Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu [614616]

‘Lucian Blaga’ University of Sibiu
Faculty of Le tters and Arts

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11th January 2019

Pearl Prynne: Between Good
and Evil

Emilia – Claudia Popa
Group: Romanian – English
Year: II ; 1st Semester
Professor: Dr. Ovidiu Matiu
American Literature

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Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804‒1864) was an American novelist and short -story writer. Descended
from an early Puritan family, he was born in Salem, Massachusetts, and educated at Bowdoin
College. His works, many of which are set in colonial New England, explore moral and spiritual
conflicts and the power of the past over the present. His best -known works include Twice -Told
Tales (1837), Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the
Seven Gables (1851), and The Blithedale Romance (1852).
The Scarlet Letter is one of the most important novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne and also of the
American Romanticism, being published for the first time in 1850. The novel is set in the 17th
century in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony and tells the story of a woman, Hester, who
gives life to a daughter, Pearl, conceived with a minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, another man than
her husband. Even though the story deals with Hester and Dimmesdale ‘s consequences of the
adultery and the struggles of life in a community lead by harsh principles, Pearl is thought to be
the true creation of the novel . As the author‘s son, Julian Hawthorne , noticed, instead of being
kept in the background, ―as a guiltless unfortunate whose life was blighted before it began, this
strange little being [Pearl], with laughing defiance of precedent and propriety, takes the reins in
her own childish hands, and dom inates every one with whom she comes in contact‖1.
As it was said above, Pearl is a child born out of wedlock during a time when things of that nature
were not permissible. As a consequence , her mother, Hester, is condemned firstly to prison and
then to wear a badge of shame in the form of a scarlet letter 'A' for the rest of her life as a
reminder of her sin. She, like her mother, is the town pariah, an outcast, because , in her Puritan
communit y, one person's sin is seen as contamination of them all.
As Arne Axelsson noticed: ―what first strikes the observer is that she is literally born separated
from society and spends her first time on this earth in prison. When she is allowed to see the sun
for the first time, it is only to face the accusing gaze of the townspeople along with her mother on
the scaffold. And even if Pearl was then too young to retain any memory of the event, what
happened is typical of her subsequent relations to society.‖2 Despite this horrific welcome to the
world, Pearl is compa red to ''a lovely and immortal flower.'' She is a very beautiful child , with

1 HAWTHORNE, Julian : 'The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reviewed. The author’s son reviewed the
acclaimed novel 36 years after its publication . In “The Atlantic” Magazine .
2 AXELSSON, Arne: The Links in the Chain: Isolation and Interdependence in Nathaniel H awthorne’s Fictional
Characters.

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extremely gorgeous features : ―a beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints, a bright complexion,
eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glo ssy brown‖ , but
she also has a darker side , as her deep black eyes express . Even the author when talks about her
conceiving, says that: ―In giving her existence a great law had been broken; and the result was a
being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder, or with an order
peculiar to themselves, amidst which the point of variety and arrangement was difficult or
impossible to be discovered. […] The mother's impassioned state had been the medium through
which were transmitt ed to the unborn infant the rays of its moral life. … Above all, the warfare of
Hester's spirit, at that epoch, was perpetuated in Pearl.‖
To the Puritans , Pearl is an imp, a wicked child, a demon offspring or a witch. From birth , she is
outside the law , because in the Puritan religion it was thought that if a child is born out of a sin ,
which is the sign of God‘s disobedience, that child will be evil, a progeny of the Devil. So,
according to the belief of the community, Pearl was seen as a wicked child, an incarnation of the
Devil himself, even by her mother: ―[Hester] knew that her deed had been evil; she could have no
faith, therefore, that its result would be for good. Day after day, she looked fearfully into the
child‘s expanding nature; ever dreading t o detect some dark and wild peculiarity‖ . The mother
―felt like one who has evoked a spirit, but, by some irregularity in the process of conjuration, has
failed to win the master -word that should control this new an d incomprehensible intelligence ‖;
―the child‘s own nature had something wrong in it, which continually betokened that she had been
born amiss … and often impelled Hester to ask, in bitterness of heart, whether it were for ill or
good that the poor little creature had been born at all ‖.
Pearl is from birth a tempestuous and a wayward child, and she is thought to be so because she is
the product of a sinful act. Certainly, Hester believes the sinfulness of Pearl‘s origins will
influence Pearl‘s character: ―Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil,
emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants. Nothing was more
remarkable than the instinct, as it seemed, with which the child comprehended her loneliness: the
destiny that had drawn an inviolable circle round about her: the whole peculiarity, in short, of her
position in respect to other children‖. But, even she is young, Pearl comprehends her position as
―a born outcast ‖ from the world of christ ened infants, and requites the other children‘s scorn and
contum ely with ―the bitterest hatred that can be supposed to rankle in a childish bosom ‖. When

