My Little Pearl In John Dimmesdale's 'The Scarlet Letter'

From her initial introduction to the reader as the “yonder babe, (…) of some three or four months old”, Pearl represents the beauty of the truth (54). As she struggles to find answers about her mother’s scarlet A while simultaneously growing up, Pearl identifies as an innocent character, despite her creation. It is frequently noted that she looks similar to the scarlet letter that her mother so reluctantly bears, with her “bright complexion [and] eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glossy brown” (76). Her similar appearance to the scarlet letter furthers her permanent connection to the letter. Additionally, it highlights the notion that her mother will likely never be able to look at her without reminiscing upon her sin. As Pearl develops, her fire-like actions and dark appearance further molds her into the fleshly expression of Hester’s adultery. Furthermore, Hawthorne ensures to characterize Pearl throughout the novel as a friend to the sunlight, a friend to the truth. As she begins to pick determine that Dimmesdale is her father, the sunlight welcomes her. This is because she is the only innocent character who is not afraid to step into the sun’s rays. Pearl recognizes the light’s love for her and audibly notes, “the

Pearl’s isolation and reliance upon her mother as her only role model causes her difficulty in forming other relationships, as well as accepting Hester’s other relationships. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous novel, The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is a lonely child who has no playmates and only negative connotation towards other citizens of Boston, old and young. Hester, her adulterous mother raised her on her own and taught Pearl everything she knows. Therefore, her mother was the only one she ever trusted, and she approaches other people with a guard up. After many years of this vicious cycle, Dimmesdale, Pearl’s biological father, gets closer and more connected to Hester once again in secret.

“She screamed and shouted, too, with a terrific volume of sound which, doubtless, caused the hearts of the fugitives to quake within them. The victory accomplished, Pearl returned quietly to her mother, and looked up, smiling, into her face.”(96). Pearl yells at the kids who are throwing mud at her mother because she is a child and doesn’t know any better. “At first, as already told, she had flirted fancifully with her own image in a pool of water, beckoning the phantom forth, and—as it declined to venture—seeking a passage for herself into the sphere of impalpable earth and unattainable sky.(168). Now that she is older, she has noticed how her mother acts around other people and plays by herself. She has fun even though she is her only friend. Pearl begins to care about other things than just herself. “Perceiving a flock of beach birds that fed and fluttered along the shore, the naughty child picked up her apron full of pebbles, and creeping from rock to rock after these small seafowl, displayed remarkable dexterity in pelting them.”(168). When she sees that she has hurt the poor creature she stops throwing the pebbles. Her emotions build due to her being alone for so long. Pearl wants a friend, but Hester knows that if Pearl has friends they will tell her the true meaning of the scarlet

Chapter sixteen is basically a conversation between Pearl and Hester. Pearl questions Hester about the Black Man who she overheard some older ladies talking about. The older mentions Hester saying the scarlet letter was left by the Black Man. I presume that the Black Man represents the devil because Pearl mentions it while speaking of Master Hibbins who is assumed to be a witch. While discussing the Black Man Pearl spots Dimmesdale walking this way and asks Hester if Dimmesdale holds him hand over his heart because the Black Man marked him too. “But why does he not wear it outside his bosom, as thou dost, mother?” (180). Pearl’s question shocks me, even though she wore A on her chest with the mermaid costume in chapter 15 as if it represented something good, she fully understands that the A on her mother’s chest was placed by the Black Man.

She touches the scarlet letter, but little does she know that she is the reason for the punishment. They are social outcasts, so they don’t leave their house much. Pearl plays alone and has best friends that are imaginary. She distrusts her own imaginary friends for the same reason that she distrusts all the Puritans in the colony. People treat Hester and Pearl differently than everyone else is treated. She only loves Hester, because Hester spends time with her and is a good mother. She plays with her and teaches her Bible stories. Pearl knows the whole catechism at the age of three, but refuses to say it to anyone. She is smarter than everyone thinks she is. Chillingworth speaks to Pearl about the scarlet letter. He asked her if she knew the reason why her mother must wear the scarlet letter all the time. She replies, “Yes, that is the same reason why the preacher holds his hand over his heart.” Pearl asks her mom all the time the reason why she wears the scarlet letter and why the preacher holds his hand over his heart. She knows that they both do, but she doesn’t know why. Hester tells her that she wears it because of the pretty gold thread, but she doesn’t know the minister’s reason. Later in the story, Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl meet in the forest, and Hester rips the scarlet letter off. Pearl gets mad then, because she knows that her mother is supposed to wear it. Dimmesdale kisses Pearl, but she washes the kiss off with

It is very sad that a child has no purpose in life other than show his parents guilt and shame. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Pearl was a little girl who was the product of and adulterous act when the minister at the church Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale and a young lady named Hester Prynne. “We have spoken of Pearl’s rich and luxuriant beauty—a beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints, a bright complexion, eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glossy brown, and which, in after years, would be nearly akin to black. “ (Hawthorne 52) Here is a brief description of Pearl, furthermore Pearl is also described as a child who seemed to have some sort of wildness in her.It is said that Pearl was a girl who distinguished herself among others. Pearl was intelligent, very

“Imagination is the key ingredient to overcoming fear and doubt.” Throughout “The Scarlet Letter”, Nathaniel Hawthorne tends to emphasize the intensity of Pearl’s imagination by describing the way Pearl saw the world around her and by talking about the way the people who noticed her vivid imagination, referred to her as a “witch-child”. In “The Scarlet Letter”, Pearl grows up secluded from the rest of the children in the New World. She learns to entertain herself and keep herself company by using her imagination. This is one big example of Pearl overcoming the hardships that she grew up with. As the book progresses, and as Pearl gets older, we see her overcome more hardships she is challenged with to create a strong, independent young girl. The poem provided written by Emily Dickinson comes to show how overcoming Pearl’s hardships led her to blossom from a strong, independent young girl, into an even stronger, successful woman.

