... in the grassy-margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother's cottage. The flowers appeared to know it." Pearl fit in with natural things, which was considered evil to the Puritans, (Encarta) but Pearl is showing them how the forest is beautiful and natural. According to chuckii.com "Hester's child, is symbolic of changing Puritan society." Pearl changes the puritan society because she is the outcome of the scarlet letter, and was rebellious to the Puritan ... way of life but not evil. Even though something can be really tough to cope with, Hawthorne suggests that we are still abl...

• Word Count: 647
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... In The Scarlet Letter Throughout The Scarlet Letter there are symbolic references made. Nathaniel Hawthorne, seems to be rather fond of using religious and natural images to symbolize different points. One of the purposes of this symbolism is to show that Puritanism is fraudulent and that their religious viewpoints are against the natural order, which is done by using contrasting natural and religious symbols in the descriptions of Pearl. Hawthorne uses the ... of when Pearl has almost some kind of supernatural ability to see things the way that they really are. A child of this age with t...

• Word Count: 675
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... mother when he went to her to take Pearl away. The reader was alerted to Pearl's apprehension while she was playing with the brook and her mother had taken of the scarlet letter. As Hawthorne reveals certain facts from different points of view, we learn certain truths about the society. It was made clear that with a Puritan mindset, the townspeople came to deeply hate Hester; and Hester, with a slightly ... more liberal mindset, came to be lonely and less hateful towards her adversaries. All in all, Hawthorne's portrayal (point of view), of Hester ... ...

• Word Count: 1115
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... nature. Pearl and nature are referred to as not conforming to Puritan society. For the Puritan's sought to destroy (human) nature, and in the Puritan's eyes Pearl sought to destroy them. This characteristic makes Pearl so different from the rest of society that she is unaffected by the community's harsh reaction to her existence and constant disapproval, and ... nor do i clame it to be compleetley myne) Bibliography Baym, Nina. Introduction. The Scarlet Letter. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York City: Penguin Books USA, Inc. 1986. Clendenning, John. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." The World Book En...

• Word Count: 1158
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... participate in the wickedness of the forest. Yet, when Hester and Dimmesdale are in the forest together, it is a symbol of shelter for them from the contempt of society and their guilt for breaking its rules. They both feel safe enough to share the truth with each other. Their meeting in the forest is described as a "first encounter, in the world beyond the grave, of two spirits who had been intimately connected" (142). The scarlet letter ... . Hawthorne describes the woods as the "great black forest [that] became the playmate of the lonely infant." Since Pearl has been driven out of Pur...

• Word Count: 1017
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter Essay In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, there are many different themes portrayed throughout the book. Hawthorne develops these themes through many different symbols in his novel. Besides the obvious symbol being the Scarlet Letter, you can find many other examples of Hawthorne's use of color. The colors that he repeats in the book besides red are gray, gold, green, and black. Gray represents the strict Puritan society. Gold represents passion. Green is shown as life ... , hope, and youth. Last, black, is shown as a symbol for evil and sin. The beginning of...

• Word Count: 506
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... that they will learn, and not make the same mistakes. But in Puritan society nothing was discussed; it was proposed by a lonely red letter: Purity was but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne's? If we followed the Puritan beliefs today, everyone would walk around with every letter of the alphabet stitched onto their clothing. Ultimately it ... would defeat the purpose if everyone's sins were to ... ...

• Word Count: 1200
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... her guilt. Pearl acts indirectly as Hesters moral compass, because every time Hester looks at Pearl she sees the potential good in herself. Thus, In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Pearl exists solely as a symbol of Hester's sins, positive traits, and past self, not as a character in her own right. Pearl is compassionate solely to her parents. As they both go through their different struggles, ... sin. Pearl, like her mother, remains isolated from society. Even though one cannot expect Pearl to be easily accepted into the Puritan society because of what her mother did and the shame she brou...

