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Scarlet Letter Pearl's Bond With Nature

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Though Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter two hundred years after the Puritan era, an insight into their community is still seen. Though some characters embody the Puritan era, others are the opposite. Pearl’s strong bond with nature connects her to Romanticism and individualistic spirit disconnects her from Puritanism, and Hester, like her daughter, does not reflect the Puritan era through her indulgence in clothing and emotional characteristics. Pearl’s bond with nature connects her to Romanticism. Pearl’s connection with nature is demonstrated when she is described to be as wild as a bird (Hawthorne 139). Pearl, through simile, is directly compared to nature, illustrating that like a bird, Pearl is unrestrained. Furthermore, she displays her connection when the forest “ recognize[s] a kindred wilderness in the human child” (Hawthorne 160). The personification of nature shows the close relationship Pearl has with the forest, which the Puritans disapprove of. This disapproval …show more content…

She illustrates this in her beautification of the scarlet letter (Hawthorne 44). Hester’s creation of the opulent letter is unnecessary, disconnecting her from the Puritan belief of simplicity. Furthermore, Hester expresses her indulgence in her creation of gratuitous baby clothing. These creations are so lavish that they would “raise a public tumult” (Hawthorne 203) in the Puritan community, since they value modesty. The abhorrence of extravagance is displayed in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Jonathan Edwards asserts that even kings, who have exuberant clothing and power, are not saved from God’s wrath (216). Edwards shows that clothing has no importance to God, so it is best to remain modest. Hester does give importance to the scarlet letter and baby clothes, so the Puritans disapprove of her. Ultimately, Hester’s creations separate her from the Puritan era, along with her emotional

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Sin in puritan times was not taken lightly. Ignominy was how sinners were punished, and in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne was no exception. She was publicly shamed, and forced to wear the letter “A” on her chest. Everything that was meant to be ugly in Hester’s life, turned into something beautiful.

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While reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is obvious that he uses a lot of symbolism throughout his writing to give the readers a deeper understanding of the Puritans and their views in these times. In this book, the community forces Hester Prynne to wear a scarlet letter on her chest to show her abashment for committing adultery and having a child, Pearl. However, Pearl is actually used as a symbol throughout this book to represent the physical embodiment of Hester’s sin, the repercussions of her breaking the law, and an unworldly being in the usual strict Puritan society. In the beginning of the book, Hawthorne uses Pearl as a way to constantly remind Hester of her sin and as a link between the secret relationship of Hester

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Stemming from the latin root, purity, the Puritans express everything except. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne intertwines juxtaposition and irony throughout the book; he emphasizes his prevailing hatred of the Puritans while also exposing their hypocrisy. Hawthorne beautifully juxtaposes his main character, Hester, with the common Puritan women. While anticipating the sinner’s release, the “broad shouldered” (59) and “man-like” (59) Puritan women are bombarded by Hawthorne’s pessimistic diction.

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We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.

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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne goes against the ideals of the Puritan community by using topics, such as: adultery, hypocrisy, and revenge. Hawthorne uses Hester’s life and the people in her life to showcase each of these subjects and how much they can affect someone’s life. First, Hawthorne goes against the community by using the scandal between Hester and Dimmesdale and their adultery in order to challenge their Puritan way of life. “‘I fear! I fear!

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Throughout the entire book, Pearl’s purpose as a symbol is reflected in Hawthorne’s immaculate writing. The people of the puritan

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In The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, clothing either reflects or masks a character's true identity. Hawthorne's depictions of clothing rewards those who show their true selves with beautiful and extravagant clothing, while those who mask it are draped in dark and unappealing rags. Puritan society is structured according to a powerful few, forcing many characters to hide their true feelings in fear of being shunned or exiled. Clothing is the unspoken language in puritan society, some characters fly their true colors without actually having to say a work, while others hide behind their drapes and follow their superiors. Hester was originally marked as a horrific sinner, but she altered her status in society on

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When Pearl looks at her mother’s reflection in a convex mirror, she claims to exclusively see the A: “the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it” (95). Hawthorne clearly illustrates how Pearl and the public choose to see Hester merely as her sin. Even numerous years later, Hawthorne suggest that the townspeople still cannot view Hester

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In chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne continues to portray the critical attitude Puritans had towards sins and repentance. Through the use of symbols, he exaggeratedly exposes how far a Puritan were to repent for their sins. From the moment Hester Prynne walks outside of the gate the women and men gathered immediately begin to gossip and badmouth her, besides not knowing anything about her other than the sin she committed. As she walks to the scaffold women begin to say her punishment of wearing an “A” is too light. They state that she can easily cover it, yet a woman rebuttals and says that she will forever “feel it in her heart” .To make things worse a woman goes as far as to say that she should be scalded with the

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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne used devilish characters and dark symbolism to criticize the strict Puritan society and it’s rules. The story begins in colonial Massachusetts where the Puritans herd around to observe the main protagonist’s humiliation, The protagonist, Hester Prynne, was accused of committing adultery, and for her punishment she must wear a scarlet colored letter A on her chest. She also must serve a prison sentence and stand on a scaffold to be humiliated in front of the harsh, judgemental Puritan community. Throughout the book, Hester and her illegitimate daughter, Pearl, are outcasted from the community but they learn to live with their circumstances. It is clear that characters are restricted by the Puritan guidelines,

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748 Words | 3 Pages

The author says, “But Pearl, who was a dauntless child, after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush at the knot of her enemies, and put them all to flight. ”(98-99) Pearl is evil to other kids, she tortures animals, she is a symbol of

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719 Words | 3 Pages

The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”

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“Pearl took some eelgrass, and … imitated, on her own bosom, the decoration… on her mother’s : A letter “A”, but freshly green, instead of scarlet!”, a quote pulled from Chapter 15, is another attempt by Hawthorne to convey the contrasting ideal of Pearl’s innocence and purity to Hester’s sin. The green of this imitated scarlet letter worn by Pearl is associated with nature and purity, while the scarlet of Hester’s original letter is typically associated with passion and

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936 Words | 4 Pages

In the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)

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