A Mothers Angel

How would you feel if you were judged by what someone else did in their past? In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pearl is classified by her mother’s indiscretions. She is said to be a demonic spirit, the embodiment of sin, and will retain these accusations until she and her mother’s story is long forgotten. The very moment Pearl takes her first breath, she is considered an outcast by being the result of Hester’s sin. As one might assume, hearing people call you a demon and evil since the day you were born affects a child’s development. Pearl grew up hardened and tougher than a normal child would; she knows her mother and she are unwanted and unimportant to their society. With that knowledge she learns to not sit back and take whatever the townspeople decide to put upon her, unlike Hester who stays quiet with her head down. Pearl is an ornery, intelligent child who sees the effects the punishment of her sin are having on her. Being a child, she is rambunctious and a nuisance at times but she, in her own way, is actually a savior to Hester.

To the townspeople, Pearl is the embodiment of sin. She is a demon in a beautiful child’s body. Her very essence is considered brought from the fiery depths of hell and put upon Earth to torment Hester by reminding her of her sin unrelentingly. Pearl is seen as a tormentor to Hester because of her actions.

“If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of witch’s anathemas in some unknown tongue” (Hawthorne 86).

Pearls behavior towards the children in town was viewed as the result of the terrible upbringing by Hester and the evil the sin had wrought on the child. Her actions make Hester believe she really is a wicked spirit put in Earth to punish her in ways the scarlet letter cannot. This is partially illustrated when they are on their way to Governor Bellingham’s house and Pearl points at a suit of armor.

“…the Scarlet Letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it. Pearl pointed upward, also, at a similar picture in the headpiece; smiling at her mother, with the elvish intelligence that was so familiar an expression on her small physiognomy” (Hawthorne 98).

Pearl repeatedly brings attention to the letter Hester bears, knowing what the acknowledgment does to her. When she does this Hester is reminded of her sin and the pain retakes her heart as she lives through the sin once again. With devilish glee Pearl centers around what she knows will hurt her mother. However,Pearls transgressions are not how we are suppose to define her. People are so much more than their actions.

When a person acts on something they have a reason, an emotion, that drives them to make the decisions they do. Pearl cannot be defined by her negative attributes without first taking into account how she helps keep Hester on her feet. Her mother named her Pearl, describing her as, “her mother’s only treasure” putting forth the belief that God sent Pearl to Hester to save her. She is Hester’s one bright spot in her empty life, sent from Heaven to protect and anchor her mother to the ground (Hawthorne 82). In chapter six when describing Pearl the narrator states, “in the nature of the child seemed to be perpetuated those unquiet elements that had distracted Hester Prynne before Pearl’s birth, but had since begun to be soothed away by the softening influences of maternity”, this suggests Pearl has distracted Hester from the pain of her choices and the loss of her love (Hawthorne 87). She gives Hester a kind of stability she needs to rely on and is a companion in her days of confinement. Similarly, when Hester is granted custody of Pearl, Mistress Hibbins invites her to the forest but Hester turns her down with:

“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 mine own blood!” (Hawthorne 108)

Mothering Pearl has kept Hester from further punishment by not allowing her the chance to sin. Had she lost Pearl and gone into the forest, Hester would have sinned by praising the Devil and been tried and sentenced to death for witchcraft.

Pearl is a character that generates mixed emotions throughout the novel and is an indescribable force that holds Hester steady. She is not simply a ‘demonic spirit’ but a child who comprehends the unfairness of the world and her place in it. She knows what she believes in and speaks out against the town on her and her mother’s behalf because she knows that Hester will not. Pearl is strong and does what she thinks should be done, she warns her mother and Dimmesdale of Chillingworth and denies her father rights to claim her if he does not do it publicly. Her stubbornness and sometimes coldheartedness are byproducts of the societal treatments that are in no way measureable to her, whether unintentional or not, ways of saving Hester. As opposed to being the ‘embodiment of sin’ Pearl should be described as Hester’s guardian angel, saving her from her own demise.