Jackie Prokopeas Professor Crombar English 3 GT AP 23 September 2015 The Will Years had passed since Pearl and Hester had fled the New World and returned to Europe. Although no one in Europe knew about their past, it seemed almost as if their sins had followed them on their voyage across the Atlantic because wherever they fled to they had no companions, and were ostracized from the rest of society. Being so secluded, it was very unlikely for a letter to make its way to either Hester and Pearl, however on one very peculiar day, on a day Pearl was about to ensconce on a walk, until she noticed an envelope on her doorstep, handwritten across the top read, “For the eyes of the one who never wronged me, Pearl” Pearl, quite perplexed as …show more content…
From my earliest memories, I knew that my soul was not destined to ascend into the golden gates of Heaven, but rather the formidable under-world. Furthermore, I understood that I had no discression on the contents of my character since I was created as such at birth, leaving no possibility for redemption. Knowing such, I became a scholar, hiding myself behind my books, avoiding temptation. For the same reason, I married your innocent, young mother Hester to occupy myself and play the providing husband, leaving no curious eyes with any doubts of my intentions. Hester I’m sure soon after came to realize the devil of a man she had married, but before this revelation and my turn for the worst I had crafted the perfect den of safety to shield us both from the outside world and the horrors within it. It was my decision to move to New England where our perfect den was compromised Thinking that living upon a hill could detract my soul from dark influences, I sent your tolerant mother to Boston to establish a residence for the both of us upon my arrival. However, completely unanticipated, I found myself for two years, living in the wild amongst the Indians learning their way of life in regard to their medicines and cures and most importantly, the way in which they lived life beyond what I could have imagined or ever read in any single …show more content…
He was a good man; I began to care for him, we slowly became friends. But often our friendship was cut short when I would begin to feel a flame of jealousy erode from within me and I couldn’t stop myself from prying with his heart and mind. I’m not sure what I wanted from your father, but his pain certainly wasn’t it! Yet I couldn’t stop, what I was doing became out of my control. It was as if I became the Black Man’s puppet, each pull at me was a pull and snap at a different one of Dimmesdale’s heart
If Hester had not had Pearl she may have followed long the path of Anne Hutchinson, but she had to be an example for pearl and had to continue the punishment. Hester also changes no longer the same woman of seven years prior, instead of her tender and passionate self she becomes a bare and harsh outline of herself. She also begins to wonder
The Scarlet Letter Opening Statement Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my name is Matthew Myers, and it is my privilege to represent the honorable Dr. Roger Chillingworth, as he defends himself against the very serious accusation of murder. The physical evidence brought into account will prove the innocence of the defendant, and at the conclusion of these proceedings we will be asking you, the jury for a verdict of not guilty. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this is a case based solely on circumstantial evidence; founded in salacious rumors, gossip, and speculation.
Dear God, why have you forsaken me? What would you have me do? I am a man of faith. I must have faith, or I have nothing! What is the meaning of a life of a reverend if he does not believe the very name he preaches?
Hester and Pearl do not regularly attend church. This takes away from Pearl’s spiritual growth. When Pearl was asked about her Heavenly Father, she said she had none. “He did not send me!’ Cried she, positively.
Established in the later parts of the novel Nathaniel Hawthorne exhibits that Pearl is becoming more of an adult and through her experiences she has procured knowledge becoming a more intelligent character. As Pearl converses with her mother she questions if “[Dimmesdale] [will] go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town” (Hawthorne 316). Pearl manages to comprehend that Hester had an affair with Dimmesdale before others in the colony. Pearl is also able to connect simple observations that she has made over time like that of Dimmesdale grasping his heart to that of the scarlet letter on Hester’s bosom.
Pearl: A Threat to a Once Pure Community Through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing in The Scarlet Letter, it can be inferred that Pearl represents a threat to the purity of Boston’s religious community. There are several passages within this scandalous narrative that support this theory. Beginning as early as chapter one, an allusion references the unseemly Ann Hutchinson. Ann Hutchinson was a woman of transgression who was banned from her early American colony. By connecting Hutchinson to Hester and Pearl, the reader knows very early on that the mother-daughter duo is a commination to their theological colony.
“I should long ago have thrown off these garments of mock holiness… Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!” (Hawthorne, 151) Pearl’s main function is to serve as a living representation of the “A” and question its meaning, suggesting that sin is an inevitable part of life. “The sunshine does not love you.
Although, to Hester, Pearl’s “Peculiarity...should correspond with the guiltiness to which she owed her being” (85). Again, Hester thinks that if Pearl is abnormal it is due to her sin, and that she must deal with Pearl, to rid herself of her guilt. Not long after Hester is released from prison,
Much to the surprise of the townspeople, Pearl has become a comfort and vindication for Hester. Pearl has found fascination in the letter making it less of a penalty for Hester. She hasn’t been able to be understood by the townspeople because she is seen as a creature of heaven and therefore not understood by those who have impure motives. But Hester also sees Pearl as a burden of her past because without the pregnancy of Pearl her affair would never have been discovered and she would’ve remained as a part of the town instead of an outcast. She gave Hester a lot of grief because she had such an uncontrollable attitude, she was strong willed and crated many annoyances for her
Hawthorne wrote, “In all her intercourse with society. . .there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence. . .often expressed, that she was banished”(69). Pearl and Hester were given unsightly glances and even called names.
Her defiance becomes stronger and will carry her through different hardships. Her determination and lonely stand repeats again when she confronts Governor Bellingham over the issue of Pearl’s guardianship. When Bellingham wants to take Pearl away from Hester, Hester reply’s with, “God gave me the child! I will die first!”(Ch.). When also pressured even more for the child’s care, Hester pleads, “God gave her into my keeping.
Considering the townspeople’s reactions toward Hester’s sin of adultery, it can be concluded that in the Puritan era, religion was of utmost importance, and the Puritans met sins with extremely harsh punishments. Because the majority of the Puritan town viewed Hester as a disgrace, she became “Lonely . . . and without a friend on earth” (56). This made it effortless for the inhabitants of the town to continue to insult and degrade Hester because they did not care to learn her true personality. While a few civilians had sympathy for Hester, the town mostly regarded her as shameful and
For example, “A wolf … came up and smelt Pearl’s robe, and offered his savage head to be patted by her hand” (140). Finally, the similarities between Pearl and the forest show that nature can be a symbol for Pearl. Hawthorne portrays Pearl an innocent child who symbolizes moral freedom. She is not destined to commit the same sins as her mother. It is Pearl’s pwn choice to choose if she wants to act the same way as Hester, or learn from Hester’s mistakes.
Hester proves that she has a higher understanding for people and life, also a sense of honor based on her own principles not society’s. This perfectly fits the mold for a romantic hero. Towards the end of the novel, we learn that Pearl became a great women and Hester could have lived a great life with her wealthy daughter, yet she chose to return to Boston and live out her punishment. Now the book describes Hester’s final resting place, “It bore a device, a herald's wording of which might serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so somber is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:—"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”(Hawthorne 259).
And what is the reaction of Hester Prynne? Will she forgive herself? With expected, she won’t since the alive letter around her – litter Pearl, who is sometimes a angel and sometimes a evil, whose and also, she was uninhabited and capricious: She was a live scarlet letter. However, she could puncture a fallacy with one remark.