The Scarlet Letter: Pearl: A Gift Or A Curse

John White

Mrs. Edgar

The Scarlet Letter

October 10, 2014

Pearl: A Gift or a Curse?

In The Scarlet Letter, our characters are expressed as detailed and as expressive as they should. The children in the book are by far the most expressed and true. Ever since she was born, The Scarlet Letter defines Pearl as the symbol of Hesther’s crime. In other words, Pearl is considered Hester’s curse. She is the one who was blamed for all the trouble that our main characters came across. Readers tend to put down Pearl’s role in the novel. Actually, as contradicting as it may sound, I was one of those readers. However, now I believe that she deserves more credit than she gets. Though her imagination and her determination offer both as a gift and a curse

Hester Prynne now starts to live a non-social life and works from home by illustrating her broidery talent into works and clothing that she can sell. Her life suddenly turns to be lonely and almost completely miserable. Nevertheless, that all begins to change with the birth of her daughter. Hester’s gem is in the body of the tiny, little infant: “But she named the daughter ‘Pearl’, as being of great price—purchased with all she had—her mother’s only treasure!” (Hawthorne 41). The sad woman, Hester, commences to watch her delightful child grow each day; and each day she grows more beautiful, more intelligent than the last (Hawthorne 41). However, as we begin to see more of Pearl, it is obvious that the little gem has inherited all of Hester’s main characteristics: her moodiness, her passion, her defiance, and her constant mischief. Although Hesther sees Pearl as the best thing that has ever happened to her, she begins to worry about the little girl. This sparks the everlasting conflict between Pearl and the Puritan

Pearl uses her mischievousness and utter curiosity to gain clues, or to depict other characters. Without Pearl’s opinion, Arthur Dimmesdale probably would not have agreed to confess his sin along with Hester. Pearl is never, throughout the entire novel, afraid to “spit it out”. Her mother constantly tries to shush her little girl due to her becoming embarrassed by her daughter’s random outbursts. Using her “fiendish” techniques, Pearl realizes the identity of her father fairly early in The Scarlet Letter which utilizes Dimmesdale to hear from Pearl to “take her and her mother’s hand” (Hawthorne 139,