The Symbolic Pearl

A detailed Summary of The Symbolic Pearl


Most novels usually have a main symbol, which teaches a character, or the reader, a very important lesson or moral. This is true in Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter, where Hester Prynne's daughter Pearl serves as the most extensive living symbol in the entire novel. She is much more of a symbol than an actual character. Pearl symbolizes Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale's concealed love affair and plays a key character in The Scarlet Letter as well.

Little Pearl, the so-called "elf child," is the daughter and result of the minister Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne's unthinkable sin of adultery. She is an imaginative, intelligent little girl who is full of life and shows a "rich and luxuriant beauty; a beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints." She is a living, breathing child who can see and talk. The only real characteristics that prove she is an actual pers


on are shown by her emotions; she has a very unfavorable temper and usually ends up getting her way by throwing tantrums. For example, in the forest scene, she sees her mother's scarlet letter discarded on the ground, fusses and screams for her to put it back on, which eventually Hester does.

It is known that Pearl played a major part in the classic novel The Scarlet Letter. Not only was she a key character throughout the story, she was a tremendous symbol of two people's uncontrollable lust for one another. Pearl serves as a major living symbol of both Dimmesdale and Hester's relationship and conscience. She completes her function as a symbol when Dimmesdale dies on the scaffold, after saving his soul. It was as if a spell had been broken, finally.

Pearl is obviously a definite person, but she is also a definite symbol of many things. First, she is a distinct symbol of

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hester Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne's, Hester Dimmesdale's, Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale Hester's, , Hester Pearl, Arthur Dimmesdale's, Little Pearl, scarlet letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's, mother's scarlet letter, pearl serves, hester's sin, hester prynne's, living symbol, mother's scarlet, symbol dimmesdale, sin adultery, key character, letter breast,

Approximate Word count = 607
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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