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children gather around and mock her, ―Pearl would grow positively in her puny wrath, snatching
up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that… had so much the sound of a
witch‘s anathemas in some unknown tongue‖ . Because of the other children‘s mockery, Pearl is a
lonely child, she ―never created a friend; she seemed always to be sowing broadcast the dragon's
teeth, whence sprang a harvest of armed enemies, against whom she rushed to battle‖. In her
childish play s, she uses her ever -creative spirit, imagination and wild energy to ‗give life‘ to
thousand s of the unlikeliest objects : ―a stick, a bunch of rags, a flower – were the puppets of
Pearl‘s witchcraft‖.
In spite of her behavior, Pearl exhibits an unfailing v igor and vivacity of spirits joined to a
precocious and almost super natural intelligence, especially with reference to her mother's
shameful badge. To this , her interest constantly reverts, and always with a ―peculiar smile and
odd expression of the eyes,‖ they almost suggesting acquaintance on her part with ―the secret
spell of her existence.‖ In a strange way, she is aware of the scarlet letter meaning and even
correlates it with Dimmesdale‘s hand over his heart, claiming that the y both are the Black Man‘ s
signs: ―‗Dost thou know, child, wherefore thy mother wears this letter?‘ ‗Truly do I!‘ answered
Pearl, looking brightly into her mother‘s face. ‗It is for the same reason that the minister keeps his
hand over his heart!‘‖
Her strange intelligence and the link with the spiritual world may be seen even in her response at
Mr. Wilson question about who made her, when she claims 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‖, and
even when she says her mother that she has ―no Heavenly Father‖ , thing regarded as being related
to the Devil.
Hester, in spite of the Puritan interpretation, dresses Pearl in scarlet clothes. She does so ―to
underline the absurdity of regarding as evil an infant‖3 who ―was worthy to have been left in
Eden‖ . Even the ones who have accused Hester, as the Reverend Mr. Wilson, seeing little Pearl in
crimson clothes, compare her with ―one of those naughty elfs or fairies‖ who in ―merry old
England‖ were benignl y regarded rather than feared, people believing in good fairies in those
times .

3 MCPHERSON, Hugo : Hawthorne as Myth -Maker;

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Physically, Pearl is ―worthy to have been brought forth in Eden, worthy to have been left there, to
be the pl aything of the angels ‖ and her aspect ―was imbued with the spell of infinite variety: in
this one child there were many children, comprehending the full scope between the wild -flower
prettiness of a peasant baby and the pomp, in little, of an infant princess.‖ Pearl is like a beautiful
but poisonous flower, a flower so beautiful that catches the eye of everyone she comes into
contact, mesmerizing them with her charms. But the beauty makes the evil only the more
impressive, because we feel it is a magical beauty, but full of bitterness within. ―It is the beauty
which sin wears to the eyes of the tempted, — a beauty, therefore, which has no real existence,
but is attributed by the insanity of lust4‖. What is also stunning in Pearl‘s nature is the ―never
failing vivacity of spirits: she had not the disease of sadness, which almost all children, in these
latter days, inherit, with the scrofula, from the troubles of their ancestors‖.
Even her name, Pearl, is of huge importance, expressing her spiritual purity, as the traditional and
symbolic meaning of ‗pearl‘ is ‗soul‘. This f act could be seen even in the way that Dimmesdale
perceives the child: he sees the girl as the ―material union and the spiritual idea‖ of himself and
Hester. Also, the pearls are the symbol of beauty that comes from dirt. Pearls are formed in
oysters when a grain of sand slips inside and irritates the oyster . It is covered and eventually
become an object of rare value and beauty. In the novel, Pearl is born of her mother‘s shame and
suffering, but has become a precious, rare and beautiful child, being ―of g reat price…her mother‘s
only treasure‖.
At the same time, because ―the child functions as an eternal reminder of her mother‘s sin ‖5, she –
especially the sacred obligation of maternity – is necessary to keep Hester away from plunging
into the abyss of sin , keeping her on the way to redemption: ―God, as a direct consequence of the
sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that same
dishonoured bosom, to connect her parent for ever with the race and descent of mortals, and to be
finally a blessed soul in heaven!‖. So, Pearl, through her mere existence, saves her mother ―from
Satan‘s snare‖, as it is clear from Hester‘s reply to Mistress Hibbins‘s invitation to join the ―Black
Man‖ in the forest: ― Make my excuse to him, so p lease you,‖ she says, with a triumphant smile, to

4 HAWTHORNE, Julian: 'The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reviewed. The author’s son reviewed the
accla imed novel 36 years after its publication. In “The Atlantic” Magazine.
5 AXELSSON, Arne: The Links in the Chain: Isolation and Interdependence in Nathaniel H awthorne’s Fictional
Characters.

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old Mistress Hibbins, in response to the latter's invitation to meet the Black Man in the forest. I
must tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her from me, I would
willingly hav e gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man‘s book too,
and that with mine own blood!‖ . Pearl‘s presence provides her mother with both strength and
motivation to go on striving toward true humility and balance , because ―she is the link with
humankind which Hester needs to be able to pursue her lonely path toward redemption6‖.
And yet she is a guiltless child, with all a child's freshness and spontaneity. Even nature
recognizes her heavenly purity. When Pearl and her mother walk through the woods, she is the
only one the sunlight falls upon, unlike her mother, this fact showing that she was born pure,
without a sin, coming from Heaven, not from Hell as people thought: ―‗Mother,‘ said little Pearl,
‗the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on
your bosom. Stand you here, and let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from
me—for I wear nothing on my bosom yet![…] The light lingered about the lonely child, as if glad
of such a playmate, until her mother had drawn almost nigh enough to step into the magic circle
too. ‗See!‘ answered Hester, smiling; ‗now I can stretch out my hand and grasp some of it.‘ As
she attempted to do so, the sunshine vanished‖
Pearl, as it is usually interpreted, is the symbol of the sin, the living incarnation of the scarlet
letter, a fact admitted even by Hester: ―He [God] gave her in requital of all things else which ye
had t aken from me. She is my happiness —she is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in
life! Pearl punishes me, too! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and
so endowed with a millionfold the power of retribution for my s in?‖ As Roy R. Male states: ―as
the visible embodiment of truth about the particular sin, she becomes by extension the universal
truth about the Original Sin … As truth‘s reflector, she rejects all half -truths, including those of
the Puritans‖7 and of her father too. Because he doesn‘t want to recognize in public his sin and the
relation with Hester and Pearl, the girl rejects him. In the scene when in the middle of the night
Dimmesdale stays on the scaffold, ―driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse wh ich dogged
him everywhere‖ but where ―no eye could see him‖, he sees Hester walking with Pearl. When he
tries to take Pearl‘s hand, saying that they ―will stand all three together‖, the child pulls away her

6 AXELSSON, Arne: The Links in the Chain: Isolation and Interdependence in Nathaniel H awthorne’s Fictional
Characters.
7 MALE, Roy.R: Hawthorne’s Tragic Vision , Chapter VI: The Tongue of Flame: The Scarlet Letter ;

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hand. She does so because at the question ―Wilt t hou stand here with mother and me, to -morrow
noontide?‖, the minister‘s response is that ―the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!‖.
Another scene of great importation for the relationship between Pearl and Dimmesdale is the
meeting in the for est. Here, the minister tries again to gain the child‘s affection, kissing her on her
forehead, but the girl washes away his kiss: ―The minister — painfully embarrassed, but hoping
that a kiss might prove a talisman to admit him into the child‘s kindlier re gards — bent forward,
and impressed one on her brow. Hereupon, Pearl broke away from her mother, and, running to the
brook, stooped over it, and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off
and diffused through a long lapse of the glid ing water‖. Again this happens because Dimmesdale
doesn‘t want to recognize in public the relation with Hester and Pearl: ―Will he go back with us,
hand in hand, we three together, into the town?‘ ‗Not now, my child,‘ answered Hester.‖ But, in
the final sc ene on the scaffold, when Dimmesdale testifies in public his sin, Pearl finally
recognizes him as her father and accepts to kiss him: ―‗dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now?
Thou wouldst not, yonder, in the forest! But now thou wilt?‘ Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was
broken‖, this last kiss symbolizing Pearl‘s acceptance and recognition. ―In the final pillory scene ,
Pearl becomes humanized. As Dimmesdale ascends, she moves down from her allegorical
function and into fully temporal existence‖8. But thi s broken spell refers not only to Pearl‘s
humanization, but also Dimmesdale‘s release of guilt, grief and remorse, so he can die with a
clean soul.
But, as Julian Hawthorne claimed, ―standing as the incarnation, instead of the victim, of a sin,
Pearl affords a unique opportunity for throwing light upon the inner nature of the sin itself ‖9.
There is ―fire in her and throughout her,‖ and it is a fire that seems to have in it at least as much of
an infernal as of a heavenly ardor. Even though at the begin ning it seems impossible for Pearl to
become integrated in to the chain of humanity and to function in a normal society, until the end of
the novel we can see that there are some changes in Pearl‘s nature. If firstly Hawthorne tells us
that ―It was certainl y a doubtful charm, imparting a hard , metallic lustre to the to the child‘s
character. She wanted — what some people want throughout life —a grief that should deeply touch
her, and thus huma nize and make her capable of sympathy‖ , he decides that Pearl must s uffer

8 MALE, Roy.R: Hawthorne’s Tragic Vision , Chapter VI: The Tongue of Flame: The Scarlet Letter ;
9 HAWTHORNE, Julian: 'The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reviewed. The author’s son reviewed the
acclaimed novel 36 years after its publication. In “The Atlantic” Magazine.

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―that finishing stroke to her character throughout life‖10, this stroke being Pearl‘s participation in
Dimmesdale‘ s scene of confession and death: ―A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in
which the wild infant bore a part had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her
father‘s cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor
forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it‖. After all, at the end of the novel, the
author finally states the belief ―that Pearl was not only alive, but married, and happy, and mindful
of her mother‖.
In conclusion, Pearl seem s to be the most enigmatic child in literature, being regarded as a little
demon and also as ―an example of Rousseauian natural goodness‖11, demonstrating that ― evil, for
Hawthorne, is not an inherited quality but a psychological response‖12, the cause of he r behavior
being the treatment by the community that estranges her and her mother. So, as Roy R. Male says,
―Hester, her glowing letter and Pearl are as lights shining in the darkness of the community‖ 13.
Pearl symbolizes all the goodness which arises in a harsh and totally unsympathetic world, she is
like the beautiful, golden thread on a shameful badge, the wild red rose which grows up at the
prison door, the spark of hope at the bottom of Pandora‘s box. From many works o f criticism
upon Hawthorne fiction and especially upon Pearl from The Scarlet Letter it has been conclude d
that she is ―an unfathomable maze, or on such an involved richness that it can become all things
to all men‖14.

10 AXELSSON, Arne: The Links in the Chain: Isolation and Interdependence in Na thaniel Hawthorne’s Fictional
Characters.
11 GARLITZ Barbara: Pearl: 1850 -1955 .
12 RENNER Karen J.: Hawthorne’s Pearl: The Origins of Good and Evil in ‘The Scarlet Letter’,
13 MALE, Roy.R: Hawthorne’s Tragic Vision , Chapter VI: The Tongue of Flame: The Scarlet Letter;
14 GARLITZ Barbara : Pearl: 1850 -1955 .

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Bibliography:
1. AXELSSON Arne: The Links in the Chain: Isolation and Interdependence in
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fictional Characters ; Uppsala, 1974.
2. GARLITZ Barbara: Pearl: 1850 -1955, Published by: Modern Language
Association, vol. 72, no. 4, 1957. Found at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/460178
3. HAWTHORNE Julian : 'The Scarlet Letter' by Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Reviewed. The author’s son reviewed the acclaimed novel 36 years after its
publication . In ―The Atlantic‖ Magazine, 1886. Found at:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1886/04/the -scarlet -letter -by-
nathaniel -hawthorne/304668/
4. MALE Roy.R: Hawthorne’s Tragic Visi on, Chapter VI: The Tongue of
Flame: The Scarlet Letter; University of Texas Press, 1957.
5. MCPHERSON Hugo: Hawthorne as Myth -Maker – A Study In Imagination ;
University Of Toronto Press, 1969.
6. RENNER Karen J.: Hawthorne’s Pearl: The Origins of Good and Evil in
‘The Scarlet Letter’, Salem Press, 2012. Found at:
https://www.resear chgate.net/publication/299404383_Hawthorne's_Pearl_Th
e_Origins_of_Good_and_Evil_in_The_Scarlet_Letter