Pearls Contribution to The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Pearl's Contribution to The Scarlet Letter In Hawthorne's epic novel, The Scarlet Letter he discusses Pearl, a main character, and her contribution in making the novel a romantic one. Hawthorne uses three types of romantic topics relating to Pearl. Stereotypical characters, supernaturalness of characters, and the imaginary aspect of characters are all qualities of romantic language Hawthorne uses to better develop Pearl's character. Over the course of the novel Hawthorne uses all of the aspects of romantic language to unfold the life of Pearl and how she acts having these qualities. Pearl's quality of being a stereotypical character makes her blend into some situations and not into others. Pearl was portrayed as a stereotypical "victim of Hester's sin", adultery, because as she walks through town with her mother the other kids shout and curse at her. Pearl takes it in stride and defends her mother and fends off the evil children. The adults of Boston, mostly Puritans, talk behind Hester's back about the child being one of a sinner. Another common stereotype filled by Pearl is whenever an adult is occupied with something then the child finds something to do. When Hester went to the woods to meet with Dimmesdale, Pearl went off to play in the brook while the two adults talked and then she stopped when her mother called. A second example is when Pearl accompanied her mother to the seashore where they met Chillingworth, Pearl wandered off by herself and occupied her time by playing with seaweed and the various animal life that happened to be around. Children can also notice small differences in their surroundings that are normally familiar to them. When Hester and Dimmesdale where in the woods and decided to flee Boston and travel to Europe, Hester removed her scarlet letter happily and threw it into the brook. When she called to Pearl to tell her the news of them leaving Boston, Pearl went into fits of rage and temper tantrums and would not come to her mother. This was because she was so used to seeing the scarlet letter on her mother's bosom. Pearl's quality of being stereotypical, compared to all children and characters in general, is highly unlikely and only adds to the amount of romanticism in the novel.