In the novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there was an abundance of symbolism. Pearl had the most important symbolism in the novel. Pearl stood for multiple things; the scarlet letter, hope, and truth. Pearl’s significance in the novel is to be the human form of the scarlet letter; to remind Hester of her sinful nature, to symbolize optimism, and to reveal clarity.
Pearl proves herself to be the human form of the scarlet letter by being a constant reminder of Hester’s adultery. Pearl, like the scarlet letter, is a result of a sinful crime and Hester is forcefully given the job to bear the ostracizes of the community by wearing the letter and raising the “elfish,” child. Hester also dresses Pearl in elegant crimson and/or gold gowns; which are the same colors of the letter on Hester’s chest. Not only is Pearl the scarlet letter because of the way she dresses, but also because Hester believes that God sent Pearl to Hester as both a gift and a curse. Pearl is described as intelligent, imaginative, inquisitive, determined, and even obstinate at
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A perfect example is simply her name, “Pearl.” Hester names Pearl for the beauty and purity that she intends for her daughter to have. A pearl is said to exemplify purity, generosity, and integrity of its wearer. It is also said to show wisdom acquired through experience. Pearl shows hope by enduring the hardships in her life and becoming a rich and beautiful heiress. Hester and Pearl are outcasted by all of society in Boston, but Pearl remains exuberant in happiness. Hester and Pearl escape the ostracizes from the community and head to Europe. When Pearl is all grown, she inherits Roger Chillingworth’s fortune and also marries into great fortune. Throughout all the adversity and difficulty in Pearl’s life, she slowly climbed up the social ladder and eventually conquered the highest point of society. Pearl embodies hope as well as she reveals
Symbolism plays a very important part in Scarlet Letter because it helps to identify characters and the main ideas of the story. It can help a reader to visualize and understand the meaning of the story better when there are symbols to help explain the meaning of something. Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale as symbols all throughout the book. They are the main characters of the story and they all overcome some difficulties in the end. They all have important roles in the book.
For the past month our class has been reading the scarlet letter. There has been some interesting topics that sometimes people skip as they're reading. When someone reads the scarlet letter they tend to think that the book is about Hester prynne who had affairs and died being buried to the person whom she had an affair with. But there's more to that. The story starts out with Hester prynne an adulterous women who ends up in jail with her baby named pearl. Later in the book you will found out that pearl was being called the “devils child” because of the sin that her mother had committed. Pearl changes throughout the book because she never really finds out who her father is. Reveren dimsdale is the
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.
In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the storyline of Hester Prynne’s adultery as a means of criticizing the values of Puritan society. Hester and her daughter Pearl, whom she conceives out of wedlock, are ostracized from their community and forced to live in a house away from town. The reflections of Pearl in different mirrored surfaces represent the contrast between the way Puritans view her and who she actually is. In the fancy mirrored armor of the society’s elite class, Pearl is depicted harshly as a devilish and evil spawn, unable to live up to the expectations of such a pristine society. However, in the natural reflections of the earth’s surface, Pearl’s beauty and innocence is much more celebrated. The discrepancies between these positive depictions of Pearl as an angelic figure and the Puritans’ harsh judgment of her character suggest that Puritans inflated her oddities and strange habits in order to place her and Hester in a place of inferiority within the community. Hawthorne employs reflection and mirrors in his novel to convey the Puritans’ misconstrual of Pearl as an elfish, evil child and to critique the severity of early Puritan moral codes.
Pearl is first introduced as the young babe clutched to Hester's chest, as she stands before a crowd of puritans beholding her humiliation. Embarrassed of the glaring letter on her chest, Hester thinks to hold little Pearl in front of her scarlet mark; however, she resolves that “one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another” (P.37). It is here that we see for the first time that Pearl has been reduced to nothing more than a symbol of Hester's sin, synonymous with the scarlet letter. As Pearl grows, so does the obvious nature with which Hawthorne portrays her as the scarlet letter. Throughout the book, we see Pearl dressed in bright clothes,
From the moment she is born in the cold, heartless prison, Pearl is placed under scrutiny. The townspeople see her as a visible reminder of sin, and it isn't long until even her own mother searches for evil in her. The girl is described as "the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!"(Hawthorne 103). With her fascination from an early age with the scarlet letter, Hester believes that Pearl's very reason for existence is to torment her mother. Hester fails to realize that the letter is just something bright and significant to which Pearl reacts; instead, she sees every glance, every word aimed at the letter, every touch of Pearl's tiny fingers to her bosom as an added torture resulting from her adultery. Hester, considering Pearl's very existence, goes so far as to question if the impish child is even her own. "Thou art not my child! Thou art no Pearl of mine!"(Hawthorne 99) she tells Pearl, only half-jokingly. In her own way, she wonders whether Pearl was sent to her by God or by a demon wishing to cause her pain. She is not alone in this speculation; many of the town's citizens believe there is something of the Devil in Pearl.
