Nathaniel Hawthorne has written, The Scarlet Letter about Hester committing a sin to her purity. Hawthorne has viewed Pearl as a treasure, although she is a treasure to her mother she is also a burden to her because she was born illegitimate. Pearl grows up to be intelligent and Hester thought she was going to become articulate; Pearl is bold for accepting her mother and for this reason Hester thinks she does not deserve her as a daughter for the pain she has brought for being an adulterous. Hester later realizes that Pearl becomes an important division of her life because Hester realizes she is able to live without her husband and Dimmesdale. Hester raises Pearl as if she was an ordinary girl, she becomes bright and awaits for the future of her and Hester. Hester does not want to continue living with the hatred of being an adulterous she wants to banish herself from the city, but there was one thing that …show more content…
She wants to grow up as the other children in the village having two parents to look up to. Pearl is growing up and Hester describes her as “the brightest little jet of flame that ever danced upon this earth (90), Pearl is vividly showing her emotions by the way she talks and the way she smiles. Hester is able to express she does not need a man to be happy, but with her child. She can now see that Pearl is not the articulate girl she expected to raise but the opposite; Pearl becomes the bright little star that enlights Hester’s sin and for this reason she values her. Pearl and Hester have a miscommunication because she is a young girl who is not able to understand complication in life, but she will later realize the problem her mother had committed. Pearl is supposed to be that outcast child but overcomes the obstacle by expressing her
The two of them, after Dimmesdale dies, continue with their plans to go back to England where they hope for a better life. Once in England, the two are able to change their lives around for the better. Pearl is even found to have a family of her own: “Mr. Surveyor Pue, who made investigations a century later, … Pearl was not only alive, but married, and happy, and mindful of her mother; and that she would most joyfully have entertained that sad and lonely mother at her fireside” ( Hawthorne 392). Pearl was able to overcome her old life and create a new one, a better one, one that was just for her. Even though her mother was no longer around she tried her best to kept in touch with her. She also kept her and her mother’s experience in mind never to let herself go back to that life. After spending many years in England, Hester finally returns to New England. When she returns she is full of sorrow and regret; however, she continues to wear her A on upon her chest as a reminder of her pain. With returning to the land of sin, people came to Hester, mostly women, with problems of their own. They hope by talking to someone who has been through so much will help them, or give them insight on what life is like to be on the outside: “And, as Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble. Women, more especially,—in the continually recurring trials of wounded, wasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion,—or with the dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued and unsought,—came to Hester’s cottage, demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy! Hester comforted and counseled them, as best she might” (Hawthorne 392-393). Even though Hester was miserable and thought that no
The naivete of a child is often the most easily subjected to influence, and Pearl of the Scarlet Letter is no exception. Throughout the writing by Nathaniel Hawthorne, she observes as Dimmesdale and the rest of the Puritan society interact with the scarlet letter that Hester, her mother, wears. Hawthorne tries to use Pearl’s youth to teach the reader that sometimes it’s the most harmless characters that are the most impactful overall. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Pearl has learned the greatest lesson from the scarlet letter through her innocence as a youth and her realization of the identity of both herself and her mother.
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.
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...
...er to overcome the passion, once so wild that had brought her to ruin and shame." (Hawthorne, 165) It was Hester's motherly sentiments to nurture and love her child that saved her from temptation and from death and opened her heart to the poor and needy around her. It was the torturous fixation of her child upon her shame that tempered and refined her character and led her toward the precious virtue of being true to herself and others. And it was the reflection of her own character, even at Its worst, in her child that brought Hester to a greater understanding of herself and a desire to build a better life for Pearl. Pearl was more than merely her mother's tormentor--she was her blessing, her life, and the giver of the freedom to live a life true to herself and to her God.
Pearls have always held a great price to mankind, but no pearl had ever been earned at as high a cost to a person as in Hester Prynne, a powerful Heroine in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. Her daughter Pearl, born into a Puritan prison in more ways than one, is an enigmatic character serving entirely as a vehicle for symbolism. From her introduction as an infant on her mother’s scaffold of shame to the stormy peak of the story, Pearl is an empathetic and intelligent child. Throughout the story she absorbs the hidden emotions of her mother and magnifies them for all to see.
In society’s eyes, Pearl serves as a reminder of Hester’s sin, establishing Pearl as a living scarlet letter, although she IS ultimately innocent. Furthermore, Pearl causes her mother to confront her sin in order to shift towards a reputable lifestyle. Similarly, Pearl guides Dimmesdale to his inner father figure, his true title. By analyzing Pearl as a symbol to the scarlet setter, Hester, and Dimmesdale, a reader sees that although a child may have entered the world because of a sin, it does not brand her as evil, and, rather, she provides beneficiary assistance to the people around her. Simply because Hester, the “criminal,” gave birth to Pearl, society immediately perceives Pearl as an imp.
When she was forced to stand on the scaffold she held her baby tight as people looked her up and down with disgust. Even though the “A” showed problems for her, she didn’t budge and stood her sentence out despite how embarrassing it must have been. The first thing Pearl noticed when she was born was the scarlet letter on her mother’s chest. She reached up to touch it, and the letter became part of Hester, not only herself. Pearl didn’t actually know that the “A” represented Hester’s sin of adultery, but instead she made a connection with the object. And still Hester leaves it be, and allows it to take its way through her life and the life of her child. Hester is made fun of and stared at with disgust, but still keeps the will power to look away and continue on with her life. Her daughter is also forced to suffer because of her decision. Not only do the older people of the community look down upon Hester and Pearl, so do the children. They have learned from their parents that Hester is a bad woman and that her daughter has also was the same as her. This is extremely painful and very difficult for her to handle but she is a strong woman who will not other people sway her beliefs and morals. She decides to remain in Boston because it is the town where she committed her so called “sin” and if she faces each day with the guilt she had, then
The Scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The plot focuses on sin in the Puritan society. Hester Prynne, the protagonist, has an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale, which means they are adulterers and sinners. As a result, Pearl is born and Hester is forced to where the scarlet letter. Pearl is a unique character. She is Hester’s human form of her scarlet letter, which constantly reminds her of her sin, yet at the same time, Pearl is a blessing to have since she represents the passion that Hester once had.
Nathaniel Hawthorne makes it clear Pearl serves more as a symbol than a character in the story of The Scarlet Letter. He shows us that she is like an authentic scarlet letter, and Pearl is designated to be in the book as a reminder to Hester that she sinned, and that no matter what she does, nothing will ever be the same. He exemplifies it in a variety of ways, but the clearest ones to perceive can be seen in the time that the letter and Pearl are introduced to the book, how when one of them is absent, the other is as well, or refuses to be and how people treat Pearl, the same way they treat Hester since she starts to wear the letter.
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...
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).
Initially Pearl is the symbol of Hesters public punishment for her adultery. As the novel progresses and Pearl matures she symbolizes the deteriation of Hester's like by constantly asking her about the scarlet letter "A". Pearl in a sense wants her mother to live up to her sin and, she achieves this by constantly asking her about the scarlet letter. Another peice of evidence that shows how Pearl symbolizes the sin Hester has committed, is when the town government wants to take Pearl away from her Revrend Dimmsdale convinces the government that Pearl is a living reminder of her sin. This is essentialy true, Hester without Pearl is like having Hester without sin.
McNamara writes, “Pearl has been sent as a blessing and as a reflection to remind Hester of her fall from grace and to teach her the ways of heaven” (McNamara 86). Throughout the story, Pearl blindly encourages her mother do do what is right, and hester is always trying to make the right decisions, therefore, this results in her being a good mother. In chapter eight, Chillingsworth is trying take Pearl away from her mother because he believes she not doing a good duty to her, which I believe is not true. Hawthorne says, “This badge hath taught me, it daily teaches me, it is teaching me at this moment, lessons where of my child may be the wiser and better, albeit they can profit nothing to myself” (Hawthorne 107). In this quote Hester is telling them that she is in the middle of learning from her mistake and she will teach her child otherwise. Pearl will turn out wiser and better. Another example of Pearl keeping Hester on the right path is when Mistress Hibbins comes along and asks Hester to go into the woods with her to meet the Black Man. She tells Hibbins, “Must tarry at home, and keep watch over my little pearl. Had they taken her from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, signed my name in the black man's book too, and that with my own blood!” (Hawthorne 113). Therefore, if it wasn't for Pearl, Hester would have willingly gone into the woods to meet the black man. McNamara states that
Then, Pearl evolved into the very manifestation of Hester¡¯s sin. Pearl is not just a passive reminder of Hester¡¯s terrible deed; on the contrary, she is active in the role of torturing her mother. From the very beginning she drives to cause Hester to suffer. ¡°But that first object of which Pearl seemed to become aware was--shall we say it?--the scarlet letter on Hester's bosom!¡± (66). This small movement of the baby¡¯s hand causes immense amounts of pain in Hester. Then, when Pearl is older she ¡°she amused herself with gathering handfuls of wild-flowers, and flinging them, one by one, at her mother's bosom; dancing, up and down, like a little elf, whenever she hit the scarlet letter¡± (67). Hester begins to wonder if Pearl really is a demon¡¯s offspring ¡°through the agency¡± of her sin.