• Word Count: 1245
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and prison." (p. 47) This says that while the Puritans wanted to build a perfect society, one of the first things they built was a prison for criminals. Right from the beginning Hawthorne hints at the fact that many of the Puritan ideas very hypocritical. The symbols used in this book are the scarlet letter, Pearl, and the rosebush next to the rusted prison door. The scarlet letter was thought to be ... the proper way to deal with people who had ... ...

• Word Count: 843
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... and put on the kindest of moods to welcome her (Bloom 23, 25, 39-40). Besides being repeatedly compared to a bird, Pearl is associated with an April breeze and a brook, and likened to a nymph-child, or an elf like fairy. These vivid natural images describe her as part of nature (Lawerence 118). Mistress Hibbins represents the theme of evil in The Scarlet Letter. In the puritan society that she live ... in everyone believes that she should be punished for her witchful ways (Doren 73). In the symbolic space of The Scarlet Letter, Hibbins represent a side of authority. The witches, who acc...

• Word Count: 1147
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... different and is shunned because of her mother's sin. Pearl is a living Scarlet "A" to Hester, as well as the reader, acting as a constant reminder of Hester's sin. The members of the Puritan society view Pearl as a weird, strange little girl, born from a sinful act. However, the characters with a closer, more in depth relationship to the child, feel differently towards Pearl. "She is a strange child! I hardly ... and spontaneity, however to Hester is a persistent remembrance to the Scarlet "A", which she must bare on her bosom. Because of Pearl's banishment from Puritan society she was t...

• Word Count: 1133
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... self-mutilations. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale has many opportunities to acknowledge his wrongdoing. He could have confessed during the first scaffold scene as Hester stood in front of the townspeople. Dimmesdale preached to her about her sin, although he was her co-sinner. He could have admitted his sin and endured the wrath of the Puritan society as Hester does, but he lacks the courage. When Dimmesdale ... went to the scaffold during the night he had the opportunity to tell Reverend Mr. ... Wilson of his sin, but he neglected to do so. Pearl asked the Reverend to...

• Word Count: 898
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... too chooses to show the truth of where she has come from. She knows that she is the product of her parents" "sin" and does not hide it. She shows this through her scarlet letter, and she insists on it being exposed. To conclude, there are many situations in the Scarlet Letter where truth is shown, exposed and hidden. The Puritan society in which the characters live in do their own part ... to show or hide the truth as well. The characters of Hester, Pearl and ... Dimmesdale are the three main characters that show truth ... ...

• Word Count: 623
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter In the center of a town, a scaffold sits for sinners to undergo public humiliation, but in the end, it serves as a step towards an Emersonian self-reliance. The ideological view of the old Puritan society was replaced by transcendentalism in America. People such as Emerson and Thoreau changed the views of the public, with words and actions. The scaffold similarly served as a link for the characters in the Scarlet Letter to separate their ideals from the ideological society in which they lived ... . Though the role of the scaffold was different, some sort of absolution was al...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret"(200). Dimmesdale acknowledges that his pain is caused by the sinful secrets that he keeps hidden and that Hester does not feel this pain because she has been punished for her sin. Both Hester and Dimmesdale committed the same sin, but suffered different consequences because of their punishments. Society ... In the seven years of his life that follow his daughter's birth, he does not lead a normal and truthful life. This proves that public confession saved Hester from punishing herself with torture as Dimmesdale had don...

• Word Count: 942
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... American literature. Hawthorne narrates a sinful woman's life in the tradition new America society. There are many wonderful characters in the novel and among all of them, Pearl is the most mysterious and had something original and symbolical in the story in her features. The girl is the bad result of the adultery between her parents, who can be considered as the symbol of the sin and scarlet letter. "However, wisely judging that one token of ... her mother tremble"(p81). Her uncommonness makes her have nothing to fear for. In addition, these actions are regarded as Hester and Hawthorne...

