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Pearl Prynne, Is She Older Then She Seems Or Just An Elfish Child? See ye not, this is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million fold the power of retribution for my sin? (Hawthorne pg. 109) Critics have suggested that Pearl did not always act the way other children might have been known to and I agree with this. Using details from the book, and other resources, the following paragraphs will look further into Pearl s social behavior, different moods, and personal relationships with other characters. In The Scarlet Letter, Pearl had no childhood friends. She was born an outcast and even at an early age, seemed to know that she didn t fit in. One example of her maturity in society was If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them. (Hawthorne pg. 90) This action not only showed her defending herself but also protecting her mother.
Hester was the town gossip and the outcast as well as Pearl. Since birth, Pearl had sensed she was not supposed to fit in. When children talked to her, she would never talk back, but when she was picked on she wouldn t think twice to hold her ground. Not only was she wise in this way but very independent and strong. You can tell that Pearl was not always well behaved but quite clever.
When she was young, she had quite an imagination. After putting her fingers in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson s question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door. (Hawthorne pg. 108) She was only around three years old here and if you think of your average three year old, Pearl would be quite different by comparison. She might have thought of the Governor as a threat because it was said that she knew the lessons that Hester worked with her on. Not only were Pearl s actions different I out in public but so was her clothes. She did not dress in the normal Puritan attire but Pearl s first appearance in her tunic of crimson and gold. (Barrons Booknotes-AOL) She was the living, breathing scarlet letter and her mother dressed her as one.
As for Pearl s moods, she could be childlike one minute then seem wise the next. Her most childlike mood was elfish. When she played in the woods, she decorated herself in flowers like an elf princess. Our little Pearl is a fitful and fantastic little elf sometimes. (Hawthorne pg. 203) She could also show love but in different ways. Since, to her, the scarlet letter represented her mother she would kiss her mother lightly and then the letter, which Hester took as Pearl mocking her.
Pearl had many different relationships with the characters in the story. Hester Prynne was her mother. She named the Infant Pearl, as being of great price-purchased with all she had-her mother s only treasure! Hester thought of Pearl as not only her child but also her living scarlet letter. She made it that Pearl would seek a heavenly Father but Pearl had stated later on that she had no Heavenly Father and was plucked off a rosebush. Pearl associated the scarlet letter as a symbol of her mother and when Hester takes the letter off in the forest, Pearl refuses to cross the brook until the letter is back in place.
Arthur Dimmesdale was not only the man that saved Pearl from being taken from Hester but was also her father. Dimmesdale was afraid that people would recognize his features in her face, but he truly did love her. Pearl and Dimmesdale both rebelled against the Puritan society. He in a semi-controlled adult way, and she in her impish, chaotic child way. (Tanguay, Edward- Internet) Pearl also would not really show Dimmesdale much emotion because she warned him to hold her and her mothers hand in town but he kept putting it off to another day. When he tried to show her that he truly did love her, by kissing her forehead, she washed the kiss off in the brook. After his sermon, at the end of the survey, Dimmesdale did take their hands on the scaffold and professed that he was the father of Pearl and passed away.
Roger Chillingworth and Pearl did not have a very open relationship and Dimmesdale and she did. You can tell that pearl knew that Chillingworth was evil. Come away, Mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you!
He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away, Mother, or he will catch you! But he cannot catch little Pearl. (Hawthorne pg. 131) This shows that Pearl could see the evil in Chillingworth that others could not. The townspeople thought that Chillingworth was sent by a miracle since doctors were hard to find. Now you see how Pearl could be older then her age at times. Being an outcast most likely forced her to adapt to her different lifestyle.
Critics have suggested that Pearl did not always act like other children, and now you might be able to see it too. Pearl s behavior in society, different moods, and her personal relationships with other characters show just what a remarkable girl she was.
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Research essay sample on Scarlet Letter Heavenly Father
