The Scarlet Letter A Look At Pearl — страница 2

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both committed the same sin, only Hester?s shines through. Pearl was cheerful due to the scarlet letter her mother possessed. When the breastplate at Governor Bellingham?s Mansion distorts the scarlet ?A? into something overpowering and horrible, it is Pearl who points at it, ?smiling at her mother with the elfish intelligence that was so familiar an expression on her small physiognomy? (Hawthorne 99). Even as a child, Pearl is affixed to the letter ?and, putting up her little hand, she grasped it, [the letter] smiling, not doubtfully, but with a decided gleam? (Hawthorne 90). Pearl?s tendency to focus on the scarlet letter is fully developed when she mimics her mother by placing a seaweed ?A? on her own chest. Much of Pearl?s strangeness comes from her exceptional quickness of

mind and the abnormal environment in which she is reared with only her mother as a companion. As Pearl develops a personality, she becomes symbolic of the kind of passion that accompanied Hester?s sin. Hester tolerated Pearl?s pretentious behavior but could not find it in her heart to condemn the child. As Pearl thus becomes so closely associated with the letter ?A? on Hester?s breast she becomes the embodiment not only of Hester?s sin but also of her conscience. Nature is an amusing hobby for Pearl; therefore one of her favorite activities is playing with flowers and trees. She fits in with natural things, ?and she was gentler here [the forest] then in the grassy margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother?s cottage? as Hawthorne notes in the novel (202). She is so

closely affiliated to nature that the creatures of the forest approach her instead of disperse. ?The mother-forest, and these wild things which it nourished, all recognized a kindred wildness in the human child? Hawthorne notes as Pearl is on a walk with her mother (202). However, the Puritans believed that anything affiliated with the forest was evil; therefore, Pearl defies their laws by being effervescent and joyful in the woods. Some of the Puritans even believe her to be a demon offspring. So unusual is her behavior that she is often referred to in such terms as ?elf child,? ?imp,? and ?airy sprite.? Pearl is a virtual shouting match between the Puritanical views and the Romantic ways. Pearl is a source of many kinds of symbolism. She is both a rose and indeed the scarlet

letter. If she had not been born, Hester would not have had to wear the letter. Pearl is a burden to Hester; yet Hester loves her. She is also her mother?s only treasure and her only source of survival. Without Pearl, Hester would have lived a different life, one without the scarlet letter, one without sin, and one without her treasure.