Nature And Pearl In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, nature and Pearl are depicted as innocence and evil. Hester brings her daughter, Pearl, to live in the forest because they are not accepted by society due to the Scarlet letter. The relationship between these two is Pearl creates a bond with nature mentally since society rejects her as a product of sin. Nature is viewed in the eyes of a Puritan as a place where witches live to perform witchcraft and where darkness inhabits. However, the relationship between nature and Pearl gives her freedom and growth.

In Puritan society, nature is thought of a place where many evil things occur, but nature gives birth to innocence and beauty. This is why Hester brings her to live in the forest. She can keep Pearl hidden away from the Puritan society because her daughter is the product of her adultery. Nature also is the child of earth just like Pearl is the child of Hester. Since they’re both children, it makes a much more understandable reason why they can get along so well. Pearl considers nature her playmate. When she goes to play by the brook, the brook is described by Nathaniel Hawthorne as,“Continually, indeed, as it stole onward the streamlet kept up a babble, kind, quiet, soothing, but melancholy, like the voice of a young child that was spending its infancy without

playfulness”(16.23). It demonstrates how well it matches part of Pearl’s personality and childhood experience.
Nature brings comfort to Pearl whenever she feels loneliness. It reflects how nature is believed to offer some sort of calmness to a person, “in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind”(1.38). Because of Pearl’s wildness, the animals of the forest have accepted her and bring her comfort by letting her pet them. Pearl’s isolation to society has left her alone when she’s only a child. A child has a need to play and be around people, but since Pearl is different she knows her surroundings and what’s going on in the world around her. Her mother is too fixated on herself, Dimmesdale and her sewing business that her attention is rarely on Pearl. The only time Hester pays any need to Pearl is when she needs to be reminded of her adultery. Pearl’s isolation from the Puritan society burdened with the title of being the product of sin has led her to this state. That’s why “Mother Nature” connects with Pearl and takes care of her, comforting her.
The forest is a place of freedom. There are no rules, no one to judge another or any problems consisting of other people. Pearl has the entire forest to herself. She has the freedom to be however she pleases. Her personality fits that exactly of what lies in the forest and nature itself: quiet, calm, wild, free will, and mysterious. While Pearl looks into the reflection of the brook she sees, "another child, — another and the same, with likewise its ray of golden light”. She seems to see herself in the reflection but it’s not her at the same time. It’s filled with sunshine and sympathy, "somewhat of its [Pearl's] own shadowy and intangible quality”. It’s a passion, or freedom, that comes alive in the forest where the Puritan rules don’t abide. Pearl is the living proof of this view and her reflection is that of the symbol of freedom.
After so much time in the forest, Pearl not only grew up physically but so much has happened living there that she was able to grow mentally.

She understood the scarlet letter more and accepted Dimmesdale as her father because in the end Dimmesdale was the one who “saved” Pearl and turned her human. Pearl, who now has sympathies and feelings, had finally broken free of the symbolism she had on the scarlet letter. It was in nature, the forest, that she was able to find the answers she needed to know to be able to grow and keep discovering things. Therefore, this shows how much of a bond nature and Pearl created with each other due to the scarlet

letter.