Scarlet Letter :: essays research papers

In the Scarlet garner by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pearl gos as the &8220apple of promised land. She is tweak from the hands of god in heaven and sent to the mortal world as a baby &8220to make out its the violent letter&8217s hidden import (155), create Prynne and Dimmesdale to face their consequences. Pearl functions in the story on three levels as a real child, as a continuing symbol of Prynne and Dimmesdale&8217s adultery, and as an allegorical figure sent to torment the sinners and direct their actions. furbish up(prenominal) Dimmesdale can &8220ripen her into the woman she needs to become. Otherwise she will continually serve as a representation of their mistake.Pearl is the rose bush that is turn up outside of the prison door. Although, she brings happiness to Prynne, Pearl is covered with &8220thorns. When Mr. Wilson asks Pearl the hesitation of who made her, Pearl responds &8220that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door (95). She is a good child, an &8220infant&8230worthy to have been brought forth in Eden worthy to have been left there, to be the plaything of the angels (75), but she is a &8220born outcast of the infantile world&8230an imp of evil, emblem and crossway of sin (79). Her physical features did not show she is different she has perfect arms and legs and has a native grace with innocent beauty. She is magnificent when she is displayed in her exquisite robes as her natural beauty shown through such that there was a overlap of radiance near her. However, emotionally something is wrong with Pearl. If other children gather around her, she would feel the dislike from the other children, and would snatch up stones to throw at them, while screaming. In the &8220garden of the Puritan society, Pearl is the rose bush, while &8220the ugliest widows weeds of the garden were their Puritans&8217 children, whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmercifully (80 ). Prynne, the adulterous mother, feels the guilt of bringing Pearl into the world and is reluctant to discipline the child, because Pearl is Prynne&8217s &8220sole treasure, whom she had bought so dear, and who was all her world (78).Pearl also represents the living embodiment of the scarlet letter embroidered on Prynne&8217s clothing. She &8220was the scarlet letter in some other form the scarlet letter endowed with life (86).