The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

She was conceived by mistake, and is born into a miserable life. In other words, Pearl does not fit in. And it is not that she does not want to but for the fact that she cannot fit in. “ In giving her existence, a great law had been broken; and the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder…” (Ch. 6). In this quote, Hawthorne is showing that Pearl is a complicated child. She is conceived within a sin, but turned out to be a truly amazing child. Also, Pearl knows how and why her life is like this. For example, Pearl notices that Dimmesdale is her father, but she wanted him to show it publically. “‘Doth he love us?’ said Pearl, looking up, with acute intelligence, into her mother’s face. ‘Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?’” ( Ch. 19). Pearl is too smart to let this go unseen. She also notices that Hester takes off the scarlet A in the forest and she throws a

One of Pearl’s many trials is the torment from her peers and elders simply for being the daughter of an adulteress, which she was completely out of control of. Peers bullying her is not uncommon throughout the story, “the little Puritans… scorned them [Pearl] in their hearts, and not infrequently reviled them with their tongues”(Hawthorne, 109). Their lack of respect towards her, and willingness to act upon those feelings puts Pearl in constant danger of harassment and shame from every child around her. However, peer harassment is not the only danger Pearl has to worry about, adults are quick to shame her as well, “the talk of neighboring townspeople… had given out that poor little Pearl was a demon offspring” (Hawthorne, 114). While it’s not uncommon for someone to be bullied by a peer, the degradation forced on her by adults was something Pearl had to deal with everyday, on top of her peers. Interactions that should have been benign and helped her feel normal only tore her down.

Pearl also becomes the one reason Hester still enjoys her life. She accompanies Hester everywhere they go. However she also has issues caused by her lack of social interaction, when kids make comments to her she charges and screams at them. Pearl is also very smart for her age. Throughout the story she is able to make connections based on very subtle cues, such as why Dimmesdale places his hand over his heart.

She was born in a prison, and is being raised in a cottage that is nowhere near the village where all the other children grow up. When people call her such things, she does hear, so this hurts her emotionally and makes this an internal conflict for she must deal with the feelings of being different and judged by others. Since she is isolated from that part of a normal childhood, her only friend in the novel growing up is her mother. This being another internal conflict because she grew knowing her mother always wears the scarlet letter, and is in a certain community that has rules about women. Now in the novel, chapter 17, Hester takes off a garment that covers her hair and removes the scarlet letter from her bosom. Pearl seeing this throws a tantrum for her mother to undo this doing. Causing a major internal conflict of how Pearl sees her mother and dealing with what her mother’s symbols stand for. Pearl mocks her mother for that. There’s an external conflict created by Pearl towards Dimmesdale for when he is conversing with Hester in the forest and he dwells for a kiss, but Pearl refrains. Pearl is a strange child, for she knows something must be going on.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was quite progressive for his time and his novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a wonderful example of this. Before he married his wife, Sophia Peabody, Hawthorne joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist group (Nathaniel Hawthorne). According to Merriam Webster, transcendentalism is, “a philosophy that emphasizes the a priori conditions of knowledge and experience or the unknowable character of ultimate reality or that emphasizes the transcendent as the fundamental reality” (“Transcendentalism”). Put simply, transcendentalists thought that intuition and knowledge of ourselves is more a more important reality than the scientific, sensual reality. As a group, these people held very progressive views on women’s rights, education,

Hester thinks of Pearl as evil. Hester is with Pearl every day, and she knows Pearl best. Pearl is a wicked little girl, and can be a nuisance to her mother. Hester can’t discipline her daughter and “[is] ultimately compelled to stand aside, and permit the child to be swayed by her own impulses.” (81) Hester can always use force to deal with her daughter, but this only lasts for so long. Pearl does her own thing, and Hester is forced not to discipline her, because she is so repugnant. Hester loves her daughter and loves to look in her eyes, but sometimes “[i]t [is] as if an evil spirit [possesses] the child, and … just then [peeps] forth in mockery.” (86) When Pearl looks at her mother Hester can see something evil and know that her child is nefarious. Pearl tells her mother that she has “no Heavenly Father.” (87) Pearl begs her mother to tell who her father is. Pearl gets her roots

Pearl is evil in many ways as shown, “Pearl would frown, and clench her little fist, and harden her small features into a stern” (Hawthorne 63). This was because her mother would sometimes just start crying and she resulted in a violent look, Pearl is seen as a child of the devil.

When Pearl enters the novel, Hawthorne uses specific details when describing her. He describes her physical appearance as; “beauty that became everyday more brilliant, and the intelligence that threw it’s quivering sunshine over the tiny features of this child.” (81-82). Combining with her ravishing beauty, are the exquisite dresses that Hester has made for her to wear. With Pearl’s adorable looks and charming clothing,other children viewed her as unusual and strange.

Pearl not knowing of any father or having any friends and living outside of the town has made Pearl a strong independent child.As she grew, pearl began to see how her life was, Pearl being a young child was helping her mother and herself get through the rough time they have to face with the whole town Pearl is seen to be just as tough as her mother having to face cruelty at a young age being the victim in her mothers shadow.As she grows up, she has no friends and only has imaginary friends that she makes up in her head.She knows how to deal with all the poor comments that society has made about her mother and her.“Pearl wanted not a wide and various circle of acquaintance.”(84) Pearl only growing up being her and her mother made her realize that she did not need anyone else but her,because her mom and everything was making her a stronger independent individual.

The entire colony views Pearl more as a symbol for something negative (devil’s spawn, sin, the product of unholyness, etc.) versus her being an actual living person. Pearl’s reputation and identity is decided before she was born due to Hester and Dimmesdale. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Pearl develops from a symbol of negativity, representation of sin and the town’s imp to an independent girl who does not depend on others to create happiness for her.ggggggg

and throws rocks at other children when they gather around her. Pearl cannot be made amendable

Because Pearl was born a woman she is capable of committing the same crime her mother had committed, Adultery. The townsmen feel that if Pearl stays in Hester’s care she will too commit the same crime or other worse crimes when she grows older. This is an example of how women were seen as easily influenced, Pearl is capable of making her own decisions but because she is a woman the townsmen hesitated in letting her remain in the care of another sinful woman.

Throughout this novel, Author Nathaniel Hawthorne used Pearl as different symbols. Pearl was a symbol of Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin, the innocent reminder of that sin, and balance. He shows her being these symbols often throughout the book. Though, as the book goes on you can notice Pearl start to grow and evolve into the different symbols. Some of her original symbolism stays with her, however, she goes through stages as she ages. She was put through many things she couldn’t understand and endured pain because of her surroundings. When Hester is being screamed at to tell everyone who Pearl’s father, Hawthorne says Pearl, “pierced the air with its wailings and screams.”(Hawthorne 78). Just like her aging, her symbolism

At this point of the story, Pearl is now seven, and her transformation is almost complete. The one thing that is not allowing her to proceed with her alteration are the facts that she does not know who her father is, and, ironically, that she does not comprehend the relationship between her mother and Arthur Dimmesdale. Similar to Judas, Dimmesdale avoids having any affiliation with Hester and Pearl. Pearl becomes eager to have Dimmesdale acknowledge her in

Pearl started the novel as an outcome from a sinful action . Hester had kept Pearl by her side throughout Hester’s whole life. Pearl was the only reason that Hester decided to keep living in Boston to keep Pearl somewhat close to her father. It seems though that Pearl had truly inherited some of Hester's traits. Pearl was known for being a beautiful,