I think Pearl is a huge symbol in this story. She is a constant reminder to Hester that she has sinned, as is the scarlet letter on her chest. Pearl and the scarlet letter have some things in common too. Both are very eloquently designed. The scarlet letter is made of luxurious cloth and painstakingly detailed. Pearl is a beautiful young child who seems to even "glow" at times. She is also very intelligent.

I think Pearl also resembles sin itself. While sin may seem beautiful and harmless on the outside like Pearl is, it can be a gut-wrenching, guilty experience for some people, in this case Hester Prynne. Take the instances when Pearl comes in contact with other kids. While she is lovely and pretty on the outside, she can turn into a monster in a second. "...Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations that made her mother t

remble, because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathema's in some unknown tongue." (Pg. 86) Although Pearl caused Hester a lot of grief Hester loved her child very much so and proved it by saying "God gave me the child! He gave her, in requital of all things else, which ye had taken 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 million-fold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first!" (Pg. 104)

Pearl's strange beauty and unusual intelligence, and the questioning that wrenched Hester's heart when the child seemed to somehow know about the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale. All these point's in the story tell the reader that Pearl had some kind of devil in her. But on the other hand maybe Pearl was just completing her service as a symbol of pain and hardship, but more importantly a symbol of love, salvation, and the deep bond between two lovers con

Some common words found in the essay are:
Minister Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Dimmesdale, Hester Pearl, scarlet letter, Commandment Thou, Scarlet Letter, hand heart, hester pearl, constant reminder,
Approximate Word count = 720
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)