ipl-logo

The Struggle Between Pearl Of The Innocent Little Girl And The Witch Child

325 Words2 Pages

Hawthorne's description of Pearl’s character embodies both the innocent side of a little girl as well as an out of control “witch child” to the extent that both sides are shown to battle for control. The clash of these opposing personas stems from the conflict between natural innocence and a challenging environment. The clash inside Pearl of the innocent little girl and the “witch child” that was brought into a challenging environment is shown through Pearl’s actions, where both personas seem to be battling for control. While she is isolated in her cabin with her mother, Hawthorne describes Pearl playing by herself where “Her one baby-voice served a multitude of imaginary personages, old and young, to talk withal… ...The singularity lay in

Show More
Related

  • Emotions Spill In Kate Chopin's The Scarlet Letter

    1418 Words  | 6 Pages

    This child of its father’s guilt and its mother’s shame hath come from the hand of God” (Evans). Though as much as she wants to question Pearl being her daughter, she realize that Pearl is a living reminder of her “sin” she has committed. In the novel “the talk of the neighboring townspeople...had given out that poor little Pearl was a demon offspring...ever since old Catholic times…

    Read More

  • Pearl In Elie Wiesel's Pearl

    78 Words  | 1 Pages

    Pearl, throughout the book, shows everyone in a new light. Through the eyes of a child, filled with understanding. Wanting to learn more about the people around her, lets us also get to read more of them in depth. Making Pearl essential to the book, from her birth giving the main plot of the story, to her being treated by the millionairess elders of the town, and finally being awaken into the new world, through so many deaths.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices Used In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

    1091 Words  | 5 Pages

    This interaction between infant Pearl and Dimmesdale is significant because Pearl is described as a child who only shows affection towards her family (Hester). As Pearl ages, many Puritans conspire to separate her from her mother. Upon hearing this, Hester visits the governor’s hall to try and persuade him to allow Pearl to remain with her. Hester is ultimately allowed to keep Pearl, not because of her words, but because of the words spoken by Dimmesdale, who convinces Governor Bellingham and Reverend John Wilson. Afterwards, Pearl “stole softly towards him, and, taking his hand in the grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it” (79).

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Witch's Hammer

    723 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Witch’s Hammer is another name for a manual known as the Malleus Maleficarum. This manual was written by Heinrich Kramer in 1486. Jacob Sprenger was originally attributed as an author as well but some scholars now believe that was an attempt on Kramer’s part to lend his book more official credentials. Both Kramer and Sprenger were from the Dominican Monastatic Order. The goal of this manual was to eradicate heretics, including those who followed the Catholic faith but denied the existence of witchcraft or professed to be Catholic but practiced witchcraft.

    Read More

  • Scarlet Letter Childhood Quotes

    1053 Words  | 5 Pages

    Childhood is an important aspect of life that shapes a person into who they are. Both negative and positive aspects will follow through to all parts of their personality during life. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a child Pearl is born through the sin of Adultery by her mother, Hester, and her father Dimmesdale. He is the minister of their Puritan community and thus keeps his identity, as Pearl's father, hidden until his moment of death, but Hester wears a scarlet A, embellished into her bosom, to remind her of the shame and guilt. Pearl seeks answers about her father from the moment she could talk but Hester refuses answers.

    Read More

  • Pearl Symbolism In Scarlet Letter

    502 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hawthorne states, “... Hester could not help questioning at such moments whether Pearl was a human child. She seemed rather an airy sprite…” (Hawthorne 52). Even though some people see Pearl as a child of the devil, she is actually just a little kid whose mother’s actions reflected badly on her life and made people’s views of her distorted.

    Read More

  • Pearl Hester: The Most Transcendental Character

    230 Words  | 1 Pages

    By creating a world for herself within nature, Pearl mocks the institutionalized society surrounding her, proving how she is the most transcendental character. Nathaniel Hawthorne chooses to describe Pearl Hester as “material of [the] earth” and “a lovely and immortal flower” to show how she possesses natural qualities, something characteristic of a transcendentalist (61, 62). In addition to possessing “beautiful and brilliant…[natural] elements,” Pearl develops an individualistic relationship with nature (62). While in “seclusion from human society,” Pearl creates “her [own] inner world,” using “a stick, a bunch of rags, [and] a flower” to depict a variety of “imaginary personages” (65). By using the “black and solemn…pine-trees” to represent

    Read More

  • How Does The Pearl Change In The Scarlet Letter

    765 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rossi1 Matthew Rossi Asha Appel English 4 11/15/14 Growing up Through the Actions of Others In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Pearl changes when different characters thoughts and believes are portrayed through voice or objects. This leads her to be very malleable to and be ever evolving. The townspeople, Hester, and Dimmesdale now play a key role in shaping Pearl from a product of sin into a god like child.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Pearl's Letter

    1099 Words  | 5 Pages

    She was very energetic and definitely had a devious way about her. The two of us were walking in the woods when she was about 7 years old when we came across Reverend Dimmesdale as he was walking back toward town. He looked to be in such poor health and fragile mind, I took him aside pleaded with him to fight for a chance to return to his former self. A plan was born for us to leave Boston in four days’ time, the day after he was to give an important sermon. We were both so excited about the possibility of a fresh start to our lives that we invited Pearl into our private

    Read More

  • The Symbolic Pearl In The Scarlet Letter

    748 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author says, “But Pearl, who was a dauntless child, after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush at the knot of her enemies, and put them all to flight. ”(98-99) Pearl is evil to other kids, she tortures animals, she is a symbol of

    Read More

  • What Does Pearl Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter

    1841 Words  | 8 Pages

    She is the only character with a happy ending, which is an intentional move by Hawthorne. He glorifies Pearl, for she is the one who ends up successful at the end. Her father dies and her mother moves back to Boston, neither of them ever truly escaping the confines of the society that weighed them down for so many years. They cannot, for they can never truly rid themselves of their Puritan upbringings and thus be free like Pearl. She represents true morality, not the warped kind the Puritans preach.

    Read More

  • Hester Prynne Symbolism In Scarlet Letter

    665 Words  | 3 Pages

    The reader more evidently notices that Hawthorne carefully, and sometimes not subtly at all, places Pearl above the rest. She wears colorful clothes, which can be seen as a symbol of the scarlet letter, is extremely smart, pretty, and nice. He also shows her intelligence and free thought. One of Pearl's favorite activities is playing with flowers and trees. " And she was gentler here [the forest] than in the grassy- margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother's cottage.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Isolation In Scarlet Letter

    893 Words  | 4 Pages

    She didn’t mind that she did not connect with humans. She knows a joy that other Puritan children did not. She was mischievous and unpredictable because she was isolated and she thought the laws didn’t apply to her. Isolation made Pearl different from

    Read More

  • Who Is Pearl In The Scarlet Letter

    562 Words  | 3 Pages

    This way of playing is very different from the way the other Puritan children played. Some of the townspeople called this witchcraft, and she was called witch-baby. Pearl was also very different from the other Puritan children in the way she acted. She did not follow the rules set for most Puritan children, and she did not act like them at all. Pearl does not fit in with the other children.

    Read More

  • Symbolism Of Pearl In Scarlet Letter

    744 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is quite obvious in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter that Pearl, Hester Prynne 's daughter, plays a major role. Not only is she one of the main characters, but she is prevalent theme in the novel, as well. Pearl is not written like a regular character. Most of the other symbols in the story, such as the scarlet letter or the rose bush, lead back to Pearl. Pearl takes on many symbols and serves great purpose.

    Read More

More about The Struggle Between Pearl Of The Innocent Little Girl And The Witch Child

Open Document