Scarlet Letter: Character of Pearl

Introduction

In the 1600's, while searching through a dusty room in the Custom House in Salem, Massachusetts, Nathaniel Hawthorne came across a piece of red fabric and several pages written about a woman of humiliation and shame. With these few pieces of evidence and knowledge of how it could have been, Hawthorne wrote his novel The Scarlet Letter, a religious and psychological allegory about a lustful sin in Colonial Boston and the years that follow. Like all allegories, the novel uses symbols, such as little Pearl as the living scarlet letter, to develop and add meaning to the story. Pearl's relationship with her mother, Hester Prynne, and the hidden relationship with her father, Arthur Dimmesdale, have several purposes and give Pearl important roles throughout the story. This is shown in her position as the living scarlet letter, the supposed demon-child, and an angel of judgment of both her parents.

Discussion

Pearl

The most evident symbol Pearl represents is the scarlet letter itself. The letter is embroidered with "flourishes of gold-thread and with; gorgeous luxuriance of fancy" (Newberry, 231-248). In the same way that the letter is beautiful, Pearl is described, even at such a young age, as having "a native grace…coexist[ing] with faultless beauty" (Gartner, 131-151). Aside from the common natural splendor, Hester actually dresses Pearl to resemble the scarlet letter. Pearl's garb consisted of "a crimson tunic; abundantly embroidered with; flourishes of gold-thread. Hester [had] contrived [it] so perfectly to represent the scarlet letter in [Pearl's] appearance" (Korobkin, 193-217). Not only are there physical similarities between the child and the letter, but their very meaning and the passion they both represent are similar as well. Pearl's name implies that she was "of great price,--purchased with all [Hester] had,--her mother's only treasure!" (Carpenter, 173-180). Pearl had been given to Hester by God in exchange for everything he had taken from her—everything symbolized by the scarlet letter.

The letter is a badge of shame, and a constant reminder of the very act from which Pearl was created. Just the same, Pearl is her mother's only happiness and lasting torture(Baym, 49-70). The sin Hester committed made her guilty of disobeying God's rules, and from a young age, Pearl "could not be made [to follow] rules" (Gartner, 131-151). Hester credited this wildness to the wild passion in her heart when Pearl came to be. Everything about little Pearl resembles her to a living scarlet letter.

As ...