What Does Pearl Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Symbolism Symbolism within the Minister’s black veil and the Scarlet Letter is rampant throughout. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses several physical objects as symbols for many things. The most obvious symbols being the Scarlet Letter and the Minister’s black veil itself.

Within The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses symbolism, “the use of symbols to represent ideas” (Bell 10), affluently. The amount of symbolism Hawthorne uses could lead some to believe that The Scarlet Letter is in fact an allegory. Nearly every object in Hawthorne’s novel is symbolic. Hawthorne uses everyday objects and places to symbolize many main themes, concepts, and ideas in the lives of Hester and Pearl as well as multiple other main characters.

The Puritan era in New England was inundated with an atmosphere of righteousness and judgment. This culture spurned those who strayed from its religious codes. In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses multiple symbols to bring a deeper meaning to the society, his characters, and to adultery. One of the motifs used comes as the character Pearl, the daughter of the two adulterers. Pearl has multiple descriptions; physically, she is “a lovely and immortal flower,” yet also “an airy sprite . . . as if she were hovering in the air and might vanish” (80, 83). She has a “wild, desperate, defiant mood” and is often referred to as a “flower,” a “bird,” and an “elf” (82, 80, 98, 87). Hawthorne uses Pearl’s multi-layered personality

It is a symbol of a place where one who is morally degraded goes, it is where the act of adultery was committed. However, it is also a symbol of natural innocence, where innocence is restored of little Pearl who is recognized as a child of nature, for she seems in complete harmony with natural elements there. According to him, Mistress Hibbins serves as a symbol of magic and witchcraft, for she has deals with the black man; she is in good terms with the black man (the devil). She seems to read the subconscious of both Dimmesdale and Hester. Furthermore, he states that the brook in the forest is also a symbol.

Pearl is symbolic of nature, exemplified by her birdlike movements and her wild spirit. Since nature represents God, Pearl is essentially bringing her parents closer to God, and therefore absolving them of their sin. She reminds Hester to repent when she “took some eel-grass, and imitated, as best as she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s” (161). Since green represents nature and God, Pearl aids Hester in realizing that in order to be closer to God and salvation, she must accept her sin. Although on a macrocosmic scale Pearl is symbolic of nature, in the scene on the beach she symbolizes the little gray bird from the sea. She pelts the seabirds with pebbles, but stops “because it grieved her to have done harm to a little being that was as wild as the sea-breeze, or as wild as Pearl herself” (160). The gray bird has a white breast, illustrating that although Pearl’s behavior is shady, her intentions are pure. In addition, by representing a bird, Pearl “flies” between Heaven and Earth, becoming Hester’s path to

One object could have a million different meanings depending on the perspective of a person and their views on the subject. The Scarlet Letter includes many instances of symbolism. One of the many symbols represented in The Scarlet Letter is water. Water is more than just a liquid. It reflects and reveals.

Webster defined "symbol" with these words: "Something concrete that represents or suggests another thing that cannot in itself be pictured." This concept has been particularly applied to literature and used by writers throughout history. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter uses multitudes of symbols in such a manner. One of the most prominent, and most complicated, of such symbols is the scarlet letter "A". The scarlet letter "A" is a symbol of a daughter's connection to her mother, isolation, and the devil and its associations.

There are many symbols in the Scarlet Letter, but three symbols that really stand out are the scarlet letter itself, Pearl, and the rose outside the prison door. They stand out because they each have their own interesting story behind them and how the author, Nathaniel Hawthorn, used them to symbolize different things throughout the book is unique. Pearl is a symbol of how public sin can set one apart. She is looked at as different than the other children. None of the other children wanted to play with Pearl, because they didn’t like the fact that her mother was Hester Prynne or that she was born outside of wedlock.

In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolism enhances meaning of the plot through the different functions of Pearl’s character. First, Pearl symbolizes the natural result of her parents’ sin. Pearl’s description in chapter 6 tells a lot about her character. “The child could not be made amenable to rules. In giving her existence, a great law had been broken; and the result was a being, whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder” (62). Later in the next chapter, Pearl is described as “the unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment” (69). Another way Pearl symbolizes the natural result of her parents’ sin is through her connection to nature. During the forest scene when Hester and Dimmesdale plot their getaway, Pearl follows the river, listening to its song and signing along (129). As she walks through the forest, Pearl communes with nature as a fellow “playmate of the lonely infant” (140-41). Since Pearl is the result of an unrestrained act of nature, she becomes one with nature around her.

Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense. A symbol can take different forms and can mean a lot of different things. In the Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the scarlet letter “A” is used as a symbol to represent adultery and an inauspicious sin. This sin is so rare and so bad that the townspeople didn't even know what the scarlet letter A represented.

In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne characterizes Pearl with contrasting personalities and roles she plays in Hester’s life. Pearl’s conflicting personality components, innocence and defiance, both derive from her isolation from society, which transpired because of her mother’s sin. Pearl represents the conflict between everything good and dark, which reflects in the role she plays in Hester’s life, as the physical embodiment of the A. While Pearl serves as a savior to Hester, representing possible redemption, she is also Hester’s tormentor, a constant reminder of her sin, and the consequences of disobeying her Puritan nature and religion. Hawthorne’s intent is established in the novel through Pearl’s attachment to the A, the mirror

The Scarlet Letter has many forms of symbolism, and each play an important role in story development and the emphasization of the main idea. Having symbolism can emphasize a certain point of in a story that you want to make the reader understand better. In the novel The Scarlet Letter there are many symbols presented in the novel like the meteor in chapter twelve, Pearl, and the grass plot.

Symbols unlock the secrets of a story. Hawthorne, in The Scarlet Letter, uses many symbols to represent different things. Some symbols represent the same thing. The letter “A” has many meanings, each character has their own meanings, and even the different parts of nature are symbols. Also, apart from providing structure for the novel, each scaffold scene conveys something different. One could say, arguably, that nearly everything in The Scarlet Letter is a symbol for something else.

In The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is often regarded as a symbol to that of the suffering of Hester Prynne and the shamed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale but Pearls significance is more than just symbolizing the sin committed by her parents. She in many ways represents the innocence that the puritan belief is regressing itself to have. Hawthorne constructs Pearl as an evolving symbol for Hester and Dimmsdale and her progression as a character is shown through that of the actions set forth by these characters. Since the inception of the act of adultery by Hester and Dimmesdale, Pearl is developed by sin but she is not conformed to sin and as a result symbolizing a release of sin. She is essentially the road from childhood to adulthood, innocence to innocence lost to finally understanding and accepting the card that we are all delved with and that’s life after sin.

The novel “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was published in the 1850s, and takes place in the Boston, Massachusetts area during the 17th Century when Puritans were the main population. Hester Prynne, is accused of committing adultery and is forced to wear a scarlet A against her chest and care for Pearl, Her daughter who is born from the tryst. In the beginning of the novel, both Pearl and the Letter are introduced at the same time aspressed against Hester’s chest. Though she chooses to hold the child close to her and the Letter is thrust upon her, Hawthorne shows the reader how determined she is to take these symbols of sin and integrate them into her life and create her own identity.