Pearl In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne's work, The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very symbolic role. Throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. One example of this is with the character of Pearl. Pearl is very different than all the other characters due to her special relationship with Nature. Hawthorne personifies Nature as sympathetic towards sins against the puritan way of life. Hester's sin causes Nature to accept Pearl.

Hester Prynne, the main character of the book "The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, commits adultery, is considered a hussy, and has a child as the result of her sin. She cheats on her husband while he is absent from town and receives a harsh punishment for her behavior already. Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom for the rest of her life. It is now on debate on whether or not Pearl should be taken away from her mother’s guidance. This is due to the fact that she is a sinner and might not be a qualified mother for her child.It is true, that no matter what you did in the past, a child is a blessing and parents change due to the love they have for their children. Therefore, Hester

Hester's daughter, Pearl, functions primarily as a symbol. She is quite young during most of the events of this novel—when Dimmesdale dies she is only seven years old—and her real importance lies in her ability to provoke the adult characters in the book. She asks them pointed questions and draws their attention, and the reader's, to the denied or overlooked truths of the adult world. In general, children in The Scarlet Letter are portrayed as more perceptive and more honest than adults, and Pearl is the most perceptive of them all.

Hester Prynne, the mother to Pearl Prynne, heard townspeople speak about her custody of her child. Pearl represents Hester’s sin of adultery, community people think the sin is shone through her. Townspeople believe two theories about the child. One theory, Pearl “was of demon origin” because she resulted from adultery. The people believe that if Pearl was taken away from Hester and was introduced to a christian family, Hester would be better off. If it were true then Hester’s soul would feel relief. The other theory about Pearl was that she was “capable of moral and religious growth and possessed elements of salvation” then she would be given a guardian

“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.

““There was witchcraft in little Pearl’s eyes, and her face, as she glanced upward at the minister, wore that naughty smile which made its expression frequently so elvish.” (Hawthorne 145) This, is a misleading description that Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts of Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne, in his classic novel The Scarlet Letter. Pearl is the living product of sin for her mother. Born out of wedlock, Pearl is a unique child that tends to be very moody and unpredictable. However, Pearl, at such a young age, demonstrates outstanding knowledge and exhibits curiosity to her mother’s scarlet letter, and the hypocrisy of Puritan society. Although Pearl portrays devilish characteristics and performs mischievous behaviour, she

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Pearl serves as a punishment to Dimmesdale and Hester for their adultery. She is described as an “elf-child” with an “impish grin”, demonstrating her wild and devious nature. In “Mirror Imagery in The Scarlet Letter”, Michael L. Lasser states that Hester thinks Pearl “must be disordered and even essentially evil” (274). Pearl’s mischievous

Pearl is an evident symbol that sends multiple messages in the book. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne symbolism is quite evident throughout the text. In the case of Pearl, Hester's Daughter, she symbolizes many things in the text. Pearl forces Hester to deal with her sin and learn to cope with the consequences she faces resulting from what she did. Pearl helps send the message of the importance of forgiveness and consequences. She symbolizes the sin that Hester has committed and the shame Hester has to face. Pearl also symbolizes the connection between Dimmesdale and Hester and the guilt that Dimmesdale has to face for hiding his secret sin for so long.

The four men who were deciding Pearl’s fate were, Governor Bellingham, Reverend Wilson, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. They “tease” Pearl at the beginning in a kind of “sick humor” by asking her mocking questions and pointing out her strange, scarlet colored, clothes, “Art thou a Christian child,--ha? Dost know thy catechism? Or art thou one of those naughty elfs or fairies, whom we thought to have left behind us,” (p.170). By asking this, Mr. Wilson implies that Pearl is a mischievous elf, or demon-child.

For most people, there is nothing more terrifying than having their worst fears materialize before them. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, the protagonist, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, her partner in sin, experience their worst fears form before them in an unusual embodiment: Pearl, their own child born from their sinful passion. For Hester, Pearl is an inescapable power, always forcing her to confront the weight of the scarlet letter she must don as punishment for her sin, physically setting her apart from society. While Pearl acts as a similar force towards Reverend Dimmesdale, his sin is kept a secret from society. In turn, Reverend Dimmesdale internalizes his moral struggle and sets himself apart from Puritan society. Pearl represents his greatest fear of revealing his sin. All in all, Hawthorne employs Pearl as a pragmatic force which binds Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale to their morally inferior positions in society by forcing them to confront their fears.

Pearl’s Name: In the beginning of chapter 5 it says that Pearl got her name because she was “ of great price-purchased with all she had,-her mother’s greatest treasure.” Her name is symbolic of the price that Hester payed for Pearl to enter the world. She sacrificed everything, her life, reputation, and any real chance at happiness.

Hester Prynne makes a decision that changes her life forever. Her one little mistake led to such a long-lasting result that she lives with it for the rest of her life. She commits adultery with a man named Arthur Dimmesdale, who also begins to live with a long lasting result of the sin they commit together. The outcome of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale’s sin is a child. Pearl, is the child’s name, who now stands as a symbol of her mother's sin.

This permanent marking is like a voice that never stops screaming into my already beaten ears. I feel utterly alone, except for this, the scarlet letter on my bosom. And ofcourse, the living proof of my crime, my little Pearl, who is also a daily reminder of my misdoings. She has been nagging me to tell her the meaning of my “A”, but deep down I am unable to tell her the truth. For she is too young to know the real significance of my letter. I lamely told her I wear it for the sake of the gold thread, but I know she can read right through my transparent lies. I often wonder if my little Pearl knows the truth, she even pointed out Dimmesdale’s frequent habit of grabbing his heart. As I continue to overthink this situation, I start to wonder

Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are the two main characters in the novel the scarlet letter. As parents to Pearl, the daughter out of adultery, these two go through the journey of shunning and hatred, but not together. Their stories are very different, and yet, so very similar.

For this essay I would like to propose how big of a part Pearl plays in Hawthorne’s work of the Scarlet Letter. How the importance of her character brings the whole story together. Reading the Scarlet Letter we seem to get side tract on Hester and Dimmesdale’s tangled up relationship or even Chillingworth’s twisted character of trying to ruin Dimmesdale life and get back at Hester, while Pearl is left acting out trying to fight for attention to be noticed. Hester is perceived to be such a strong character, which she is, but I believe with the underling of pearl making her strong.