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What is the relationship between the scarlet letter and hester
What is the relationship between the scarlet letter and hester
What is the relationship between the scarlet letter and hester
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Scarlet Letter - Pearl as a symbol
Pearl is a symbol of Hester’s transgressions and even has similar qualities as the sin which she represents. Pearl’s life and behavior directly reflects the unacceptable and abnormal nature of Hester’s adulterous sin. Hester is plagued with more than just a letter “A”; she is given a child from her affair who is just as much a reminder of her sin as the scarlet letter. Ultimately Hester overcomes the shame associated the scarlet letter and creates a sense of family for herself and Pearl. This relationship is integral to the theme of this novel and the development of its characters.
Pearls behavior could be described as abnormal, disrespectful, undignified, or altogether opposite of most Puritan customs. “The child could not be made amenable to rules” (p42); she will not conform to the Puritan view of what a child should be like. Pearl’s enduring disobedience is representative of Hester’s disobedient act. Pearl should be constant reminder of personal sin to everyone that meets her; however, as it would be, she only reminds others of Hester’s sin. Around strangers, and at certain times at home, this poor child becomes merely an “unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment." (p52)
Pearl may be Hester’s only hope of a “successful” life after she is convicted of adultery. "' I will not lose the child! '" Pearl says, "'…thou knowest what is in my heart, and what are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are, when that mot...
Pearl has spent her entire life knowing who her mother is and identifies her with and only with the letter on. “Pearl’s image, crowned, and girdled with flowers, but stamping its foot, wildly gesticulating, and in the midst of all, still pointing its small forefinger at Hester’s bosom!” (Hawthorne 173). In this scene, Hester takes the letter off when she is with Dimmesdale, and Pearl refuses to come near her until she puts the letter back on; she recognizes that the letter is a part of who her mother is. The identity of herself is also uncovered as a result of the letter. Pearl sees how the Puritan society treats her mother and refuses to act likewise. Not only does she stand up to those who judge Hester, but she also practices being kind instead. “Pearl was almost sure, [the bird] had been hit by a pebble and fluttered away with a broken wing. But then the elf-child sighed, and gave up her sport; because it grieved her to have done harm to a little being that was as wild as the sea-breeze, or as wild as Pearl herself” (Hawthorne 147). Pearl cares for the wellbeing of those around her, both human and animal. This has shaped who she is through her kindness and her intelligence; it becomes what her identity is and displays how she identifies her mother, verifying that she was impacted the most by the scarlet
Hester is a youthful, beautiful, proud woman who has committed an awful sin and a scandal that changes her life in a major way. She commits adultery with a man known as Arthur Dimmesdale, leader of the local Puritan church and Hester’s minister. The adultery committed results in a baby girl named Pearl. This child she clutches to her chest is the proof of her sin. This behavior is unacceptable. Hester is sent to prison and then punished. Hester is the only one who gets punished for this horrendous act, because no one knows who the man is that Hester has this scandalous affair with. Hester’s sin is confessed, and she lives with two constant reminders of that sin: the scarlet letter itself, and Pearl, the child conceived with Dimmesdale. Her punishment is that she must stand upon a scaffold receiving public humiliation for several hours each day, wearing the scarlet letter “A” on her chest, represe...
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, a sinner, living in a puritan society. As punishment, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her chest. Her daughter Pearl is the product of her sinful ways, and a constant reminder of her wrongdoing. Pearl’s embodiment of the Scarlet Letter causes her hostile relationships with the world and her mother. However, when Dimmesdale kisses her, he frees her from isolation and allows her to form human connections.
In “Pearl,” the sixth chapter of the The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne speaks of Pearl’s ability to create imaginary playmates due to her lack of real friends stating “Pearl, in dearth of human playmates, was thrown more upon the visionary throng which she created.” (Hawthorne 87) Pearl is not able to find human playmates, so instead creates imaginary friends of her own, displaying her ability to work around tough situations throughout her life. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet letter, imagination, seclusion, and compassion are all the characteristics that represent Pearl as unusual in the puritan society.
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 has paid such a dear price for her child. "After testing both smiles and frowns, and proving that neither mode of treatment possessed any calculable influence, Hester was ultimately compelled to stand aside, and permit that the child be swayed to her own impulses" (Hawthorne 82).
Pearl is said to symbolize the result of sin but her character as a child have placed an innocent view of her contribution to the story. As any mother would accept their child she have accepted her “… torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too!”(Hawthorne 38). Hester “represent the violation of social contract” (Egan1), because of her simple imperfection of “struggles to meet the social demands.
