How does hawthorne describe pearl

Thus we see how Pearl is conceived through sin, and how she suffers when her mother and the community situate this deed upon her like the scarlet letter on her mother's bosom. Hester Prynne impresses her feelings of guilt onto Pearl, whom she sees as a reminder of her sin, especially since as an infant Pearl is acutely aware of the scarlet letter "A" on her mother's chest. When still in her crib, Pearl reaches up and grasps the letter, causing "Hester Prynn [to] clutch the fatal token… so infinite was the torture inflicted by the intelligent touch of Pearl's baby-hand" Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter is a novel with much symbolism.

Throughout the novel several characters represent other ideas. One of the most complex and misunderstood characters in the novel is Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne. Pearl, throughout the story, develops into a dynamic symbol — one that is always changing.

Although Pearl changes, she always symbolizes evil. To Pearl herself, the scarlet letter is part of her life which accompanied her to grow up. Pearl was born out of love of Hester and Dimmesdale as well as the sin of adultery which was committed by an act of passion. In the public views, the first day she came to the world, she was labeled by the shameful letter. In addition, Pearl coexisted with the letter.

The most complex of these symbols is Pearl, the daughter of the illicit relationship between Hester Pyrnne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. She is a girl of diverse temperaments. Her unusual behavior leads to appellations of different sorts usually inauspicious.

As a result Pearl symbolizes a release of sin. A pearl is a precious thing; the finest example of something; pure, white, sinless. However, this distinct character, Pearl is unwanted, a sign of transgression, taint, dirty, and full of sin.

Pearl is a rebellious outcast within The Scarlet Letter. She plays a role in key narrative events and due to the embodiment of her mother's sin her actions represent her identity. Pearl, as she develops into a toddler, is delved more into as a symbol of the sin.

She is beyond what anyone around her would see her as, which is a child. Hawthorne, of course, showed the most symbolism to Pearl, but another help to understand just how important of a symbol she was, was Cindy Lou Daniels. Pearl is The Scarlet Letter Pearl is the living embodiment of the scarlet letter because she forces Hester and Dimmesdale to accept their sins. The Puritan society looks at Pearl as a child of the devil, and a black hearted girl because she is the result of sin.

Hester and Dimmesdale are both in the same situation in Pearl's eyes. Pearl wants Hester to realize that she is not the worst person in the world before she removes the scarlet letter. Pearl wants Dimmesdale to accept his sin, and be part of their life publicly. So is Pearl a symbol of evil? The very first time Hawthorne uses Pearl as a symbol is when he is talking about the one thing that attracts her attention.

She is, in fact, the personification of that act. Even as a baby, she instinctively reaches for the scarlet letter. Hawthorne says it is the first object of which she seemed aware, and she focuses on the letter in many scenes.

She creates her own letter out of moss, sees the letter in the breastplate at Governor Bellingham's mansion, and points at it in the forest scene with Hester and Dimmesdale. As a symbol, Pearl always keeps Hester aware of her sin. Just as Dimmesdale cannot escape to Europe because Chillingworth has cut off his exit, Pearl always keeps Hester aware that there is no escape from her passionate nature. The Puritans would call that nature "sinful.

Hawthorne's handling of mirror images has both the goal of representing the passionate, artistic side of man and also the idea that life's truths can be pictured in mirror images. Hester looks into "the black mirror of Pearl's eye" and she sees "a face, fiend-like, full of smiling malice, yet bearing the semblance of features that she had known full well, though seldom with a smile, and never with malice in them. If so, Pearl is the embodiment of that passion.

The poetic, intuitive, outlawed nature of the artist is an object of evil to the Puritans. As a symbol, Pearl represents that nature. As she looks in the brook in Chapter 19, she sees "another child, — another and the same, with likewise its ray of golden light. Filled with the glory of sunshine, sympathetic, but only "somewhat of its [Pearl's] own shadowy and intangible quality," it is the passion of the artist, the outlaw.

This is a passion that does not know the bounds of the Puritan village. In the forest, this passion can come alive and does again when Hester takes off her cap and lets down her hair. Pearl is the living embodiment of this viewpoint, and the mirror image makes that symbol come to life. Hester herself tries to account for the nature of her child and gets no farther than the symbolic unity of Pearl and her own passion. A close examination of Chapter 6, "Pearl," shows the unification of the child with the idea of sin.

Hester is recalling the moment when she had given herself to Dimmesdale in love. The only way she can account for Pearl's nature is in seeing how the child is the symbol of that moment. She recalls ". Since Hester broke the law of marriage, she is considered a bad…. Essays Essays FlashCards. Browse Essays. Sign in. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Read More. Words: - Pages: 2. Words: - Pages: 5. Words: - Pages: 6.

Words: - Pages: 3. Words: - Pages: 4. Symbolism Of Symbolism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Hester is more clearly aware that the mark is also her greatest salvation in life, because through the peculiar protrusion of her sin, she found harmony with the world. Words: - Pages: 7. What Is The Scaffold Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter As Pearl grows up she learns that everyone is mean to her so she is mean back because she doesn't know what nice is and doesn't know how to be nice.

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