Hester Prynne's Guilt

Within Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, Sethe’s relationship to her daughters, Beloved and Denver, represents the true nature of a mother who is ridden with the burden of harming her child. In Nathanial Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, there is a similar relationship between Hester Prynne and her daughter Pearl. However, the basis of the guilt within Hester does not come from an action of harming her daughter but rather the adulterous action that resulted in the birth of Pearl. Within a certain scene Hester talks of Pearl stating, “She is my happiness! -She is my torture, nonetheless! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too!’” There is something riveting and unrelenting in the way a daughter can be a punishment for the guilt-ridden actions of her mother. In both the cases of Sethe and Hester they experience this punishment from their

This guilt causes her to isolate both herself and her daughter in an attempt to reconcile with what she has done. Not only does her guilt play a major role in why she isolates herself and her daughter, it also plays a major role in her daughter’s actions towards her. Hester’s guilt does not lead to her daughter’s somewhat cunning and almost evil spirit, but does however play a role in Pearl’s actions. At one instance in the Hawthorne’s novel, Pearl, of three years old went on to, “At the most inopportune moment… After putting her fingers in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson’s questions, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door,” (102). Pearl’s action of not pronouncing God as her father could lead to her being removed from her mother’s custody. This shows the effect of her mother’s action and character on Pearl’s own