FREE ESSAY ON PEARL AS A SYMBOL IN THE SCARLET LETTER

PEARL AS A SYMBOL IN THE SCARLET LETTER

Pearl as a Powerful Symbol
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 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 detail into The Scarlet Letter without making the story
overly narrative. Pearl is the purest embodiment of literary symbolism. She is, at times,
a vehicle for Hawthorne to express the irrational and translucent qualities of Hester and
Dimmesdale's illicit bond, and at others a forceful reminder of her mother's sin. Pearl
Prynne is her mother's most precious possession and her only reason to live, but also a
priceless treasure purchased with her life. Pearl's strange beauty and deeply enigmatic
qualities make her an extremely powerful symbol. 
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 also as 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. After
Pearl had 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 reply. Hester is shocked that her playful
daughter has led their conversation to the topic of the scarlet letter, and even more
disturbed that she has assumed Hester's letter and Dimmesdale's habit of pressing his
hand to his heart branch from the same issue. Pearl, in bringing this forbidden and
painful subject about, unwittingly inflicts agony upon her hapless mother. Hester cannot
tell her daughter what has passed between the minister and herself. Pearl symbolizes a
hidden part of her mother that has not, and will never be exposed and therefore washed
free of sin. Pearl was always drawn to the "A", and seemed to twist the symbolic knife in
Hester's bosom every time she thought she was free of her weighty burden of sin by
flippantly reminding her of the letter and the meaning it bore.
Pearl is the only happiness in Hester Prynne's lonely life. Without a child to care for,
teach, and love, Hester would have long ago given her soul and life over to evil. When
town authorities, shocked at Pearl's apparent belief that she was plucked from a rose
bush and not created by God, recommend she be taken from Hester and placed in a school,
Hester responds 
"God gave me this child!...She is my happiness, she is my torture none the less! Pearl
keeps me here in life!...Ye shall not take her! I will die first!" Hester understands
that Pearl was God-given as a constant reminder of her sin, and that she is her only
requited love and a friend that does not judge her by things past. Later, Hester comments
that she would have "signed my name in the Black Man's book too, and that with mine own
blood!" if they had taken Pearl from her. Her daughter is her only earthly salvation, as
well as her only friend. Pearl is a blessing upon Hester in that her light-heartedness
and seeming innocence allow her mother to forget about her troubles. To see Pearl playing
on the beach and creating a fascinating world of her own is to allow Hester to
momentarily throw off the shackles imposed on her by Puritan society and be truly happy.

Another important symbol that makes up Pearl is her significance as Hester's only tie to
Minister Dimmesdale, her partner in adultery. Pearl is imbued with an unearthly knowledge
about the bond between her mother and the Minister. While this, in itself, frightens
Hester, Pearl is all that she has of Dimmesdale and she treasures the girl for that. She
is the one who repeatedly demands that he hold hands with Hester and herself in public
and recognize them. Of course, this is the only thing that Dimmesdale can do to save
himself from the misery of guilt, which only goes further to show that Pearl symbolizes
the deep bond between Hester and the Minister. 
The Scarlet Letter overflows with masterfully wrought symbolism and representation, but
Pearl Prynne is the purest and deepest symbol in the story. She was born not only out of
utter sin, but out of the deepest and most absolute love imaginable. She serves as a
messenger of God's salvation through pain, and as a symbol of all that is blissful and
content in Hester Prynne's life. In the end, it is Pearl who kisses Arthur Dimmesdale as
he lies dying on the scaffold, having admitted his sin. She breaks a spell that had lain
over them in adultery and herself, the product of their sin, completing her service as a
symbol of pain and hardship, but more importantly a symbol of love, salvation, and the
deep bond between two lovers condemned by the strict decorum of the Puritan days.