Essay on The Importance of Pearl in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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 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.

Pearl, the leading child in the novel, is an excellent example of childish innocence combined with almost preternatural perception. Her willpower and imagination make her a blessing and a curse to her mother, who

Nelson Mandela once said, “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” In most cases, it is difficult to distinguish and fully understand when you have changed. Whether it be a trivial change in habit to a crucial character transformation, it is best to set oneself up against an untouched canvas, and begin to analyze the newfangled person from there. Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, the concept of identifying one’s changes is apparent in two of the main characters, Pearl and Dimmesdale. Both characters experience their own engenderment of maturity and personal growth, though Dimmesdale’s involvement with it is much more deleterious in comparison to Pearl’s.

As a parent there is an imperative understanding that the actions taken and consequences endured ultimately have a lasting effect on children. While in the woods with her mother Pearl notices how the sun seems hide from Hester because of her sin, Pearl declares “‘It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet”’(166). Hawthorne provides the reader with characterization in this quote, he reveals to the reader Pearl’s personality and how it revolves

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.

“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.

She would often seclude Pearl from the world outside of their backyard. Immediately, one can associate Pearl with the rosebush in nature because of the comfort she tries to provide her mother. Pearl was also referred to as a flittering young bird. A reader can interpret this image as Hester seeing Pearl's freedom. Hester realizes that she will never regain her freedom.

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.

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.

Often times, children remind their parents of the mistakes they previously made. However, if the adults gain enough courage and learn to stand up to their wrongdoings, their children will help them see and reach their upmost greatness. Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the life of Pearl, a young girl, in his novel, The Scarlet Letter. Initially, Hester Prynne, Pearl’s mother, marries Roger Chillingworth; however, she soon meets the Puritan Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Pearl results 9 months later. The Puritan society forces Hester to wear a scarlet and gold colored “A” on her chest as a reminder of her crime - adultery. In society’s eyes, Pearl serves as a reminder of Hester’s sin, establishing Pearl as a living scarlet letter, although

Illegitimate children and their parents who committed adultery had no way to hide from the suffering from which they encountered. That is much like Pearl and Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. Although Pearl is the illegitimate daughter of Hester Dimmesdale, she plays an important role, if not the most important role, which is more dynamic

In the parable “The Birth-Mark,” Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals his perspective of imperfection and depicts it as a virtue through the Crimson Hand in Georgiana’s cheek; he also shows his belief of the unobtainable ideal through the downfall of Aylmer and Georgiana, caused by Aylmer’s persistence in obtaining perfection. Hawthorne’s point of view of imperfections as part of beauty takes part in the second half of his story through the birth-mark on Georgiana’s cheek. Once Aylmer and Georgiana have gotten to the laboratory, Georgiana faints. Aylmer, hysterical and alarmed, demands for Aminidab’s help to which Aminidab responds, “‘Yes, master,’… looking intently at the lifeless form of Georgiana, and then he muttered to himself; -- ‘If she were my wife, I’d never part with that birth-mark’” (649).

Just like when beautiful pearls come from grotesque oysters, Pearl is the beauty and unique product that arises out of her parent’s sin. Pearl’s first appearance in The Scarlet Letter is in the second chapter, “The Market-Place.” Her mother, Hester Prynne, steps out from the prison door with Pearl in her arms. Pearl had been living in the shadows her whole life before this moment. She squints and turns her head away from, “the too vivid light of day.”

“But she named the infant ‘Pearl’, as being of great price, --purchased with all she had, --her mother’s only treasure!” (73). In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne utilizes characters’ names to reveal a deeper meaning within a character or the plot. For example, Pearl’s name reflects many of her attributes throughout the novel. Pearl is beautiful, rare, and worth a great price. Through Pearl’s actions and words, the reader can clearly see the close resemblance between the meaning of her name and her personality. Pearl not only symbolizes beauty and grace, but she is also adultery, pain, and truth. As the plot advances Pearl’s name becomes more evident in its truth. For example, Pearl resembles a great price and expense to her mother. On the other hand, she is valuable since she is the most valuable person to Hester. Hawthorne chose her name as Pearl to reveal a deeper meaning of physical beauty, inner value, and universal truth.