What Is Pearl Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester’s child, Pearl, is a central character who helps the reader to understand the meaning of the letter. Because Pearl is compared to a rose bush, is described as being an “elf-child” (Hawthorne 111), and is as wild as nature itself, she is the alleged demon child; however, she has natural instincts that allow her to be seen as anything but the spawn of Satan.

Throughout the text, symbols are used to help describe and connect the reader to Pearl. From the very first chapter, a rose bush is used to describe someone or something that is beautiful or good on the outside, but pained, ugly or evil on the inside. “Pearl looked as beautiful as the day” (138) but acted as erratic as the wind. When Governor

Sunlight itself, which flees from Hester, “lingers around Pearl, as if glad of such a playmate” (192). Not only does Pearl radiate light, her actions as a young child are as sporadic as “the northern lights” (99). As she plays in the forest, she “never created a friend, but seemed always to be broadcasting the dragon’s teeth”(99). with the trees and weeds. “It was wonderful, the wast variety of forms into which she threw her intellect” (98). Later in the text, Pearl is seen making friends with “the great black forest” (213) which “put on the kindest of moods to welcome her”(213). She gathered berries and “was pleased with their wild flavor” (213) just as the whole forest in turn “recognized a kindred wildness in the human child”

Many children in the Puritan community treated Hester with as much heartlessness as Pearl treated anyone. Pearl had instincts that allow the reader to understand what side to be on (in a sense) before the characters were properly introduced. It is a fair claim that Chillingworth is not necessarily a good man. If Pearl was as bad as Chillingworth, would she have cried as she did when he entered the prison to distribute medicine? Instead of being drawn to Chillingworth, “twice in her little lifetime” (216), Pearl showed favor towards Dimmesdale. Although he was a sinner, she was drawn to him as a young girl is drawn to her father. Even some of Pearl’s more outgoing and atrocious acts could be forgiven under the circumstances for which they were committed. Pearl’s screaming and running after the Puritan children (106) may have been the only way she saw fit to protect herself and her mother from