Scarlet Letter Pearl Symbolism

In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne characterizes Pearl with contrasting personalities and roles she plays in Hester’s life. Pearl’s conflicting personality components, innocence and defiance, both derive from her isolation from society, which transpired because of her mother’s sin. Pearl represents the conflict between everything good and dark, which reflects in the role she plays in Hester’s life, as the physical embodiment of the A. While Pearl serves as a savior to Hester, representing possible redemption, she is also Hester’s tormentor, a constant reminder of her sin, and the consequences of disobeying her Puritan nature and religion. Hawthorne’s intent is established in the novel through Pearl’s attachment to the A, the mirror

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author presents three symbols that all reinforce the main idea of the novel. The main idea that reoccurred throughout the novel is that people don’t have to let their mistakes or circumstances determine who they are or what they become; it’s all in how one interprets life. Many symbols may seem as just an ordinary character or coincidental object to some readers, but the symbols have a deeper, underlying meaning. Although there are many symbols in this book, there are three that really help support the main idea: Hester Prynne’s scarlet letter, the meteor, and Hester’s daughter Pearl.

Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast, -at her, the child of honourable parents, -at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, -at her, who had once been innocent, -as the figure, the body, the reality of sin.

There are many forms of symbolism found in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne, the author uses his many forms of symbolism to project a lesson or moral created throughout the story. Even each of the main characters has a different moral representation. Guilt, repentance, purity, and strength each are shown through the eyes of a different character. Pear, Hester Prynne, Chillingworth, and Reverend Dimmesdale are main characters that are used to show that you should “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”(Hawthorne286)

The Puritan era in New England was inundated with an atmosphere of righteousness and judgment. This culture spurned those who strayed from its religious codes. In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses multiple symbols to bring a deeper meaning to the society, his characters, and to adultery. One of the motifs used comes as the character Pearl, the daughter of the two adulterers. Pearl has multiple descriptions; physically, she is “a lovely and immortal flower,” yet also “an airy sprite . . . as if she were hovering in the air and might vanish” (80, 83). She has a “wild, desperate, defiant mood” and is often referred to as a “flower,” a “bird,” and an “elf” (82, 80, 98, 87). Hawthorne uses Pearl’s multi-layered personality

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.

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.

The characters in The Scarlet Letter are individually viewed differently by the people in the town. Pearl, the infant in the beginning scaffold scene, is a complex character in the novel that is subjected to the cruel comments and rude behavior of the townspeople. Although Pearl is shown as a human character just like all the other characters, Pearls main purpose is to be a living, complicated symbol for the scarlet letter “A” that her mother is forced to wear. Along with the letter “A” printed on her mother’s chest, Pearl is seen as evil and often considered a child of the devil. Although that observation is based solely on the opinions of the townspeople and the letter her mother wears, Pearl often acts in a manner that could be described

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.

First of all, the scarlet letter stands for Hester's sin. By forcing Hester to wear the letter A on her bosom, the Puritan community not only punishes this weak young woman for her adultery but labels her identity as an adulteress and immoral human being as well. "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the letter flaming on her chest", also "as the figure, the body and the reality of sin." And the day Hester began to wear the scarlet A on her bosom is the opening of her darkness. From that moment, people, who look at her, must notice the letter A manifest itself in the red color covering not only her bosom, but her own character. The Puritans now only see the letter A, the representation of sin, scorn and hate

“On the supposition that Pearl, as already hinted, was of demon origin”(page 91).The stigma from the townspeople isolates Hester and Pearl which keeps them from around a lot of people, when they were not on the scaffold. Pearl could not have a normal childhood when people only saw as a symbol for negativity. “Pearl laughed, and began to dance up and down, with the humor some gesticulation of a little imp, whose next freak might be to fly up the chimney.” This wording suggests again that she is only a symbol of innocence in a place tragedy”(page 89). Pearl was like the rose bush to her mom, a sense of a beauty in a place of

Pearl tends to be recognized as a symbol of sin, the punishments of sin, and the scarlet letter. She is attached to sin and its consequences because is the product of adultery, but she is also linked with the scarlet letter because of her mother’s adultery as well. However Pearl does not remain a symbol for the entirety of the novel, she develops into a main character as she uses her actions to further herself amongst the other characters. For example, when Pearl denounces her parents in the forest she realizes that they are hiding their real identities from the town and refuses to return to her mother’s side until she replaces her scarlet letter. Not only does she realize that honesty progresses an event forward but also she recognizes that running from a problem only makes it worse.

The townspeople have begun to regard Hester with a certain amount of respect. She has been pure in heart and deed ever since her public fall from graces, and she is charitable to the poor. Hester earns her money by doing stitch-work for local dignitaries, but she often spends her time helping the poor and sick. In fact, her suffering makes her kinder toward others. She knows how to offer grace, because she had been denied it herself. People begin to suggest that the A stands for Able. Some suggest that the scarlet letter connotes holiness. For Hester, however, the symbol has hardened her against ever feeling passion of affection again. She has ceased, in short, to be a

     In the beginning of the story, Hester is being punished for adultery, and is forced to wear the letter A on her bosom. It is shown so that people will know her as an

‘The Scarlet letter’ is meant to be a symbol of shame for Hester, and instead it becomes a symbol of identity. As Hester’s character develops the Letter ‘matures” along side her . As it ages, it shifts from meaning “Adulterer” to stand for “ Able”.. Hester bonds to the letter as much as she bonds to little Pearl, by choosing to keep them both. She could have given Pearl to the minister and she could have fled New England and left the letter far behind her and moved on with her life, instead she chooses to embrace her punishments. The letter is almost insignificant beside Pearl as a symbol of the sinful act commited by Hester, and helps to point out the meaninglessness of the community’s system of judgment and punishment. The ineffectiveness of this course of action is reinforced in chapter seven “...and the bond-servant, perhaps judging from the decision of her air and the glittering symbol in her bosom, that she was a great lady in the land, offered no opposition.”