Imagine cheating on your significant other, having a child from that affair, and then proceeding to raise the child alone all while being shunned from the town and its people as a sinner. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, gives birth to a child as a result of her sin, adultery, and is faced with exactly this. Pearl, her daughter, is a very powerful presence in Hester’s life because she has the ability to control Hester’s emotions in both a p
ositive and negative light. The narrator of this story portrays Pearl’s character in two very contradictory ways: one as the living embodiment of sin and a punishment for Hester’s wrong doings, and the other the opposite, a will to live sent from the Heavenly Father to bring joy and light into her future. Nathaniel Hawthorne purposefully introduces both sides of Pearl in different circumstances throughout the book, but he emphasizes her dark qualities more frequently. Because Pearl’s sinister and wild qualities are so prevalent in most of the scenes in this book, she is a living embodiment of sin and “demon child” in Hester’s life.
From the very beginning of her existence, Pearl is portrayed in a negative manner. Pearl is the result of her mother’s tragic mistake, sleeping with a man who was not her husband. Although Pearl is innocent and has done no wrong herself, her physical existence, as the daughter of sinner Hester Prynne, has planted a permanent label on her very being. Pearl experiences treatment from the townspeople as though she has been “branded” with a scarlet letter of her own.
In contrast to this, Pearl has also been the very reason that Hester does not “be a merry company in the forest to the Black Man” (Hawthorne 66). Hester clearly states “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”, that if she did not have Pearl at home to care for, she would have joined Satan in the forest. Because “the Black Man” in this quote is referring to the Devil, Hester states that Pearl is the only thing standing between her and the dark side. This quote in particular demonstrates that Hester, at this point in time, sees Pearl as the one thing keeping her from the Satan.
Despite the evidence that supports the idea of Pearl being a savior for her mother, the majority of the language that Hawthorne uses to portray Pearl’s strange self suggests she is, in fact, more a sinner herself than she is a savior. In the chapter in which Pearl is introduced at length, the narrator describes Hester’s worry for the child: “she knew that her deed had been evil; she could have no faith, therefore that its results would be good” (Hawthorne 51). Hester fears that due to the severity of her sin, her child might just be God’s punishment for her. Later in the chapter Hester reveals that when she “passionately cries”, Pearl just scowls, shakes her fists at her and laughs as though she has no awareness or sympathy for another person’s pain and suffering. This stands out as a devilish quality in Pearl, and the idea of a mother being afraid of and mocked by her own child supports that. Hester expresses that her only real comfort is when her child “lay in the placidity of sleep”, showing the uncertainty Hester faces in regards to Pearl (Hawthorne 51).
Pearl, among other negative qualities, is a born outcast to the Puritan society. The narrator even uses the term “an imp of evil”, and “an emblem and product of sin” to show the broken connection between Pearl and the world into which she is born. As much as we may sympathize for Pearl’s inability to control her mother’s past, the child she becomes is an alarming one on many accounts. Pearl has a strange fascination with her mother’s scarlet letter and is often described playing and tormenting her mother with it. It is as though in these scenes a devil’s descendent has emerged from the “black mirror” in Pearl’s eyes, becoming her, and proceeding to haunt her mother’s current life. As the story progresses there are more and more significant instances where Pearl portrays this demonic character. In the scene where Chillingworth and Dimmesdale spot the women out the window, Pearl sees Chillingworth looking down at her and points and laughs as though she has this afore knowledge of his evil qualities and is praising them. In later chapters, in the scene where Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl create the “electric chain”, Pearl yanks her hand away from Dimmesdale’s grasp in a way that feels defiant to both her mother and Dimmesdale’s love for her. Pearl is basically killing him in her actions in this scene because her touch is what gives Dimmesdale life.
Throughout the story thus far, Hester has struggled with the imbalanced qualities in which Pearl possesses. Pearl drives the knife ever so deeply into Hester’s heart over and over again, but pulls back just enough that her true identity is not revealed. Pearl’s wild behavior suggests that of both an angel and the devil compiled into one, which gives Hester all the more reason to be constantly on edge. Pearl creates an unnerving atmosphere in most settings she appears in throughout this story. As she transforms from “angel baby” to “demon child” readers are exposed to the content of her wild character and the past that provides an explanation for it. As she grows and becomes more aware of the world around her, Hester only becomes more fearful of the person Pearl truly is, therefore causing readers to wonder who she will become.
I don’t love this paper. I didn’t really enjoy the Scarlet Letter not because of the story itself but because Nathaniel Hawthorne writes very intricately and I couldn’t always feel the story as much as I would have liked. Pearl was a very dynamic character and writing about the variation of her angel and demon like characteristics was hard to argue.
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