In The Scarlet letter, the children play many roles. Pearl, Hester’s child, is a blessing and a curse towards Hester. The town children, however, are very mean and honest about their beliefs about Hester and Pearl. A child's brutal honesty can be considered either a gift or a blessing. Their innocence to other people’s perceptions and prejudice make their comments and actions cause them no shame or harm, because since they are a child they hold a small amount innocence. Every child has some innocence as they grow up, but as they grow up, they are expected to be more mature and to lose some of that innocence bit by bit. Then when the children have finally become an adult, they are expected to lose all of their innocence and they can see the world for what it really is. …show more content…
Many children have a tendency to talk very poorly of the people and the places that they are nearby because of their innocence that they seem to have, They have the ability to talk and criticize everything and nothing at the same exact time, aware of the fact that the world around them, with no restriction or self-censorship.
Pearl's perception of the world around her seems to be a combination of a non-self-censored child and the maturity of an adult. For a short period in everyone's life, they are a child. Their lack of knowledge to the world is the window through which they view the world. At a very young age, not too long after they begin to speak they will begin to comment on the world around them. A child is usually naive to the prejudice towards others, which allows for comments to be told openly and without
shame. The children of Boston seem to have a perception of Hester as an evil woman, a woman that made a pact with the devil. These children's perceptions generally seem to reflect their parents and the community’s opinion. The children of Boston constantly tormented Hester and Pearl, knowing that something was not right about the two. As Pearl was growing up, the other children made her an outcast in every situation possible. The extremity of the children's hatred towards the pair reached a climax when Pearl is about three. When Hester hears about rumors around the village talking about that Pearl may be taken away from her and given to a better parent. Hester wanted to know if these rumors were true, so on the evening that she was supposed to deliver a pair of gloves that she had made for the Governor, she planned on convincing them to let her keep Pearl. As Pearl and Hester were walking into town, they were assaulted with mud by children. This is the perfect example of the children showing innocence, since they do not know for the fact that it is impolite to be throwing mud at them. The adults in the town don’t express their perceptions of others as much as the children seem to do since they know what is right from wrong. However, the children do it out of their innocence where the adults cannot. Having grown up already the adults don’t seem to express their perceptions unlike in the beginning of the book where many of the adult women were shaming Hester in a group. As you can see, the children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than the adults because the children are innocent. The children differ from the adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions because of that innocence. The children lose their innocence as the become an adult.
Pearl looks like the human version of the scarlet letter. Pearl is an example of the innocent result of sin. All the kids make fun of Pearl and they disclude her from everything. She never did anything wrong, but everyone treats her like she committed the sin also. Pearl acts out against the children that make fun of her and acts like a crazy child. She cannot control the sin that her parents committed. Hester accepts the Puritan way and sees Pearl as a creature of
People all over the world continuously commit sins some are bigger than others and some do more damage. In the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman, Hester Prynne, is publicly shamed and force to wear a scarlet A upon her bosom for committing adultery. Throughout the book, Hester and her daughter, Pearl, try to adapt to life as an outsider. The two are continuously judged for Hester’s sin, and humiliated, however, they overcome this judgment and are seen in a different way. Hester and Pearl have been publicly shamed, Pearl has been considered an elfish devil like child, and after all the humiliation they were able to turn their lives around.
As the book progresses, the reader will observe the development of Pearl’s psyche while witnessing the deterioration
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.
At the first of Pearl’s role in the story, it appears as though someone so grounded in her beliefs, spiritual and mental, would never be dynamic in character. However, that is not the case. This character analysis will explain the life of Pearl, and what she meant to other roles of The Scarlet Letter.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's work, The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very symbolic role. Throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. One example of this is with the character of Pearl. Pearl is very different than all the other characters due to her special relationship with Nature. Hawthorne personifies Nature as sympathetic towards sins against the puritan way of life. Hester's sin causes Nature to accept Pearl.
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, a sinner, living in a puritan society. As punishment, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her chest. Her daughter Pearl is the product of her sinful ways, and a constant reminder of her wrongdoing. Pearl’s embodiment of the Scarlet Letter causes her hostile relationships with the world and her mother. However, when Dimmesdale kisses her, he frees her from isolation and allows her to form human connections.
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.
Pearl and the other Puritan children have a huge role in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Pearl is displayed as very different from any of the other children in the book. The attitudes of the children tell the reader a lot about the lives of the Puritans. The story emphasizes that children were to be seen but not heard however, Hester chooses to let Pearl live a full and exciting life. Hester does not restrict pearl or hide her from anyone or anything. This is part of the reason that Pearl becomes such a colorful child. People see Pearl as a child of sin; the devil’s child. Pearl is quite the opposite. She is a happy and intelligent little girl. Pearl is born with an incredible sense of intuition. She sees the pain her mother feels but does not understand where the pain is coming from. Pearl knows somehow deep in her heart that Dimmesdale is her father. She takes a very strong liking to him. This makes it much harder on dimmesdale to work through the guilt seeing what a beautiful thing came from his terrible secret. Pearl serves as a blessing to and a curse to Hester. Hester Prynne loves her daughter dearly but she is a constant reminder of the mistakes she has made.
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.
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.
After Hester stood on the scaffold, being humiliated in front of the public she was granted the option to leave or stay in Boston. “Here. she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul…” (Hawthorne 72). Since Hester decided to stay in Boston, because it was the place where she committed her sin the citizens treated Hester and Pearl very poorly. When Hester and Pearl would walk through town they would get evil glares and the children’s parents would tell their kids biased information about Hester and Pearl, because of this the children wouldn’t want to play with Pearl, instead they threw things at her. Hester’s decision to stay in Boston with all the citizens that saw her as a sinner really took a toll on how she was treated.
Pearl has spent her entire life knowing who her mother is and identifies her with and only with the letter on. “Pearl’s image, crowned, and girdled with flowers, but stamping its foot, wildly gesticulating, and in the midst of all, still pointing its small forefinger at Hester’s bosom!” (Hawthorne 173). In this scene, Hester takes the letter off when she is with Dimmesdale, and Pearl refuses to come near her until she puts the letter back on; she recognizes that the letter is a part of who her mother is. The identity of herself is also uncovered as a result of the letter. Pearl sees how the Puritan society treats her mother and refuses to act likewise. Not only does she stand up to those who judge Hester, but she also practices being kind instead. “Pearl was almost sure, [the bird] had been hit by a pebble and fluttered away with a broken wing. But then the elf-child sighed, and gave up her sport; because it grieved her to have done harm to a little being that was as wild as the sea-breeze, or as wild as Pearl herself” (Hawthorne 147). Pearl cares for the wellbeing of those around her, both human and animal. This has shaped who she is through her kindness and her intelligence; it becomes what her identity is and displays how she identifies her mother, verifying that she was impacted the most by the scarlet
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.