What Is The Society's Portrayal Of The Children In The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter is a novel about a young woman called Hester who committed adultery in New England around 1650. Hester, the protagonist, comes out of all of this with a child and a scarlet A. The adults of town obviously look down on Hester and her daughter Pearl but, they belittle Hester by excluding her and whispering about her. On the other hand the children of town do not shy away from showing their dislike towards Hester and publicly ridicule her. Children tend to be more honest about their thoughts and opinions because they haven't fully developed their sense of what is acceptable and what is not. In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne, being a romanticist, uses children's innocence to contrast what the society truly thinks of Hester …show more content…

For example the isolation from the town and it’s people that Hester and Pearl face, the societal norms that they challenge and specifically the unique thoughts the children and Pearl have on certain situations. Hawthorne made no mistake when he wrote Pearl with an exaggerated and blatant personality and the village children with a very honest opinion of Hester, in fact he did that because he wanted to show the contrast between how the children and adults behave when it comes to different situations. One of the first events in the novel that shows how children innocently act on their own impulsive is the scene where Hester and Pearl walk past a group of village kids. The …show more content…

She is able to express her opinions because of that innocence that she is described with having, Pearl will say what is on her mind unlike most adults in this novel and sees nothing wrong with that. Pearl is “seldom tolerant of emotion when she does not fully comprehend the why and wherefore,” of the situation at hand (Hawthorne 143). This is used to enhance Hawthorne’s romanticism writing style because through Pearl he can easily reveal and bring up certain truths that adults wouldn't while reinstating the idea that children are born innocent to the negative world around

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