The Scarlet Letter Essay, Research Paper

Pearl: A merchandise of Nature

Essay submitted by jroum @ hotmail.com

Pearl is one of the most interesting and cryptic characters of the novel The Scarlet Letter. One tends to inquire why Pearl is the manner she is. Why does she move so queerly and so otherwise than all the other characters? She acts this manner because of a relationship she has with the force of Nature, which Hawthorne personifies as sympathetic towards wickednesss against the puritan manner of life. Because of this trait Hester & # 8217 ; s wickedness causes Nature to accept Pearl. Finally, Pearl & # 8217 ; s credence of Nature is what causes her to move the manner she does.

First it is necessary to analyze how nature is identified with wickedness against the Puritan manner of life. The first illustration of this is found in the first chapter sing the rosebush at the prison door. This rosebush is located & # 8220 ; on one side of the portal, and rooted about at the threshold & # 8221 ; ( 36 ) of the prison. The prison of course is the topographic point where people that have sinned against the puritan manner of life remain. Then Hawthorne suggests that the roses of the rose-bush & # 8220 ; might be imagined to offer their aroma and delicate beauty to the captive as he went in, and to the condemned felon as he came away to his day of reckoning, in item that the deep bosom of Nature could feel for and be sort to him & # 8221 ; ( 36 ) . This clearly states that Nature is sort to captives and felons that pass through the prison doors. Hawthorne strengthens this point by proposing two possible grounds for the rosebush & # 8217 ; s generation. The first is that & # 8220 ; it had simply survived out of the austere old wilderness & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; ( 36 ) , while the 2nd ground is that & # 8220 ; there is just authorization for believing [ the rose-bush ] had sprung up under the footfalls of the angelic Ann Hutchinson & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; ( 36 ) . By Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s give voicing it appears as if he is stressing the 2nd ground because he suggests there is & # 8220 ; just authority. & # 8221 ; Connecting the rosebush arising from Ann Hutchinson, an castaway from puritan society, shows the connexion with Nature and wickedness against puritan manner of life. This rosebush symbolizes the understanding of Nature towards the really people Puritan society has condemned.

The thought illustrated by the rosebush can hence be applied to the specific character of Pearl. Because Pearl was expelled from Puritan society Nature sympathizes with her. Nature & # 8217 ; s understanding and fondness with Pearl can be seen with the sunlight in the wood. Pearl attempts to & # 8220 ; catch & # 8221 ; the sunlight and harmonizing to Hawthorn & # 8220 ; Pearl. . . did really catch the sunlight. . . The light lingered about the alone kid, as if sword lily of such a playfellow. . . & # 8221 ; ( 146 ) . Hawthorn describes another mark of credence as the & # 8220 ; great black wood. . . became the playfellow of the alone baby & # 8221 ; ( 163 ) . Hawthorne finally declares that & # 8220 ; The truth seems to be. . . that the mother-forest, and these wild things which it nourished, all recognized a akin abandon in the human kid & # 8221 ; ( 163 ) . All natural things and Nature acce

platinum this small miss who has been thrust out of Puritan society.

A manner to beef up this point is to demo Nature & # 8217 ; s reaction to Hester. The unusual thing is that the sunlight runs from Hester even though it was her wickedness against the Puritan Torahs that produced Pearl who is accepted by the sunlight or Nature. In fact & # 8220 ; [ the sunlight ] runs off and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on [ Hester ‘s ] bosom & # 8221 ; ( 146 ) , the Scarlet Letter, which represents Hester & # 8217 ; s credence of Puritan jurisprudence and manner of life. Therefore her wickedness doesn & # 8217 ; t ask for the understanding of Nature. This is why when she throws the missive on the land & # 8220 ; forth split the sunlight, pouring a really inundation into the vague wood. . . & # 8221 ; ( 162 ) . Merely so did Nature demo its credence by deluging the forest with sunlight.

The understanding that Nature extends to Pearl is what makes her so different. Pearl has two personalities, one being that which belongs to Puritan life, the other being that of the wild & # 8220 ; elf-child & # 8221 ; of the forest. For her full life she has been ostracized from Puritan society so she has no pick but to accept her & # 8220 ; kindred abandon & # 8221 ; that Nature accepts in her. This is the key to why Pearl is such an uneven kid and why she acts so otherwise because she knows non the ways of adult male and Puritan society. She was born an & # 8220 ; castaway of the childish universe. An elf of immorality, emblem and merchandise of wickedness, she had no right among christened babies & # 8221 ; ( 71 ) . She takes on the features of Nature because Nature accepts her as one of its ain. Nature, & # 8220 ; that wild, pagan Nature of the forest, ne’er subjugated by human jurisprudence, nor illumined by higher truth & # 8221 ; ( 162 ) , is what Pearl is an image of. Pearl & # 8217 ; s character & # 8220 ; lacked mention, and version to the universe into which she was born. The kid could non be made conformable to regulations & # 8221 ; ( 69 ) . These two quotation marks show a dramatic resemblance in description. In both instances Nature and Pearl are referred to as non accommodating to Puritan society and non following its ways. This is the characteristic that makes Pearl so different because she is unaffected by the ways of adult male, and is a merchandise of Nature and its ways. If Pearl is a merchandise of Nature, so her abandon is apprehensible for the abandon Pearl obtained from Nature is the really thing that causes dismay to all.

Pearl is so wild and lawless as a kid because she is a merchandise of the wild and anarchic force of Nature. Pearl has a really alone state of affairs that throws her out of Puritan society and into the unfastened weaponries of Nature. Through this state of affairs Nature helps Pearl to look into herself and let the & # 8220 ; kindred abandon & # 8221 ; in her to rule her actions. She is compared to a & # 8220 ; animal that had nil in common with a water under the bridge and inhumed coevals, nor owned herself kindred to it. & # 8221 ; Because of this small miss & # 8217 ; s ostracism from Puritan society she was thrown to another manner of life and her abandon and distinctive feature is a direct merchandise of her ostracism.

Bibliography

The Scarlet Letter-Nethanial Hawthorn

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