《红字》中的女巫西宾斯太太形象解读

Mistress Hinbbins in The Scarlet Letter

西宾斯太太是《红字》中被公认的女巫,长期以来,文学研究者们大都致力于对这部小说主人公及主题的分析与研究,忽视了对这一形象的关注。然而,西宾斯太太却是这部小说中非常重要的人物。借用心理学中身份认同的概念,以其为理论基础,从被异化的典型、自我身份认同的追寻以及自我身份认同和社会身份认同的矛盾与冲突三个方面来探究这一人物形象,为读者对这部小说的解读提供一个新的视角。

In The Scarlet Letter, Mrs Hibbins is regarded as a witch by the public. Most scholars pay much attention to the characterization of the heroes and heroine as well as the exploration of the themes of the novel.Thus the very important figure, Mrs Hibbins, is always neglected. Based on the theory of identification, one of psychological concepts, this article tries to analyze the image of Mrs Hibbins from the following three perspectives: an alienated model; the exploration of self-identification; and conflicts between self-identification and social-identification. The analysis of this image will provide the readers a totally fresh viewpoint to understand the novel.