, which makes a great influence on American or even world Literature. The Scarlet Letter that undergoes the test of time is his masterpiece. Greatly influenced by the ideas of original sin and inherent depravity advocated by Calvin in Puritan thoughts, this novel breaks the single characterization at that time and depicts vividly the contradiction between the puritan confinements, persecution of humanity and people’s natural tendency to pursue worldly happiness. Due to its emphasis on the psychological activities, its delicate portray of the imagery, its implicit style and original characters with diverse connotations, The Scarlet Letter, upon being published in1850, has become the subject of discussion and research by numerous researchers and readers. They approach this novel from many different angles, such as transcendentalism, symbolism, eco-feminism, etc.Appraisal Theory is developed by James Martin within the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) formulated by Halliday. It is concerned with how language is used to evaluate, to adopt stances, to express and negotiate interpersonal relationship and positioning. Most of the scholars have applied this theory to the analysis of discourses. However, the studies are mostly restricted to media text, academic text and science text, and as for the novel, most of the discussions are confined to literary field. Therefore, this thesis is attempted to apply the Attitude System under Appraisal Theory to the analysis of the characteristics of the main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. The evaluative resources used in the selected conversations will be identified and divided into three groups in line with the subsystems of Attitude so that their characteristics can be obtained by analyzing the number and frequency distribution of these evaluative resources in the selected conversations.This thesis is attempted to clarify the unique characteristics of Hester, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth by selecting and analyzing the evaluative resources in the conversations which are selected according to Hester’s three leaps of female consciousness, which happen in Chapter8, Chapter14and Chapter17respectively. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis will be involved, and the findings can be summarized as follows:First, in terms of Hester, she is an independent and strong-minded woman who is able to face her mistakes courageously and rebel against people in authority bravely; What’s more, she is willing to put herself in others’shoes and show sympathy for those unlucky people; Second, in terms of Dimmesdale, he is a knowledgeable and eloquent speaker. However, he is a little selfish and hypocritical in nature; Third, in terms of Chillingworth, he was a man thoughtful for others, craving little for himself and a man who bestowed his life for the increase of his own knowledge, and now he has left behind all his good characters and become a fiend whose sole target in life is to take revenge.