She frightens the children off and she throws rocks at them. “ She resembled, in her fierce pursuit of them, an infant pestilence—the scarlet fever, or some such half-fledged angle of judgment—whose mission was to punish the sins of the rising generation…The victory accomplished, Pearl returned quietly to her mother, and looked up, smiling, into her face.”(chpt. 7) Pearl doesn't know why the children are making fun of her and her mother. However, her immense love for her mother leads her to turn into this fierce character in order to protect
Hester could have just gave up Pearl because she felt all alone in life and like an outcast but she begged and pleaded because she felt that she had the right to keep her and she was going to defend the right to the death of her. Hester cries “god gave me my child, he gave her to me as compensation that you have taking from me Pearl punishes me to…” in chapter 8. Hester has a good heart and that she would take well care of Pearl. No other person could understand a childlike Pearl and doesn’t have that relationship between her and her
While Dimmsdale had his congregation and duty to God to follow His word. Both sides of the relationship are shown through Pearl. She has an extreme habit of being disobedient to her father and her mother, something that both Hester and Dimmsdale composed when they were disobedient to God, but she is also beautiful and loving just like the passion that her mother and father felt for each other. Pearl, is a highly ambiguous character in The Scarlet Letter. She is not only a disobedient and untamed elf, but also a beautiful, flower like child.
Hester worked hard to get the towns people to respect her, the little bit they do by making clothes for the whole town except for brides because they were thought to be pure. Hester tried her best to raise Pearl up right but not be too strict because the town’s children were already hard on her for what Hester had done. Hester walks through the town with no guilt or shame as if she has pride to show the towns people that she takes the punishment that she deserved without any regrets.
Hawthorne allows the reader to discover how great the puritans were. For example, “Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. On the outskirts of town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage… In this little, lonesome dwelling, with some slender means that she possessed, and by the license of magistrates, who still kept and inquisitorial watch over her…” This just proves to the audience that Hawthorne uses his language to express his love for the puritans because Hester had to learn her lesson by being embarrassed in public by everyone and anyone, which would cause her to leave their society and move somewhere else. But instead Hester stayed and had to deal with the punishment but on top of that had to be basically what we would say “shunned” by society as a whole. She had to move away with her child, Pearl to someone’s abandoned house and live in loneliness with her child.
Many people assume that children do not know anything and are generally immature. Hester’s daughter, Pearl, did not fall into this assumption. Her over-maturity made her an important character in the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Throughout the novel, readers come across the story of Hester Prynne; a young woman in a Puritan town that had been caught having committed an adulterous act with the town’s minister, thus conceiving her daughter, Pearl. After being caught and having been forced to wear a scarlet “A” representing her act of adultery, Hester tries to continue on with life along with her daughter, while being shunned by the townspeople of Boston, Massachusetts.
Chillingsworth tells Hester that he bears no ill will against her because he was foolish for sending her alone, but that he will find the father at all costs, which concerns Hester very much because she loves Dimmesdale. She argues with Chillingsworth that it is unjust for him to punish just one and not both but he won’t have it. Chillingsworth is bent solely on Dimmesdale and seeking revenge against the man who took his wife. The fact that even Hester argues for Dimmesdale’s life through all he made her go through alone makes the reader have the highest respect for Hester because of her
In the novel The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, author shows a young woman being punished for her sin of infidelity. While the whole towns continues to insult her and tease her, Hester does nothing but be haughty and strong for herself. It was the only way she can truly overcome her current situation. She was not going to let a town of walking hypocrites choose her faith. People deserve a second chance and need to be forgiven because no one has a survival guide to be a
She is a great example of integrity because she is sacrificing her personal image to improve her character and succumb to her virtues, which include supporting her family, the Christian faith, and her relationship with her mother and sister. Laura Schlessinger once said “Don’t worry so much about your self-esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward”. Ruth, in The Color of Water, exemplifies this quote because she completely disregards her own self-esteem.
It can destroy a person’s self esteem, community cohesion and even creates divisions in society. Racism has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations and legal codes. In addition, racism has been used as a powerful weapon encouraging fear and hatred of others in times of conflict and war. For this reason, during the Civil War, a huge presence of racism existed. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest shows the different types of racism present during the Civil War.