What is pearls purpose in scarlet letter

For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:. Chapter 4 Quotes. He noticed her involuntary gesture, and smiled. And, that thou mayst live, take off this draught. Related Symbols: Red and Black. Related Themes: Sin. Page Number and Citation : 69 Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Chapter 5 Quotes. Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,—at her, the child of honorable parents,—at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, —at her, who had once been innocent, —as the figure, the body, the reality of sin.

Related Characters: Hester Prynne , Pearl. Related Symbols: The Scarlet Letter. Page Number and Citation : 74 Cite this Quote. Chapter 7 Quotes.

Little Pearl—who was as greatly pleased with the gleaming armour as she had been with the glittering frontispiece of the house—spent some time looking into the polished mirror of the breastplate. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it. Pearl pointed upward, also, at a similar picture in the head-piece; smiling at her mother, with the elfish intelligence that was so familiar an expression on her small physiognomy.

That look of naughty merriment was likewise reflected in the mirror, with so much breadth and intensity of effect, that it made Hester Prynne feel as if it could not be the image of her own child, but of an imp who was seeking to mould itself into Pearl's shape. It may be, we shall see flowers there; more beautiful ones than we find in the woods. Related Characters: Hester Prynne speaker , Pearl speaker. Page Number and Citation : Cite this Quote. Chapter 8 Quotes. After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr.

Wilson's questions, the child finally announced 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.

Related Characters: Pearl , John Wilson. Related Symbols: Pearl. Chapter 12 Quotes. I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother thee one other day, but not to-morrow! Chapter 16 Quotes. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom I am but a child. It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet! Chapter 19 Quotes.

We will have a home and fireside of our own; and thou shalt sit upon his knee; and he will teach thee many things, and love thee dearly. Thou wilt love him; wilt thou not? Chapter 22 Quotes. Related Themes: Individuality and Conformity. Chapter 23 Quotes. Pearl kissed his lips. 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 for ever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it.

Towards her mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled. Chapter 24 Quotes. But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne here, in New England, than in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home.

Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence. She had returned, therefore, and resumed,—of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it,—resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale.

Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Chapter 2. Hester touches the scarlet letter and squeezes her baby, Pearl , so tightly that Pearl cries.

Hester then realizes that the letter and her baby are Chapter 4. When Hester and Pearl return to prison, Pearl cries uncontrollably. Why does Hester choose the forest to meet Dimmesdale and Chillingworth?

What does the last sentence of the novel mean? Society Empathy. Characters Pearl. Popular pages: The Scarlet Letter. This is not to say she has nothing at all to lose; In taking on the mantel of her sin, Hester loses her beauty. This change is brought on by the constant judgement of her town, bearing down upon her breast -- embodied by the scarlett letter.

When Hester is finally able to shed the weight of her sin and her brand falls to…. Not only by the ways she dresses, is she a reminder, but also the way she acts around Hester. This is Pearl not recognizing her mother without her scarlet letter on her bosom, so by doing this Pearl is symbolizing that no matter if Hester takes off this letter, she still is an adulterer and cannot get rid of that past of hers.

She will not speak! Hester had sinned with an unknown person in town, which she fully admits to, but Hester decides to further increase her punishment in order to protect her love, Dimmesdale. They thought that pampering her would solve the issue, instead it leads them to depleting all their resources because they loved her too much.

Instead their love does the opposite; it blinds them from the best way to help her. At the same time, Hart explains that…. These two symbols are a complicated indication of an act of love and passion and identify Hester 's sin; however, Pearl is not only a punishment of lust, she is also a blessing by representing the spirit and passion that sparked the sin.

Pearl 's existence gives her mother a reason to live, blessing Hester with high spirits when she is low. At a point in the novel, when Hester looks into "the small black mirror of Pearl 's eye" she sees "a face, fiend-like, full of smiling malice, yet bearing the semblance of features that she had known full well, though seldom with a smile, and never with malice in them"….

When Hester takes off the scarlet letter in the woods, she feels free, but Pearl, in seeing this joy in her mother, is unhappy and forces the weight back upon her mother. Giving into sin means becoming enslaved to it, and sin is never a kind master.