Analysis Of Pearl In Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

begins, Hester Prynne gives birth to Pearl after
having an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, a Puritan minister. Pearl's birth
proves that Hester cheated on her husband Roger Chillingworth provoking the
stories action. The novel opens with the people of Boston staring and
laughing at Hester holding Pearl while standing on the town's scaffold. At
this time, Pearl is three months old. Years later Hester gets released from
jail and lives with Pearl in the outskirts of town. Since Hester becomes
alienated from Boston, Pearl turns into "her mother's only treasure!"
(Hawthorne 76). Hester makes bright red clothes for Pearl that parallel the
scarlet "A." At age three, Pearl endures many laughs and jokes from other
Puritan children but chases them away with stones. Since Pearl's birth
resulted from broken rules, she does not feel the obligation to follow
rules. Although her life is an outcast of Puritan society, Pearl's language
shows a high level of intelligence. Later, Hester ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

and dies in Boston. Hawthorne never tells
exactly what happened to Pearl. The people of Boston have many different
ideas about Pearl's fate. For example, some believe that she died or that
she married and received money from Chillingworth's will. The character
of Pearl portrayed a large role in the plot of the Scarlet Letter.


Significance

Nathaniel Hawthorne develops Pearl into the most obvious central
symbol of the novel, the scarlet letter. First, Pearl's birth resulted
from the sin of adultery, the meaning of the "A." Since she came from a
broken rule, Pearl does not feel that she has to follow rules. Hawthorne
expresses that "The child could not ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: