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Pearl is the daughter Hester gives birth to. Ever since birth she has recognized her mother for the scarlet letter she bears on her bosom. Everyone says she is the Scarlet Letter itself and was sent by the devil. Pearl is very energetic and sometimes malicious.…
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Hester was sentenced for committing adultery back in the late 1640’s and forever punished to wear the scarlet letter on her chest. As a result of her sin, she gained a daughter; Her name is Pearl. Hester has committed adultery and sinned, but they should not remove Pearl from her mother. Furthermore, Hester should keep Pearl because, Hester’s punishment has already been served, she is a constant reminder of her sin, and after all, Pearl is all Hester has.…
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The Scarlet Letter, a beautifully embroidered “A” that represented sin and now ability, was constantly the focus of Pearl’s eyes. While Hester has an encounter with Roger Chillingworth, she tells Pearl to go play while she speaks with him. Pearl gets distracted by all of the elements of nature as she entertains herself. “Pearl took some eelgrass, and imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s. A letter--the letter A--but freshly green, instead of scarlet!” Since she does this, she will not stop pestering Hester about what the “A” actually means. Ironically, She later makes the connection of Hesters “A”, and Reverend Dimmesdale always holding his chest.…
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Pearl’s isolation and her reliance upon her mother has led to her not being able to form relationships between other people. In the story, Pearl is conceived by the unfortunate crime of adultery. She is isolated from everyone but her mother, Hester. Hester is the only person Pearl interacts with in a loving way throughout the story. Pearl is very protective of Hester; when the children were making fun of Hester Pear, “. . . snatching up stones and fling at them, (Hawthorne 64).” This shows how she stands up for her mother and only her mother. Because of Hester committing adultery, Pearl is seen as a product of sin and not a single towns person will like Pearl because of their compliance to their faith. Pearl is described by the townspeople…
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She is the result of Dimmesdale and Hester's love for each other. Because of Hester's crime, Pearl is also discriminated because of her mother. "Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and of a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!"(Hawthorne 112). This quote explains how the Puritan children felt about Hester and Pearl. They wanted to fling mud at them because these children were probably told to hate them, and also of the crime Hester committed. Pearl is also considered a wild child, and very untamed and very unlike Puritan children."The child shall be well cared for!far better than tho canst do for it."(Hawthorne 124). And "The discipline of the family in those days, was of a far more rigid kind than now....Hester Prynne, nevertheless, the loving mother of this one child, ran little risk of erring on the side of undue severity. Mindful, however, of her own errors and misfortunes, she early sought to impose a tender, but strict control over the infant immortality that was committed to her charge. But the task was beyond her skill. After testing both smiles and frowns, and proving that neither mode of treatment possessed any calculable influence, Hester was ultimately compelled to stand aside and permit the child to be swayed by her own impulses." (Hawthorne 100). This quote explains how unlike Puritan child Pearl is, and how's she's offended. Pearl is considered wild and has no rules to follow, because Hester hasn't disciplined her. Because of this, the Townspeople want to give Pearl away to someone who's a better parent. Hester's sin has affected Pearl because she isn't treated with respect and she's considered the result of Hester's sin. Pearl is also considered a wild child that must be…
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When describing Pearl, Hester says, “God gave her into my keeping. … I will not give her up!” (Hawthorne 90). These quotes show that Hester really cares about Pearl and wants to keep her and be a good mother to her. Maybe even have a family with her, Pearl and Dimmesdale.…
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Hester and Pearl are seen in their own separate pools of light in the forest, a symbolic separation of mother and daughter. Hester plans to run away from her sin, but Pearl serves as a reminder that she can never really flee without repentance. She has to admit and face her sins head on, or they will always be following her in the darkness. Hester puts the A back on, and is overcome with a feeling of dread and regret. However, Pearl responds gleefully,”Now thou art my mother indeed! And I am thy little Pearl!” She does not truly recognize Hester without the A. Truthfully, the A was always with her, even when she was not wearing it. The A, and Pearl, are currently a physical representation of her…
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Pearl was dressed in a crimson velvet tunic sewn with gold thread when she visited the governor’s mansion. “But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and, indeed, of the child’s whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevitable reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom.” (98) Hester is making a statement by dressing Pearl this way that her sin and love are connected. Although Hester is ashamed of the scarlet letter, she earned out of loving another person, and she doesn’t regret that. Hester has the same contradictory feelings towards Pearl, she is a constant reminder of her sin, but she is beautiful and a source of happiness in her life.…
