The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthrone
Hester Prynne
In the scarlet letter, Hester faces her sin upon a scaffold, her A sitting on her chest, wrapped in gold thread to express what that said, but it wasn't actually what had made Hester herself . This small town has rejected her and Pearl, her daughter who is the product of the sin, when all Pearl wants, is someone who will be friends with her and not be so hateful towards her mother, whom she loves dearly. "The door of the jail being flung open from within, there appeared, in the first place, like a black shadow emerging into sunshine." (pg 47) In this quote it isn't describing just the scene, but Hester with her child in her arms, dreading on the inside, but bright like the sun on the outside. The towns people are looking at her and she feels as if the whole world hates her for her sins
Pearl
Hester's daughter, the lovely Pearl, is very mysterious and she seems obsessed with her mother's scarlet letter. "One day, as her mother stopped over the cradle, the infant' eyes had been caught by the glimmering of the gold embroidery about the letter; and, putting up her little hand, she grasped at it, smiling not doubtfully, but with decided gleam, that made her face the look of a much older child." pg (87) Pearl from infancy can't seem to let go of something that makes her mother, her mother. She has a fit in the last chapters because her mother has taken off the Scarlet letter. "Pearl, without responding in any manner to these honey-sweet expressions, remained on the other side of the brook." pg (197) "But Pearl not in a whit startled at her mother's and more mollified by her entreaties, now suddenly burst into a fit of passion." (pg 198) Pearl does not like her mother without the scarlet letter and does not seem to recognize her.
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is not just about the letters, it is about the characters and what they go throug. Even though Dimmesdale, Hester, Pearl, Chillingworth, and the towns people are different, the Puritans count Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl outcasts. But even though there are more in the town who have committed sins other than themselves.