What Does The Pearl Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

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Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter narrated the journey of a woman named Hester Prynne and the life the damsel in distress had to lead due to committing adultery. Hester had committed adultery with none other than Arthur Dimmesdale, a Puritan minister, and as a result, Hester gave birth to an illegitimate child named Pearl. Is there more to Pearl than what meets the eye? Pearl symbolized more than what the Puritan community describes her to be, the child of Satan. Pearl embodied the result of adultery that Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale have committed as well as someone who lost her fair share of happiness due to the circumstances in her life, Throughout the story, Pearl constantly reminded her mother of the sin she committed. As Pearl started to grow into the mischievous child …show more content…
Pearl symbolized her parent’s sin through her erratic behavior and apparent obsession with the scarlet letter on her mother’s bosom. Pearl was a little girl, but hard to understand. Even the Puritans couldn’t decipher the mystery behind the little girl that they accused of being the devil’s child. For example, in the book, whenever Puritan children attempted to gather around Pearl, “Pearl would grow positively terrible in the puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamation that made her mother tremble because they had so much the sound of a witch’s anathemas in some unknown tongue (Hawthorne 90-91).” Hester Prynne blames Pearl’s abnormal behavior on adultery. Pearl also seemed to have an affiliation with the letter that Hester was trying to comprehend. “One day, as her mother stooped over the cradle, the infant’s eyes had been caught by the glimmering of the gold embroidery about the letter; and, putting up her little hand, she grasped at it, smiling,

What Does The Pearl Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter narrated the journey of a woman named Hester Prynne and the life the damsel in distress had to lead due to committing adultery. Hester had committed adultery with none other than Arthur Dimmesdale, a Puritan minister, and as a result, Hester gave birth to an illegitimate child named Pearl. Is there more to Pearl than what meets the eye? Pearl symbolized more than what the Puritan community describes her to be, the child of Satan. Pearl embodied the result of…

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The Color Red In The Scarlet Letter

Allison Beranek Mrs. Moeller English 11 18 March 2016 Color and name symbolism In The Scarlet Letter, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes many colors and names to symbolize moods. In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses the color black to symbolize evil and sin. Hawthorne uses black to show the pain that Arthur Dimmesdale endured because of the sin that he had committed. Hawthorne also uses the color black to show a similarity between the black man and sin. The black man in the forest represents…

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Symbolism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Symbolism Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of America’s most important writers. Hawthorne wrote stories that probed the undiscovered mysteries of bringing a character’s experience to life. He used the roots from his background and Americas’ in the books he wrote. He changed his name by adding a W, because of his family history. Hawthorne's contribution to the evolution of modern literature. After twelve long years Hawthorne wrote a historical ground breaker called The Scarlet Letter.The…

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scarlet letter Essay

The Scarlet Letter LIT 331 Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a true American novel that dove into the complexities of Puritan and early American society; it was called The Scarlet Letter. In this novel it discussed the hard times of Hester Prynne, the main character as well as her secret lover Reverend Dimmesdale. The novel addresses their trials and tribulations of their love affair, their child Pearl and multiple symbols used to discuss identity of one’s self, along with the…

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Essay on The Scarlet Letter: Symbolism in the Forest

The Scarlet Letter: Symbolism in the Forest "The path strangled onward into the mystery of the primeval forest"(179). This sentence displays just one of the multiple personalities that the forest symbolizes in The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorn. As seen in the epic story Wizard of OZ, the forest represents a place of evil and delight, but in the Scarlet Letter the forest symbolizes much more then that. Each character brings out a different side of the forest, however the forest…

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What Does The Rosebush Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

authors to utilize extensive literary symbolism was Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne uses many instances of symbolism including that of the scarlet letter, Pearl, and the rose bush. The scarlet letter is perhaps the largest symbol, and the namesake, of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel; throughout the book, the letter has multiple…

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Sympathy In The Scarlet Letter

Surname 5 Name Professor Subject Date The Scarlet Letter This essay will take a defensive position on the assertion that people are not actually “humanized” or capable of sympathy until grief deeply touches them. Evidence will point out that people reactions to sympathy for others have to be emotionally induced, mostly by pain or unusual happenings and acts. Pearl is the daughter of Hester, and the book uses her as a symbol. She becomes an important character in the book through her ability to provoke…

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Light And Darkness In The Scarlet Letter

main ideas by giving them a symbolic meaning in a literal sense. Many great novels such as The Scarlet Letter use many great symbols to bring the story to life. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbols, such as Pearl, the scarlet letter, and the comparison of light and darkness to represent good and evil, as a way to show the corruption of the puritan lifestyle. Pearl in The Scarlet Letter…

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Essay on Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter 1 Hawthorne uses the setting in Chapter one to set the mood for the story in two ways. The first is that the prison embodies the unyielding severity of puritan law: old, rusted, yet strong with an "iron-clamped oaken door." Puritan law is coated, in this account, in the rust of tradition and obsolete purpose. But despite the evolution of its modern society, the laws have not kept up. As a result, the door remains tightly shut and iron-clamped presenting a judgmental and condemning…

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The Rose-Bush In The Scarlet Letter

the village prison: a heavily timbered oak door, studded with iron spikes. Why would an author associate something so harsh with something so beautiful? The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals the significance of many important symbols throughout the novel. The rose-bush by the prison door, Pearl, and Dimmesdale’s scarlet letter are three of the most concealed and essential symbols in the book. In the very beginning of the story, Hawthorne describes the prison door that Hester, the main…

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