Even though her name is Pearl her personality does not reflect any of the physical qualities of a pearl. In fact, she is more like a diamond that reflects all colors. She is a wild, rambunctious child. Hester believes what she went through during her pregnancy is a reflection of her daughter and it is why she is excitable. When Pearl was in her crib, Hester would stand over her and Pearl would grab the letter “with a decided gleam that gave her face the look of a much older child.”(89) Even at an early age Hester noticed abnormal qualities about her child.
... off exhibition across her mother chest. The through Pearl, the letter whispers to Hesters conciouosness that she cannot be released from her sin, the letter will not allow it, and neither will Pearl. The letter has become a part of Hester, it is no longer an act that she was involved in, it has come to define her as a person in Pearls point of view.
The setting is the early 1600’s in a newly founded Puritan colony. Hester moves to America before her husband Chillingworth, and commits adultery with the minister of the colony, Mr. Dimmesdale. Hester is punished by an embroidered red “A” on the breast of her dress. She is led to the scaffold for embarrassment before the people. When Hester is led to the scaffold, she held Pearl, her daughter and result of her sin, really close because she loves her; Pearl is the only person that she has at this point. The reason that she named her Pearl is because she was “of a great price.” Pearl hides...
Pearl lived a different life than any of the other puritan children. She is a free spirited child. Hester lets her blossom intointo the brilliant child she blooms into through the story. Pearl is not afraid to speak her mind. “She could recognize her wild, desperate, defiant mood, the flightiness of her temper, and even some of the very cloud-shapes of gloom and despondency that had brooded in her heart” (Hawthorne 93). Hester saw the light in her child and embraced it. The other Puritan children are confused by Pearls behavior. They have never been around a child li...
Pearl's name shows the purification that Hester wants Pearl to have in her life and the lifestyle she wishes Pearl could have, but the town sees her as the devil's child due to the fact that the child has no father and has a sinful mother and she was not just a child, she was different. Pearl's name also symbolizes a bible quote (“Gospel of Matthew: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46”) The biblical verse shows that Hester gave up everything to Pearl, she was her “punishment” but yet she was also her “happiness” and Pearl is the one who kept her alive. As the novel goes on Hester starts to embrace the letter ” A” that,s sewn onto her which at that point stood for Adultery. She goes through stages throughout the book. At first she feels shame when walking through the prison door and the prison door symbolizes a society that does not realize their own mistakes, but imprisons others feeling better about their own sins, doings, and afflictions. Then as she walks through the crowds yell and hears the town's gossip and feels the wrath of the Puritan society, she feels offended when the people want to take Pearl away from her, she builds up emotional intensity by expressing how she feels about Pearl and the society
As a living reminder of Hester’s extreme sin, Pearl is her constant companion. From the beginning Pearl has always been considered as an evil child. For Hester to take care of such a demanding child, put lots of stress onto her life. Hester at times was in a state of uncontrollable pressure. “Gazing at Pearl, Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon her knees, and cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden, but which made utterance for itself, betwixt speech and a groan, ‘O Father in heaven- if Thou art still my Father- what is this being which I have brought into the world!’” (Hawthorne, 77).
Hester and Dimmesdale are overcome with shame due to the bearing of their adulterous love child Pearl. Pearl Prynne is symbolically representing her parents sins in the flesh. Everyday she is a living reminder to Hester of her passionate, or in the Puritans view, sinful tendencies. She lives as a mark on Hester’s life; much like the scarlet A she bears across her chest. The community that Hester lives in does not separate religion from state and every act that is done in passion, is done of sin; sin that will be punished for the whole settlement to see. Pearl is the reminder of Hester’s loss of religion and depiction of her sin, much like the scarlet A. The symbolic parallel between the Scarlet A and Pearl goes so far as Hester contemplating holding Pearl in front of her Scarlet A on the first scaffold scene. Hester decides that, "one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide
Because of Pearl's banishment from Puritan society she was thrown to another way of life and her wildness and peculiarity is a direct product of her banishment. Her character acts as a mysterious and interesting symbol in The Scarlet Letter. Pearl is an important character, as she is a constant reminder to Hester, as well as to the reader, of the sin of Hester. She contributes largely to the themes of the novel through her unusual history. The one character that seems to play the most uninvolved role in the novel is one of the most forceful symbols and individual throughout.
By being with Hester, Pearl got to experience a different manner in life which enabled her to see an outside perspective of Puritan life and learn moral lessons from it. Pearl was not born into the typica...