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During Hesters public punishment for the adultry she commits, the scarlet letter along with Pearl both prove to present shame in Hester for her actions. "She turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter ... to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real" (41). Everytime Hester looks at her daughter, she is tortured by the shame she endures for her sin even many years later. Not only does Pearl provide as a symbol of sin in public but also when both Pearl and Hester are alone. Pearl continusously points at the letter A harassingly asking questions about it while making a game of it by throwing rocks at her mother's chest. When Pearl and her mother are in a field, Pearl asks " " which indicats Pearl is wanting her mother to live up to the sin shes committed. Hester renforces the idea that Pearl is the scarlet letter in flesh when Hester confesses to the pious community leaders that Pearl "is my happiness! - she is my torture...See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million-fold the power of retribution for my sin." (Hawthorne 100) In this passage, Hawthorne is describing the power the lasting effect Hester's sin has has on her life as well as the shame that she now embodies as a result of her…
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In chapter 8, Dimmesdale, Mr. Wilson, and Governor Bellingham are visited by Hester and Pearl at the Governor’s mansion. When pearl is asked “who made thee?”, she responds that she was not made, but rather "plucked . . . off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door.". This causes the governor and Mr. Wilson to immediately become horrified and ready to take Pearl from Hester’s custody. As Pearl protests her God given right for Pearls custody, she pleads that Dimmesdale speak for her. Dimmesdale uses religious appeal to convince the governor and Mr. Wilson that God gave Pearl to Hester and it is not their right to take the child away. He says that God gave Pearl to Hester as both “a blessing and a reminder of her sin”, which is the leading argument that convinces Bellingham and Mr. Wilson to leave Pearl in Hester’s custody. Dimmesdale uses a religious allusion in chapter 8 to convince them that they should leave Pearl to Hester’s custody and he is indeed successful in doing so. By Dimmesdale sticking up for Hester so easily and powerfully, it reveals that he has deep feelings for her and he is in some way responsible for he sin.…
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When Hester returns to Boston, she is still wearing the letter. People don’t believe their eyes. This is because Hester is not accompanied by Pearl. Pearl directly represents that letter and the end of the novel proves it. It has grown with Pearl and changed her too. As Wagenkenecht quotes John A. Andola in Characters in The Scarlet Letter, “‘Without her mother’s sin Pearl could not exist, nor could she exist without her mother’s love, both of which are symbolized in the scarlet A and in Pearl herself.’” (69) The ultimate symbolism in The Scarlet Letter is that Pearl is the scarlet A.…
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In Hester's mind, everything she did and everything she has to suffer, by wearing an ‘A’ all the time and the townspeople constantly talking about her, is worth it just for Pearl. Hester has loved Pearl unconditionally since the day she was born, and she does not care that Pearl was the outcome of a sin, she is her daughter and there is nothing better than to have Pearl with her at all times. Hester says “She is my happiness!... Pearl keeps me here in life!” (Hawthorne, 104). Pearl was everything for Hester. She gave Hester a reason to live and a reason to move on with her life. Hester loves Pearl no matter what. Her sin is not Pearl and she does not relate Pearl to a sin in any way. Hester actually sees Pearl as a blessing, rather than as a sin. Pearl encourages Hester to be a better person. Hester is always trying to be better in order for Pearl to be better when she grows up. For example, Mistress Hibbins once invited Hester to do witchcraft, but she rejected the offer for the good of Pearl and because she needed to be with Pearl. Hester could’ve gone with Mistress Hibbins to do witchcraft and act silly, but her duty as a mother was more important. It was more important for Hester to be a good example for her daughter, than to go crazy with her…
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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel set in the mid-seventeenth century, which tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who commits a sin in her home in Boston. With a child in her arms from another man who is not her husband, Hester is obligated to wear a scarlet ‘A’ (which stands for adultery) on her chest. As part of her sentence, she is locked up in prison with her daughter Peal, until she confesses who the child’s father is. As she refuses to name him, she is forced to stand in the town’s pillory for a few hours while being tormented by the civilians’ frightful comments. In most of The Scarlet Letter, Hester is haunted by her sinful act, since the town people use her as an example. However, Dimmesdale, Pearl’s father, also suffers with this situation, even though his identity as Pearl’s father is unknown, his lie lives with him and as the novel progresses, Hester gradually begins to be accepted in society, while Dimmesdale’s life becomes worse.…
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In the ancient times of our world, two very powerful empire/dynasties arose. Han china and Imperial Rome came to be two of the biggest empires that the ancient world had ever known. Both areas conquered vast areas of the eastern hemisphere, however their techniques differed. Although Han China and Imperial Rome were similar in that they both had strong militaries, ultimately they are more different because of political structure and economic abilities.…
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The Scarlet Letter is a story that characters have to live and deal with the effects of sin in different ways. Of all the characters in the book, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is the character represented as the most weak. He is a much stronger guy than he is given credit for. The amount of control he has over handling and dealing with burdens is out of this world.…
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