Pearl’s Great Gift

In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is a baby named Pearl so complex that she is recognized by some as a beacon of change for the better in Hester’s life, and by some as a tampering force for Satan. Ultimately, though, her ability to do good for her mother outweighs the devilish ways that most toddlers possess. Pearl is an angel, as she fights both the literal and figurative devils in her mother, Hester’s, life.

In one instance within the book, Pearl saves her mother from the wrong path, leading her towards the godly way in the townspeople’s eyes. She does this in the most direct and literal way possible. Hester is approached by the “ill-omened” Mistress Hibbons, who makes Hester this offer: “Wilst thou go with us to-night? There will be a merry company in the forest; and I wellnigh promised the Black Man that comely Hester Prynne should make one” (Hawthorne 105) There are several indications of mal-intent in this proposition. First, it is made clear in a previous passage that Mistress Hibbons was later executed for witchcraft. This means that an invitation from her is inherently frowned upon by Puritan society, so if Hester was to accept this invitation it would be a sign of her heading down the wrong path. Second, in the invitation, Hibbons references “The Black Man.” The Black Man in this context is an alias for Satan, meaning that this definitely is an invitation for Hester to practice some kind of Devil worship or witchcraft. Hester responds to this by saying: “I must tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man’s book too, and that with my own blood!” (Hawthorne 105) This is quite literally Hester stating that if she had lost Pearl, she would have gone towards the most extreme path of evil. Without her daughter, Hester would have accepted  Hibbon’s invitation, and she would have even used her ‘own blood’ to sign herself over to Satan.

Pearl not only draws Hester away from the wrong path, she is also the direct cause of Hester making steps in the right direction. This is shown in the first given description of Pearl: “But she named the infant “Pearl” as being of great price,-purchased with all she had-her mother’s only treasure! How strange, indeed!” (Hawthorne 81) This is the first step towards redemption, showing Hester’s sacrifices for Pearl. Pearl is a form of rebirth for Hester, for she has lost everything because of this child and the events leading up to its birth; thus, Pearl leads to a sort of fresh start for Hester. While this may not exactly be a large step directly towards the right direction, there would be no way for Hester to redeem herself from her sin if she could not start anew. The second showcase of Pearl leading Hester towards redemption is when Dimmesdale makes this point directly: “She recognizes, believe me, the solemn miracle which God hath wrought, in the existence of this child. And she may feel, too,- what, methinks, is the very truth,- that this boon was meant, above all things else to keep the mother’s soul alive, and to preserve her from blacker depths of sin into which Satan might else have sought to plunge her!” (Hawthorne, 103)  Dimmesdale, a minister and therefore a perceived authority on the word of God, argued that God gave Hester the child so that Hester’s soul could focus on Pearl, a force for good, instead of moving more towards Satan. He thinks that if Hester is able to properly teach Pearl the ways of God, even if Hester is sinful, the amount of good she does for Pearl will ultimately redeem her. Therefore, Pearl leads to redemption from Hester’s sin.

Finally, Pearl is profound for her age, recognizing people’s intentions, biases, and having an overall solid sense of good and evil. The first example of this is when Pearl defends herself and Hester from the town’s children, after they verbally harass both Hester and Pearl: “ ‘Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter, and of a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!’ But Pearl, who was a dauntless child, after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush the knot of her enemies, and put them all to flight” (Hawthorne 92) The children in this excerpt are a representation of the townspeople’s biases as a whole. They are choosing to antagonize Hester and Pearl because they know the scarlet letter is a mark of sin. This is how the town acts towards sinners, except the kids add in some projectile mud. Pearl understands this and preemptively strikes back against the kids, protecting herself and her mother. The children are described as “sombre little urchins” (Hawthorne 92) and play beloved childhood games like “scourging Quakers, or taking scalpa in sham fights with Indians” (Hawthorne 84). These kids are brutal by nature, and Pearl getting at them first shows that not only does she understand their biases, she understands the way they “play”, and attacks them directly before they have a chance to do anything. This is a level of worldly understanding that is incredible for someone her age. This is shown again when she recognizes Chillingworth’s evil before even Dimmesdale does, and speaks out about it: “Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, mother, or he will catch you! But he cannot catch little Pearl!” (Hawthorne 121) This shows Pearl directly recognizing that Chillingworth is a force for evil, and that he is onto Dimmesdale already, by comparing Chillingworth to the Black Man as soon as she sees him. She also states that she knows that the forces of evil, or the Black Man, are after Hester, and also Pearl herself. 

To summarize, Pearl helps her mother by saving her from the wrong path, helping her forge a path of redemption, and using her profound sense of other’s behavior to recognize the forces of evil. Pearl is definitely an angel, as she fights the figurative forces of evil by acting as her mother’s rebirth, and the literal forces of evil in the forms of the children and Chillingworth.