• Topic : Pearl as a symbol of punishment as well as blessing for Hester in “The scarlet Letter”

• Name : Urvi Bhatt • Paper Name: The American Literature• Paper No: 10• Sem : 3• Roll No: 31• Enrolment no: PG13101005• Submitted to: Department of English Maharaja

Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.

“ Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred.” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Symbol

• A symbol is something which is used to stand for something else.

• It’s a concrete object representing the scope and meaning.

Symbol can be

Moral

Religious

Philosophical

Guilt

• At the beginning of the novel, Hester has been living in Boston for two years and has been found guilty of bearing a girl child, Pearl, whose father’s name is unknown.

Punishment

• As a punishment for her sin, she is forced to wear a Scarlet “A” on her Bosom.

Characters are

symbolic

Hawthorne and his characters• The most revealed display of

Hawthorne's symbolism lies in his use of characters.

• In the novel each of his major characters symbolizes a certain view of sin and its effects on the human heart.

• Pearl can be called self-contained symbol-the most striking symbol that the author ever created.

Hester is woman with past memories:

Childhood in England

Marriage in Europe

Journey to America

Pearl is

Great Treasure

Sign of Hester’s shame

A Punishmen

t

a Blessing

Pearl

• Pearl reminds Hester of her transgression, of the act that has left Hester in her current state of alienation.

• Pearl’s ostracism by the community recalls Hester’s own feelings of exile.

Reminder

Pearl’s presence• Pearl’s presence

shows that out of sin comes treasure as a Lotus blossoms in mud.

Constantly makes

mischief

Passion and defiance

moodiness

Pearl has inherited Hester’s

Orthodox community• Pearl’s existence

highlights the insignificance of the community’s attempt at punishment.

• Pearl is a sign of a larger, more powerful order than that which community wants to assert.

Demon child • Once Hester in

frustration exclaims- “Child, what are thou?”

• Pearl is only 3 years old at this time so Hester wonders if Pearl might not be the demon-child as the townspeople believed.

Boon

“Pearl” Dimmesdale says, “came from God. And therefore must be intended as Hester’s companion.”

Observant

• Pearl connects the letter to Dimmesdale’s frequent habit of clutching his hand over his heart.

• Hester is unnerved by her daughter’s perceptiveness.

“Mother” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hide

itself because it is afraid of something on your

bosom…. It will not fear from me, for I wear

nothing on my bosom yet!”

Torment to Parents• Dimmesdale finally

confesses• Pearl according to

the narrator becomes “human”.

• Pearl has point to torment her parents to expose the truth as she was a flower born of their sin.

• Pearl made her mother to reassume her old identity.

• She asks Dimmesdale to publicly acknowledge his relationship to her mother.

Conclusion

“This child hath come from the hand of the almighty, to work in many ways upon her heart. It was meant for a blessing, for the one blessing of her life! It was meant, doubtless, for a reattribute too, a torture to be felt at many an unthough of moment, a pang, as sting, an ever-recurring agony in the midst of a troubled joy.”