《红字》是美国文学史上浪漫主义小说与心理分析小说开创者霍桑的代表作。深受加尔文教思想的影响,一方面,作者相信原罪与救赎等宗教说法;另一方面,又根据自身体验,无情地揭露加尔文教的狂热与专横,对于宗教无法割舍的情结和犹疑不定的困惑,这种矛盾思想贯穿他整个文学创作生涯。《红字》中丁梅斯代尔牧师和海斯特的人物性格和命运的矛盾性正是作者矛盾思想的集中体现。丁梅斯代尔意识到自己与海斯特的相爱是对上帝的背叛,但他又无法割舍 “Scarlet Letter” is the representative work of Hawthorne, the founder of romantic novels and psychological analysis novels in the history of American literature. On the one hand, the author believes in religious conceptions such as original sin and redemption; on the other hand, he ruthlessly exposes the craze and dictatorship of Calvinism based on his own experience, and hesitates to the complex and uncertain hesitation of religion This paradoxical thinking runs through his entire literary career. The contradiction between the character and destiny of Priest Dimmesdale and Hester in the Scarlet Letter is exactly the embodiment of the contradictory thought of the author. Dimmesdale realized that his love with Hester was a betrayal of God, but he could not give up