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She’s Worth More Than A Diamond - Papers Online

She’s Worth More Than A Diamond

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 in Hester Prynne, a powerful Heroine in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. 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 peak of the story, Pearl is an empathetic and intelligent child. Throughout the story she absorbs the hidden emotions of her mother and magnifies them for all to see. Pearl is the essence of literary symbolism. She is at times a vehicle for Hawthorne to express the ...

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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 letter and it’s relation to Minister Dimmesdale. 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 conversation Pearl is impish and teasing, saying one thing and contradicting it soon after. She refuses to say just what she means, which makes it hard for Hester to give a straight answer. Hester is shocked that her playful daughter has lead their conversation to ...

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She’s Worth More Than A Diamond. (2004, November 10). Retrieved January 13, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Shes-Worth-More-Than-A-Diamond/17295

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 11/10/2004 07:53:36 PM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1149
Pages: 5

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