Acknowledgements

　　　First of all, I want to express my special thanks to He Shenying and Wang Wenying, my supervisors, for their helpful suggestions in terms of the content and style of this paper. Without their patient assistance and friendly encouragement, it would not be possible for me to complete this thesis in such a short period of time without reducing its scholarly quality. I benefited much from their critical thinking, copious knowledge, scholarly expertise, and kind encouragement long before I entered the paper program. 

　　　Second, I want to express my thanks to Prof. Li Yingdong, my intensive reading teacher, and Prof. Yang Yunhong, my literature teacher. It is Li Yingdong who arises my interest in reading the works The Scarlet Letter. Then my literature teacher Yang Yunhong explains the details and anything else of the book, which makes me understand the works better. So in the last term of my study in the university, I decide to write a paper on this book.

　　　Moreover, I want to thank my friends for their very patient and time-consuming assistance in data collection and analyses. Needless to say, all their assistance has greatly facilitated the investigation and hence also enhanced the quality of this research. However, any faults remaining are my responsibility.

　　　Finally, I want to express my sincere thanks to my classmates for the support, kindness, encouragement, and understanding which they have given to me for this paper.