Abstract:Satire as a kind of figure of speech was employed widely by a large amount of famous writers. This thesis puts the importance to the research of the immense effect of satire in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The purpose of employing satire is to criticize the unfair or to disclose some social phenomena in a mild way. In this paper, the writer takes pains to analyze the satire that embodies in The Scarlet Letter by introducing Nathaniel Hawthorne, satire, the plot of The Scarlet Letter and the historical background of this novel. Finally, this paper concludes that Nathaniel Hawthorne aims to criticize the pedantic puritan doctrine and the negative effect of the puritan by using satire in the writing of the novel The Scarlet Letter.

Key words: satire; criticize; The Scarlet Letter

中文摘要:讽刺是一种重要的文学修辞手法，古今中外的大批作家都在广泛的运用这一修辞手法。本篇论文重点研究讽刺手法在《红字》中的运用，讽刺手法的主要功能就是用一种委婉隐蔽的方式来揭露一些丑陋的社会现象，批判那些不合理不公平的事情。在本篇论文里，笔者花了很大的功夫在分析讽刺手法在《红字》一书中的体现。同时，笔者还全面介绍了大文学家纳撒尼尔.霍桑的生活状况，文学生涯，以及写作特征。还介绍了讽刺手法，《红字》的故事情节，以及《红字》的写作背景。笔者通过研究最终发现，讽刺手法具有强大的表达效果。

关键词：讽刺；批判；《红字》