Scarlet Letter essay

Submitted By 211517
Words: 975
Pages: 4
Open Document
Emily Coffee
Ms. Miller
English Honors II
November 2, 2014
Human Nature Represented Through Pearl
Symbols and archetypes are literary devices that are used to display the meanings of common items. They can be found not only in text, but our daily lives. It could be something found in nature or manmade. For example, water is a symbol for escape and passage, and darkness represents evil and mystery. Throughout Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, every minute detail seems to be some type of symbol. The four main characters; Pearl, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are symbols for the human traits: raw human nature, hope, guilt, and evil. These traits are further represented in direct images within the novel. Pearl, one of the more complex characters, is represented with imagery of nature because both are free and removed from society. Through the imagery of the sunlight, the forest, and the brook, Hawthorne reveals the complexities of Pearl’s character.
Sunlight symbolizes purity, truth, and goodness. Pearl is represented by the imagery of sunlight because she too possesses these traits. Pearl is raised on the outskirts of town, which initially separates her from the rest of the Puritan society. Upon her arrival to the governor’s mansion she “began to…dance and…required that the whole breadth of sunshine should be stripped off its front, and given to her to play with” (Hawthorne 71). Not only, at age three, does the sun shine on Pearl, but she craves its warmth because her intuition tells her that it is representative of good. This shows further how she is set apart from the rest of the Puritan society. Pearl continues to defy the Puritan society by being dressed in flashy garments by her mother. They all live in a gray world with extreme beliefs and limitations while she is free and can do what she pleases. Another way that Pearl is pure is, even though she was born from a sin, she is innocent because she was given to Hester from God and she had no way of controlling her mother. Hawthorne continues to illuminate Pearl’s purity by casting the sunlight upon her when she is in the forest with Hester. Pearl “did catch the sunshine, and stood laughing in the midst of it all”, but as Hester approached and tried to touch it with Pearl, “the sunshine vanished” (Hawthorne 126). Hester cannot touch the sun because she is bearing the secret of her sin, while Pearl can touch the sunshine because she has nothing to conceal.
Pearl can be compared to the forest similarly as she was to the sun. The forest symbolizes the uncut and untamed side of human nature, as does Pearl; which is why the two go hand-in-hand. When Dimmesdale arrives, Hester sends Pearl away to play. During Pearl’s time alone she “[becomes] the playmate” of the forest which “put[s] on the kindest of its moods to welcome her” (Hawthorne 140). At one point, “A wolf…offer[s] his savage head to be patted by her hand” (Hawthorne 140). This occurred because “The mother-forest…recognized a kindred wildness in the human child” (Hawthorne 140). The forest comforts Pearl and treats her as if she is one of its own to show how they are connected. They are both unique creatures that cannot easily be controlled or understood. Hester believes, at times, that Pearl is a demon offspring, when in actuality she is only acting true to herself. This perplexes Hester because she cannot understand why Pearl is unlike the other Puritan children. She is in fact more aligned with the ways of the forest because “she was gentler here than in the grassy-margined streets of the settlement” (Hawthorne). The
Show More

Related Documents: Scarlet Letter essay

Essay on scarlet letter

The Scarlet letter essay We have all been in troubling times in our lives some worse then others. Life is like a roller coaster it has it's ups and downs and if you've said you haven't had any bad times you probably lying well, In this story there is a girl who puts up with a lot of negativity in a town having a guilt trip put on her and this story is called The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne uses the character Hester to illustrate that guilt impacts humans mentally and physically…

Words 534 - Pages 3

Scarlet Letter Essay

Joana Leung 3̊ Harper The Scarlet Letter Essay 10.13.2012 Hawthorne portrays Hester’s sin of adultery as less critical to emphasize the hypocrisy of the Puritan society. For instance, the Puritans claim to put their faith into the Bible; however, they do not follow the moral codes they advocate themselves. Likewise, Hester’s sin of committing adultery is taken more severely than Chillingworth’s search for revenge. Furthermore, Dimmesdale, the most hypocritical…

Words 866 - Pages 4

Scarlet letter essay

Izaiah Butler Mrs.Go Ap English Language and Composition 10/19/14 The Scarlet Letter Essay Is It a Feminist Novel ? A large theme in Nathanial Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter is feminism. Feminism is simply a woman’s role in society. Hawthorne’s characterization of Hester as a weak woman who obeyed the wishes of a patriarchal society illustrates his anti­feminist views. Anti­ feminist views are views is the ideology that is broadly defined as an opposition to feminism or some aspect of feminism…

Words 758 - Pages 4

Scarlet Letter Essays

The Scarlet Letter Essay Throughout the story, three main characters were analyzed. These characters were Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. The way in which Hawthorne had written The Scarlet Letter, was through using symbolic nature to personify what the character actually represented. He made sure to add intricate details throughout the story, describing every aspect of the character. From personality to looks to actions and anything that made up the character, was shown with the smallest…

Words 1053 - Pages 5

Heroes in the Scarlet Letter Essay

Jessica Gee 11/1/12 English 11 The Scarlet Letter: Essay 1 In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many heroes. Many acts of courage and loyalty were done in the novel, and there are four main people who I think are the heroes in the story. Hester Prynne is the main hero since she is so loyal and Dimmesdale is a hero for his because of his bravery. Lastly, Chillingworth is the tragic hero of the story in my opinion. The villain to me was the Puritan society as a whole. All of…

Words 806 - Pages 4

SCARLET LETTER - Feminism Essay

Victoria Marchlewski English 10 H Period 5 The Scarlet Letter ­ Final Test (Essay) #6 Often in literature, women are portrayed as weak or evil. Eve caused original sin, Miss Havisham, from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations , hated men because of heartbreak, and Cruella de Vil planned to murder dogs for their coats. However, in The Scarlet Letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the role of a woman in a different light. Hester Prynne, the main character, makes her own decisions without causing her community to fall apart…

Words 1047 - Pages 5

The Scarlet Letter Analysis Essay

Reading Essay: AP US History Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a perfect example of cruel, harsh, and unreasonable punishment for the breaking of one law based off of religious background in government. Hester, the main character, is punished for her crime of adultery and it’s discovered that religion in this colonial time highly influenced resident behavior, punishment, and daily life. Our story’s protagonist, Hester Prynne, gives the book its title by being the wearer scarlet letter, a…

Words 1145 - Pages 5

Scarlet Letter Analysis Essay

in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. After the death of his father due to the Yellow Fever epidemic, he was raised with his two sisters by a single mother. As a writer, Hawthorne produced many pieces including House of Seven Gables. However, The Scarlet Letter, written near the end of his career, is thought to be his Magnum Opus. In relation to the novel, Hawthorne not only lived in the same general area as his characters, but also under many of the same circumstances. His upbringing by a single…

Words 1326 - Pages 6

Scarlet Letter Experiment Essay

Scarlet letter experiment essay In the scarlet letter Hester has to wear an A on the front of her shirt to show that she has committed adultery. Back in her day they had a lot of different ways of punishing people for the crimes they did. Some times they would hang the people on a scaffold to embarrass them in front of the town. Some times they would even chop their head off in front of the whole town if the crime they did were super bad. I chose the letter T. I colored it and placed it on the…

Words 397 - Pages 2

Scarlet Letter Essay

"No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a fabulous book, in which he titled “The Scarlet Letter.” Many problems were told of, but the main one being the crime of adultery. The woman, Hester Prynne, who committed the crime is said to be the protagonist of the novel. Though there have been many debates on who the antagonist is of the book, there is only one…

Words 741 - Pages 3