In the Scarlet Letter several of the characters names were symbolic and had meaning. Pearl’s name references her beauty to the beauty of a pearl as seen in the quote “expressive of her aspect, which had nothing of the calm, white unimpassioned lustre” (page 133, Hawthorn) as well as how much it cost Hester to have pearl referencing how expensive Pearls are as see in the quote “as being of great price--purchased with all she had…” (page 133, Hawthorn).
This, as Arthur Dimmesdale almost prophetically expresses in the early scenes of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, was the role of Pearl, the elfish child borne of his and Hester Prynne's guilty passion. Like Paul's thorn in the flesh, Pearl would bring trouble, heartache, and frustration to Hester, but serve a constructive purpose lying far beyond the daily provocations of her childish impishness. While in many respects a tormentor to Hester, Pearl was also her savior, while a reminder of her guilt, a promoter of honesty and true Virtue; and while an embodiment of Hester's worst qualities, a vision of a better life for Hester and for herself.
Pearl as Living Symbol in The Scarlet Letter Pearl. A child born of sin. Conceived by a lust. Created by impurity. It is a As the result of her parents falling from grace, she represents the sinfulness of their act, and is a continual tool for the recollection of. their dubious deeds.
Pearl is the subject of mystery throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, and Hester Prynne frequently ponders pearl of being the gift of God or perhaps the burden of Satan. Throughout the story pearl is often compared or described looking and acting like an “elf” or “imp”. This may imply that pearl was sent to Hester for another purpose. Was Pearl sent to Hester to torment her as punishment for her crime or was she a blessing and could God or even Satan Have sent this child to Hester? And was Pearl truly an elf creature or Hester’s child? Why did Hawthorne use fairy like creatures as a way to describe Pearl?
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the reader knows that Pearl is the result of Hester’s and Dimmesdale’s sin, but does she have play a more important role in the novel? For instance, some readers may understand Pearl’s part in displaying the themes of this novel. In the beginning of the novel, Hester commits adultery with Dimmesdale and has who she names Pearl. Dimmesdale suffers because he keeps his sin a secret, while Hester is unable to and is punished for it. Dimmesdale also suffers because he never builds a connection with Pearl: In the end of the novel, though, when he dies, Pearl accepts him and kisses him. Later, Pearl becomes one of the richest women in the world, gets married, has a family, and lives a happy life. Pearl is a major character in the story, and she has an important role in displaying the themes of The Scarlet Letter: Appearance vs. Reality, Isolation, and Good Can Come from Evil.
Pearl is Hester’s human form of her scarlet letter; both she and the scarlet letter constantly remind Hester of her sin of adultery. Pearl is the result of Hester’s adultery; therefore she has a strong connection with the scarlet letter. As a young girl, Pearl had always had a fascination and obsession with her mother’s scarlet letter. For example “In the forest scene when Hester takes off the Scarlet letter, Pearl becomes frantically disturbed and won’t quiet down until Hester has it back on her dress, as if by discarding the letter Hester has discarded Pearl,” (Johnson: A Literary Analysis of The Scarlet Letter, pg.1). The scarlet letter is a part of Hester, as is Pearl, if Hester removes the letter, she also disowns Pearl. The only way Pearl recognize her mother is when she has the letter on. Hester dresses Pearl in red so she can represent her scarlet letter. In the chapter, “The Governor’s Hall,” Pearl was described; “The child’s whole appearance reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!” (The Scarlet Letter, pg. 103 Johnson: Understanding The Scarlet Letter pg.1).
Pearl had a great role in the scarlet letter. Her differences from the other Puritan children showed the reader the effect Pearls life had on her personality. Pearl was seen as the Devil’s child or a child from sin. Pearl proved to be quite the opposite, although she wasn't quite a human character but more of a symbol she added a touch of love and beauty to a story filled with hate and pain. Pearl really was the ray of sunshine in this world. Though she came from something seen as a sin she was truly a blessing. She helped her mom through her times of grief and she brought Dimmesdale out of hiding. In the end she was the only pure and true individual. Pearl was an amazing child who gave this story light.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Pearl, is a symbol of sin and adultery in the sense that she leads Dimmsdale and Hester to their confession and the acceptance of their sins. A beauitful daughter of the towns adulturist has somtimes demon like traits. She is also the only living symblol of the scarlet letter "A". In another way Pearl also makes a connection between Dimmsdale and Hester.