Pearl’s Significance In The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a compelling novel about the repercussions of guilt and “sin”. While this story takes place in a strict Puritan community, one can see the relation of Sigmund Freud theories of libido that can be compared to this novel because it discusses the passion that exists as a natural part of human nature which criticizes that community’s strict ways. Pearl, Hester’s child comes into the story at the very beginning; “a great law had been broken; and the result was a being, whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder.” (62). Pearl represents the innocence of the natural human desires. Hester named Pearl Pearl because she gave all she had for her and so she is of great value such as a pearl. I can make of Pearl’s character that she is overall unpredictable and very clever. Pearl also has important positive and negative characteristics. Pearl’s role in the story is to physically signify what the scarlet letter stands for. “Pearl was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life.” Pearl relationship to the scarlet letter is excessive throughout the story. At a point in the book when Hester disregarded the letter and took it off her chest in the forest, after living with it for seven years, she plans to leave the community with Dimmesdale and Pearl. When doing so she had also disregarded Pearl. Pearl had refused to come by her unless she put back on the scarlet letter. Pearl could barely recognize her mother without it. Pearl being curious repeatedly asks Hester “what does the ‘A’ mean and why does the minister hold his hand over his heart” (174). She is aware of her surroundings and this can be evidence of her exceptional intuitiveness for a child. Pearl has many genial characteristics such as being whimsical, intuitive, clever, and observant. Pearl’s greatest
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