Scarlet Letter Analysis

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, has characters that each bring different feelings and emotions to the story. While reading the novel, I noticed that Pearl, Hester’s daughter, was very different from the other main characters, though at the same time, she was almost a second Hester. With the addition of Pearl, Hawthorne’s story comes to a completely different level. Around the first part of the book, Hawthorne doesn’t talk much about Pearl or describe her in any way, but this changes further into the book. Hawthorne immediately makes it clear of how Hester feels about Pearl: Pearl is Hester’s only treasure, but also her biggest dread. As Hawthorne writes, “But she named the infant ‘Pearl’, as being of great price - purchased with all she had, - her mother’s only treasure! ... Day after day, she looked fearfully into the child’s expanding nature; ever dreading to detect some dark arid wild peculiarity, that should correspond with the guiltiness to which she owed her being.” (Hawthorne 82) This clearly shows that, since adultery is considered a serious crime in the time period she is living, Hester believes that whatever comes from her act of sin will not be good. However, Hester can’t help but love Pearl. This makes the reader think of Pearl as a human with two personalities. In one way, she can be a wonderful and pleasant child, but in other ways, you are always skeptical about what she will grow up to be. Hawthorne also portrays Pearl’s beauty, both her physical attributes and the way she presents herself. Hawthorne writes, “She seemed rather an airy sprite, which, after playing its fantastic sports for a little while upon the cottage-floor, would flit away with a mocking smile. Whenever that look appeared in her wild, bright, deeply black eyes, it invested her with a strange remoteness and intangibility.” (Hawthorne 85) When I first read this, I immediately made a connection between Pearl’s eyes and Hester’s eyes. In the beginning,