How Does Pearl Empathize Throughout The Scarlet Letter

The character in The Scarlett Letter that I am most inclined to empathize with is

Pearl. The daughter of Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale’s scandalous affair. Throughout the

book Pearl is becoming a young woman who is extraordinarily intelligent. This becomes

apparent to the reader in a short amount of time reading the novel when she discovers the

situation of her isolation from the community due to her mother’s crime is not normal.

Although she responds with anger and violence toward other children in the community, it is

still easy to understand her confusion and rage. Because of her intelligence and “super-human”

persona, the Puritan community spreads rumors that the devil is her father. Readers can most

empathize with Pearl,

because she is a young girl with much ambition in a complicated situation

not caused by any of her own sin. Her father, the minister, will not claim her as his own to the

public.

Pearl’s mother’s husband, Chillingworth (not Pearl’s father), does not admit to being

Hester’s husband and disguises himself as a doctor. In the beginning of the story, Pearl is

obviously too young to realize who her father is, but as a child, especially a little girl it is hard to

not have a father figure in life. Pearl focuses on the The Scarlett letter “A” on her mother’s

chest throughout the novel. Pearl comes across in the novel as both innocent and bright. The

death of Dimmesdale had a very obvious impact on Pearl, as she kissed him the duration of him

dying. I most empathize with Pearl because she was born into a situation out of her own

control. The young, innocent girl was born into a life with sin surrounding her mother and

father simply because she was born. Her life must have been full of confusion and hatred, and it

is no wonder she grew up moody and bitter. People never have a choice as to who are

biological families are, but I believe that Pearl was born into one that made her life difficult.

Hawthorne writes of this situation, “...a baby of some three months old, who winked and

turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day; because its existence, heretofore,

had

brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon...”(Hawthorne, 48). People are

attached to both their parents’ successes and failures. In the predicament Pearl was born in to,

I think it is safe to say the failures were more pronounced than the successes. As someone

whose parents were both educators at the school I went to, I can understand Pearl’s situation

on a lesser scale. The decisions my parents made, whether be right or wrong, affected me on a

daily basis simply because of my relation to them.