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Pearl's Dreary In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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A three month old baby and her estranged mother become the symbol for reverends and clergymen to point at and exploit as a lesson for those who think about committing a violation against the church and law. In the novel the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pearl and Hester Prynne live their dreary life in Boston, Massachusetts, portrayed as the embodiment of sin and wrongdoing because Pearl was not conceived under wedlock and her mother committed adultery on her thought-to-be-dead husband. For seven prolonged years, the two live in a world of shame and despair brought on by the constant ridicule of the town. The town, all the while, has no knowledge that the father of the sin made child is the influential Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.
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The group of men that entered the room included Bellingham, Wilson, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale. As soon as they entered, they were being rude to Pearl by calling her a demon child. The men ask Hester why she should be allowed to keep Pearl and she responds by saying Pearl teaches her an important lesson about her shame. In order for the men to come to a better conclusion about what to do with Pearl and Hester, they quiz Pearl about religious topics. However, she barely responds and seems to dislike the men.

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According to Dictionary.com symbolism can be defined as, “the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character.” Nathaniel Hawthorne places many symbols in The Scarlet Letter, such as Pearl. In the novel, Pearl is known as a symbol of treasure for Hester, sin, and unusualness. In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne refers to the book of Matthew when he gives the name Pearl to the character.

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Pearl: The Good and Dark Side In the book The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is a woman that commits adultery. That brings a child into this world by the name of Pearl which is mysterious right up to the end of the book. Her mother is Hester Prynne and her Father remains a mystery until near the end where it is revealed it is Reverend Dimmesdale.

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The oxymoron of death and celebration often occurred in Puritan societies as Puritans viewed public punishment and executions as joyful entertainment. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne examines the concept of guilt and how it negatively affects the human soul. As he reveals a dark and gloomy Puritan society, Hawthorne introduces Hester Prynne, mother of young Pearl, who has recently committed adultery and is being publicly shamed for her punishment. Betwixt and hidden beneath this conflict, is Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester’s partner in crime, who struggles with the guilt of his sin. As the town begins to forgive Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale’s distraught soul causes his physical and mental health to decline.

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Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a brilliant spokesperson and a devout and wise Puritan minister in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is the lover of a woman who commits adultery, Hester Prynne. Hester, a recognizable adulteress, wears the scarlet letter and lives as an outcast. Contradicting, Reverend Dimmesdale’s sin stays hidden from the Puritan community, know only to Hester and himself. As a minister, Dimmesdale believes he should suffer from punishments the way Hester did for committing the same crime, which leads him to fall into a terrible mental and physical state.

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Avenging and vengeful is the man who is wronged! This statement could be applied to several characters throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Sinful acts are inflicted upon many of the minute cast of characters, which impose a riveting journey for the reader to endure. Even more so are the reactions these prominent characters have toward their anguish and adversities as they heave themselves into the depths of solitariness, self-inflicted agony, and woe. Among these richly intriguing personalities is the town’s sinful stain, Hester Prynne, who has committed adultery; the demon-child, Pearl, who was a product to her mother’s adultery; the unholy clergyman, Arthur Dimmesdale, the other adulterer; and the implacable Doctor, Roger Chillingworth.

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872 Words | 4 Pages

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne opens in a Puritan settlement, where Hester Prynne is being publicly shunned for adultery, in which she has to stand in front of a crowd for overt punishment and wear a scarlet ‘A’ on her chest. She holds her child, Pearl, who symbolizes her inability to hide her own past and her sins from the judgment of her settlement. The novel progresses in a way that further defines her mental strength and ability to endure this judgment. However, Arthur Dimmesdale, the town’s pastor, demonstrates a differing method in which he deals with his own personal judgment and fear of alienation. As The Scarlet Letter advances, his mental strength corrupts with the help of Chillingworth’s methods of trickery and Dimmesdale’s

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In Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale. From this union, a child is born, and so the story revolves around how the child grows up, and the conflicts Hester faces because of her actions. “With these words she advanced to the margin of the brook, took up the scarlet letter, and fastened it again into her bosom… Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses of her hair and confined them beneath her cap. As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed like fading sunshine, and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her.”

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The book “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a complex novel that has underlying themes of sin and the responsibility for sin. The novel takes place in a Puritanical society, but two people, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, fornicate with each other, even though Hester is married to someone else. Only Hester is punished, so Dimmesdale keeps his guilt inside, not revealing it to anyone. Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, then proceeds to ruin Hester’s partner in crime, corrupting his soul and being the ultimate cause for his death. Hester, on the other hand, leads a relatively happy life after she had repented for her sin.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter takes place in a Puritan town in the 1600’s. In his book Hester Prynne, who is the protagonist, commits adultery and out of it came a baby and a scarlet letter which she has to wear for the rest of her life. The person she committed adultery with was Reverend Dimmesdale, yet only Hester, Pearl (Her child), Roger Chillingworth

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385 Words | 2 Pages

One day, Hester goes with Pearl to Governor Bellingham's mansion to deliver embroidered gloves that he ordered. Hester is nervous because she has heard rumors that the town leaders think Pearl should be taken from her mother. Hester has a plan to beg for her daughter to stay with her. She dressed Pearl in an elaborate scarlet dress embroidered with gold thread and details, especially for the visit to the Governor’s mansion. On the way to the governor's mansion, two Puritan children see Hester and Pearl and say “Look, there is the woman with the scarlet letter, and a copy of the letter is running along next to her!

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683 Words | 3 Pages

The story dates back in the seventeenth century during the Puritan settlement in Boston. Deep in the darkest places of Boston, was a prison and a girl by the name of Hester Prynne, was soon to be led from the prison to the scaffold; with a baby girl in her arms along with the Scarlet letter “A” attach to her as a symbol for the sin of Adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale. Both of their sins had different and similar effects that may have changed the course of their life forever. Things being Hester being shamed in front of society while Arthur hid from society but one thing they had in common was their consequences created Pearl. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s

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748 Words | 3 Pages

The Symbolic Pearl Symbolism is a technique used by all writers, and The Scarlet Letter is no exception. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is full of symbolism. Actually Hawthorne is one of the most prolific symbolist in American literature. Characters, events, relationships, feelings, and even weather are part of or are symbolism. Pearl is a complicated symbol of an act of love and passion.

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494 Words | 2 Pages

In the classic novel, The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, is a very well written book and touches on many themes and subjects, including religious views, feminism views, and psychoanalytic states of the main characters. As an example of psychoanalytic states is present a lot in Hester Prynne’s life, is the birth of her daughter Pearl Prynne. Throughout the novel it is shown in her actions, her words, and her appearance. Hester Prynne is a young woman in a Puritan society, trapped by her desires, which turned her into a sinner, because she engaged in a secret affair and having a baby out of wedlock. This is the storyline of the entire novel, her sin and Dimmesdale’s sin and their child out of wedlock and the actions are defining them all throughout the novel.

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573 Words | 3 Pages

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is publicly shamed for committing adultery, but does not reveal the name of the father of her child. This child, Pearl, is frequently seen by many as a devil-child because of this, even though she has not committed any sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne's development of appearance versus reality through the treatment of Pearl reveals how one’s perception can be easily altered by social stigma. The Puritan society constantly eschews Pearl because of the fear that she will eventually emulate the sin she descends from.

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