At the end of this Chapter, Chillingworth pries into Dimmesdale’s privacy by laying, “his hand upon his bosom, and thrust aside the vestment,”(p.126) to find a mark on his chest. He then is filled with “ecstasy,” as he now has the proof to reveal Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father.

Out of the sinful act that Hester commits, she receives a baby girl from God, Pearl. Pearl is represented in both positive and negative ways. She is often distracted by the beauty of nature throughout the novel. In the Scarlet Letter, Pearl represents the guilt and shame that Hester has to live with, the only “treasure” Hester receives in her life, and mirror image of the person her mother is through her actions and behaviors.

“You are free to make whatever choice you want, but you are not free from the consequences of the choice” (Benson). In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne shows that Hester makes a lot of choices, but she is not free from the consequences of those choices. Pearl is a result of her choice to commit adultery, so Pearl represents many things. Sometimes dealing with Pearl is a continuous struggle for Hester, since in her eyes Pearl is a difficult child. Pearl in some ways represents Hester’s sin, and in others ways shows how the consequences of her choices help Hester to realize to make wiser and better choices.

Pearl created her own “A,” showing the attachment she has to Hester’s; it is also significant, though, that she made it green, rather than scarlet, because it reinforces the strong connection Pearl has with nature and her aware, curious personality. Another example is when Pearl questioned Hester about the significance of the “A”: “what does this scarlet letter mean?—and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom?—and why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?” (*). Pearl is an omniscient character, as she is very aware of the connection between Hester’s “A” and Dimmesdale clutching his chest in pain. Hester begins “half smiling at the absurd incongruity of the child's observation; but on second thoughts turning pale” after Pearl’s constant questioning about the topic (*). She is effectively reminding Hester of her sin and acting as her tormentor. The most prominent example of Pearl’s attachment to the Scarlet Letter was in Chapter 19, when Pearl refuses to come to Hester and Dimmesdale across the brook, in the forest, because Hester took off her Scarlet Letter. Hester realizes that “Pearl misses something that she has always seen me wear” (*). The fact that Pearl “misses”

Every pearl begins as a dangerous and harsh intrusion into life. A piece of dirt is inserted into an oyster’s environment where it doesn’t belong. The oyster can either respond by dying, or by accepting and surrounding the sand with care. With continual care, the oyster turns the small speck of dirt into a beautiful pearl. The Scarlet Letter is a story of how one woman takes a scandalous event and rather than allowing the event to define her, she, by constant kindness, turns her life and her child into something of worth. The theme I am focusing on in The Scarlet Letter is the person and the concept which embodies courage and redemption.

For example, the first thing she instinctively clutches to is the A fastened on Hester’s chest: “But that first object of which Pearl seemed to become aware was the scarlet letter on Hester's bosom” (Hawthorne). Here, Pearl’s aberration illustrates her deviation from normality. While Hester believes Pearl’s outlandish nature is God’s punishment for her sin, Hester also recognizes that Pearl is a gift from God, representing possible redemption. Pearl’s shift from endearing to demon-like behavior reinforces the idea that Pearl is Hester’s savior, yet also her tormentor. Pearl’s attachment to the A was further exemplified when she “imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother's” (Hawthorne). Despite society’s belief that Hester can only redeem herself through public shame, wearing the A, Pearl believes that the only escape from sin is in nature, as shown through her creation of a green A. Additionally, Pearl intentionally made the A to provoke her mother, wondering “if mother will ask me what it means,” characterizing Pearl as Hester’s tormentor (Hawthorne). Furthermore, while Pearl is physically attached to the A, she is also mentally, as shown through her constant questioning of Hester. “what does this scarlet letter mean?—and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom?—and why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?” (Hawthorne). Pearl is

In The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is often regarded as a symbol to that of the suffering of Hester Prynne and the shamed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale but Pearls significance is more than just symbolizing the sin committed by her parents. She in many ways represents the innocence that the puritan belief is regressing itself to have. Hawthorne constructs Pearl as an evolving symbol for Hester and Dimmsdale and her progression as a character is shown through that of the actions set forth by these characters. Since the inception of the act of adultery by Hester and Dimmesdale, Pearl is developed by sin but she is not conformed to sin and as a result symbolizing a release of sin. She is essentially the road from childhood to adulthood, innocence to innocence lost to finally understanding and accepting the card that we are all delved with and that’s life after sin.

The importance of forgiveness and consequences is a main message in The Scarlet Letter that Pearl’s symbol alludes to throughout the text. Hawthorne is trying to convey that the consequences you face are for a reason and you can always forgive someone. Towards the end of the book when Dimmesdale admits his sin’s to the crowd “Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken”(175). When Hawthorne says “A spell was broken” he is saying that Dimmesdale was forgiven by Pearl for keeping his sin to himself all this time. Hawthorne also says pearl “would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor for ever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it.”(175). Here Hawthorne is showing how all consequences have a reason by giving a reason for Dimmesdale’s death. Pearl’s symbol was ended by her becoming a real woman and when her “errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled”(175). Hawthorne effectively relays the message