Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Scarlet Letter- Pearl - Papers Online

Scarlet Letter- Pearl

Pearls have always held a great price to mankind, but no pearl had ever been earned at as high a cost to a person as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s powerful heroine Hester Prynne. Her daughter Pearl, born into a Puritan prison in more ways than one, is an enigmatic character serving entirely as a vehicle for symbolism. From her introduction as an infant on her mother’s scaffold of shame to the stormy zenith of the story, Pearl is an empathetic and improbably intelligent child. Throughout the story she absorbs the hidden emotions of her mother and magnifies them for all to see, and asks questions nothing but a child’s innocence permit her to ask, allowing Hawthorne to weave rich ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

and deeply enigmatic qualities make her the most powerful symbol some feel Hawthorne ever created.
The product of Hester’s sin and agony, Pearl was a painfully constant reminder of her mother’s violation of the Seventh Commandment: Thou shalt not commit adultery. Hester herself felt that Pearl was given to her not only as a blessing but a punishment worse than death or ignominy. She is tormented by her daughter’s childish teasing and endless questioning about the scarlet “A” and it’s relation to Minister Dimmesdale and his maladies. After Pearl has created a letter “A” on her own breast out of seaweed, she asks her mother:
But in good earnest, now, mother
dear, what does this scarlet letter
mean? -- and why dost thou wear
it on thy bosom? -- and why does
the minister keep his hand over
his heart?
In saying this Pearl implies that she knows much, much more about the scarlet letter than she lets on. Throughout the ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.

Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE:

APA
MLA
Chicago
Turabian

Scarlet Letter- Pearl. (2007, November 27). Retrieved November 20, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-Pearl/74937

"Scarlet Letter- Pearl." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 27 Nov. 2007. Web. 20 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-Pearl/74937>

"Scarlet Letter- Pearl." Essayworld.com. November 27, 2007. Accessed November 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-Pearl/74937.

JOIN NOW

Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays

PAPER DETAILS

Added: 11/27/2007 12:14:34 AM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1175
Pages: 5

Save |

Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS

Save and find your favorite essays easier