A Scarlet Child's Human Nature

“A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men”, is a truth verbally expressed by Martin Tupper that is known as well accepted around the world. Tupper raised the question, if children are born as the link between angels and man, then why do we have some many devils in the world? Hawthorne answered this question in his novel, The Scarlet Letter, by demonstrating that children are born innocent and are innocent in all things until taught a different nature in which to live their lives. Hawthorne gives the paragon of innocent children being led away from their purity in the novel The Scarlet Letter by presenting the children as more perceptive and honest than the adults to emphasize the true nature of children.

Hawthorne introduces the concept of innocence being stripped away by presenting the fact that innocence can be anything, and take many forms or shapes. He tactfully illustrates the statement above when he writes, “Pearl’s aspect was imbued with a spell of infinite variety: in this one child there were many children, comprehending the full scope between the wild flower peasant-baby, and the pomp, in little, of an infant princess” (140).Most simplistically Hawthorne was telling any reader that Pearl, this beautiful scar in Puritan society, was as humble as a child that grew up in poverty while simultaneously possessing the grace and royal stature of a girl next in line to be queen. He makes Pearl’s versatility known so that the reader can make the connection with how she is perceived and how it affects her. Consequent of her having a child’s innocence, she has the potential to become anyone, until society, her parents, or he...

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...mation, Hawthorne presented the children as more perceptive and more honest than adults to emphasize the awkward stage children go through when their innocence is being taken from them. The children still posses these traits because the adults of society have been corrupted while the children maintain their purity. It’s essentially the same thing as when a child is naturally curious but as the child grows up they ask too many questions and then eventually become “rebellious” towards authority because that is what taught in their society or house-hold culture/environment. Ultimately, Hawthorne wanted Tupper, the world, and his readers to know that the reason why there are so many devils in the world even when children are the link between angels and men is because as children grow up religion and society corrupts them, “On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”(418).