Pearl: The Living Scarlet Letter

3 Pages 646 Words

Pearl is Hester Prynne’s daughter through adultery with the Reverend Dimmesdale. She grows up without knowing a father and is isolated from society, which views her as a demon child. Throughout the novel she remains a young child, and at the time of Dimmesdale’s death she is only seven years old. Nevertheless, she is perhaps the most thoughtful and perceptive of all of the characters of the book, and certainly the most truthful and inquisitive. At the same time, Pearl is a symbol of many things other than herself, and her role in the novel extends far beyond that of a static character.
Hester named her daughter Pearl because the child was her mother’s dearest treasure. She is as beautiful and physically flawless as her namesake, but hides an odd interior, much as a pearl hides a grain of sand. She has a sort of duality to her nature, being wicked and impish oftentimes but also (though rarely) extremely affectionate. Her mother regards the former behavior with uncertainty and fear, though she loves Pearl more than anything in the world. Pearl, in kind, unknowingly protects her mother from further sin even as she serves as a reminder of Hester’s ignominy (Chong 32). Pearl is a multi-dimensional character. She is both loved and feared by Hester, and is a necessary reminder of sin that unknowingly prevents further sin.
This role as the living embodiment of the scarlet letter itself seems at first to be Pearl’s sole purpose. “[Pearl] was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!” (Hawthorne 103). However, she simultaneously shows how insubstantial public judgment really is, by teaching Hester that the scarlet letter is neither important nor too heavy a burden to bear. Pearl is also significant of the futility of attempting to live up to the standards of others, as she is only indirectly affected by the constraints of society and yet still blossoms. Being free from such influence...