• Word Count: 830
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses three scenes on the scaffold to emphasize suffering and torment in Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the book, the scaffold has been the symbol of puritan society's harsh punishment for sinners. The three scaffold scenes in The Scarlet Letter convey the theme of sin not being tolerated whatsoever in Puritan Society. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is tormented throughout the story and in all three scenes with the scaffold. In the second scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is "overwhelmed with shame, and ... stand[s] where Hester Prynne had stood...

• Word Count: 598
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... sin, is usually dressed in red clothing, representing sin. Pearl is also called the names "Ruby", "Coral", or "red Rose," and "a little bird of scarlet plumage," further extending Pearl as a red representation of Hester's sin. Hawthorne also uses black and darkness as symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter. Black is used to represent evil and hiding. Hawthorne calls the prison the "black flower of civilized society," meaning it is evil ... as a state of hiding where the person will not accept life's experiences and holds back. Pearl's eyes are called a "small black mirror," meaning they ar...

• Word Count: 1044
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter Essay The Scarlet Letter is a book with one main symbol. The most complex and misunderstood symbol in the book is Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne. Pearl is a real and constant reminder of Hester's sins, she proves as much more evidence than the "A" that Hester wore, for she is a real living breathing person who will always remain a part Hester. Pearl in the novel is a character that is agonizing to her ... constantly nag her mother and became obsessed with the scarlet "A" that her mother wore. She is anything but a normal Puritan child, and her character is created very...

• Word Count: 505
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, is a book that was set at a time where the strict Puritan way of life was key. Hawthorne wrote about an intimate romance between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. The various relationships and feelings behind these relationships are intense, one can never really be quite sure of the true emotion. The moral of the story is to be true, yet each character ... to Boston when she married to wait for her husband while he was still in Europe, finishing business. After two years of waiting, Hester commited adultery, which was shunned in ...

• Word Count: 995
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... a breastplate of a suit of armor, "the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, 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"(72). The reflection of the scarlet letter is made to look larger than life, just like society blows it out of proportion in the beginning of the novel. This occurs during a time when ... existence shows the novels theme. The theme of guilt in The Scarlet Letter is a rather prominent one. The moral of the story is also bas...

• Word Count: 915
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... a breastplate of a suit of armor,the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, 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?(72). The reflection of the scarlet letter is made to look larger than life, just like society blows it out of proportion in the beginning of the novel. This occurs during a time when ... existence shows the novels theme. The theme of guilt in The Scarlet Letter is a rather prominent one. The moral of the story is also based...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... yet to commit a sin. Also, a part of this chaos are the townspeople who's Hippocratic verbal and physical actions influence the lives of Hester and her daughter, Pearl, in negative ways. Although the society, and many of the characters commit sins, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to convey the trail of thoughts that The Scarlet Letter is about Sinners; not sins. Though, the book is filled with wrong doings from hypocrisy, lying, betrayal and ... until his very death, spoke louder than his verbal threats. Hawthorne refers to him as the "black man," which is the worst reference one could hav...

• Word Count: 699
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography

... the center of Hester's life. In the forest scene, Pearl becomes the enforcer of the letter during the one and only time that Hester throws the letter away. Oblivious to her mother's new charge of youth, beauty, and happiness, Pearl refuses to join her until the letter is returned to its usual place. She makes the readers constantly aware of her mother's scarlet letter and of the society that produced it. Pearl has been the letter's messenger and the letter ... cloud-shapes of gloom and despondency that had brooded in her heart" (91). More particularly, she reflects the mother's deed tha...

• Word Count: 549
• Approx Pages: 2

... is harmful and should be held with contempt through the character Arthur Dimmesdale, the unholy minister whose guilt of being an adulterer eventually kills him. Hawthorne's story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, then a Puritan settlement. A young woman, Hester Prynne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter "A" on her breast. Hester's husband, a scholar ... they respect him so highly. While a person might think that the shock of the ministers secret life provokes the crowd to consider their castigatory organization. But, sadly...

• Word Count: 1146
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate