Pearl as Living Symbol in The Scarlet Letter
Pearl. A child born of sin. Conceived by lust. Created by
impurity.
As the result of her parents fall from grace, she represents the
sinfulness of their act, and is a continual tool for the recollection of
their dubious deed. Sent, was she, from the Almighty God as a gift, and a
burden of the heart.
"'God gave me the child?' cried she. 'He gave her in requital of
all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!- she is
my torture, none the less! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only
capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million fold the power of
retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first!'"(109)
"'There is truth in what she says,' began the minister, with a
voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful, insomuch that the hall reechoed, and
the hollow armor rang with it - 'truth in what Hester says, and in the
feeling which inspires her!'"(110)...
"'I must be even so,' resumed the minister.'" " 'This child of its
father's guilt and its mother's shame hath come from the hand of God, to
work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly, and with such
bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her. It was meant, doubtless, as
the mother herself hath told us, for a retribution too; a torture to be
felt at many an unthought-of moment; a pang, a sting, an ever-recurring
agony, in the midst of a troubled joy! Hath she not expressed this thought
with the garb of the poor child, so forcibly reminding us of that red
symbol which sears her bosom?'"(110-111).
Pearls gestures, and the essence which her presence pours forth,
insinuate to the child's evil roots and the effect there of.
"the child could not be made amenable to rules. In giving her
existence, a great law had been broken, and the result was a being whose
elements where perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder."...
"Above all, the warfare of Hester's spirit, at that epoch, was perpetuated
in Pearl. She could recognize her wild, desperate, defiant mood, the
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.
... little girl'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.
Three gossips present at Hester’s public shaming moan at Hester’s “merciful” punishment, one even going as far as declaring “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die.” (Hawthorne 36). As time passes, however, and Hester dutifully lives out her penance, the people start to see the piety of her everyday actions. After seven years, they go from crying for her death to exclaiming “None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty…None so self-devoted as Hester, when pestilence stalked through the town.” (Hawthorne 110). They also declared her “a self-ordained Sister of Mercy…Such helpfulness was found in her,—so much power to do, and power to sympathize,—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able.” (111). When the people of Hester’s town managed to stop gawking at Hester, they easily saw her true nature and changed their ideas to
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.
Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place...better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life…(47).
believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life? What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him-yea compe...
Often in novels writers use symbolism as a device to make their themes and ideas come across clearly to the reader. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many forms of symbolism. People and objects are symbolic of events and thoughts of hawthorn throughout the course of the book. The Scarlet letter itself is a symbol he uses to contradict the puritanical society of the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Pearl both as a symbol in the novel, and to work on the consciences of Hester and Dimmesdale.
One of the most complex characters in The Scarlet Letter is Pearl, the illegitimate daughter of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the story, she develops into a dynamic individual, as well as an extremely important symbol. Pearl is shunned from society because of her mother's sin. She is a living representation of the scarlet letter, acting as a constant reminder of Hester's sin.
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the meaning around in the story to mean able. Now that she has given many
The Shakespearean play Macbeth is a story of the human nature and of the choice every person
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