In the first seven chapters of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," I have come to learn that the one character who seems to be innocent and pure, is the one who appears to be the biggest outcast. Pearl, Hester Prynne's daughter, seems to be a very intelligent and creative child. I think that Hawthorne's message was to make Pearl seem so innocent, and the others persecuting her to be the sinners and evildoers. One scene in Chapter 7 had children flinging mud at Pearl, and she didn't do anything to stop it. Hester Prynne was the one who got angry and stopped it. Personally, I think that Nathaniel Hawthorne used Pearl as a symbol for the overall purity in children. They enter this world as kind, gentle human beings, until being corrupted by society and the environment around them. Hawthorne says in the opening of Chapter 6, "WE have as yet hardly spoken of the infant; that little creature, whose innocent life had sprung, by the inscrutable decree of Providence, a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion." The society, including her own mother, all seem to be guilty. But Pearl, seems so pure and honest about what she sees around her. That's just what I think.
Overall purity? I think it would go deeper than that...while it's true that children are symbols for an untainted world view, a child whose mother faces persecution every day would hardly be pure, in the sense that she would have been left untainted. Pearl very volubly asks her mother about the truth in their lives and where she came from. That sounds a little bit like lost innocence to me.
Posted by: Neha at September 11, 2005 11:13 PMJason, is violence a form of purity? Pearl hardly acts like the innocent little creature Hawthorne describes here... as Pearl gets older, she gets more feisty. That's not the same thing as guilt, of course.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at September 13, 2005 12:34 AMVery true Dr. Jerz, but in the first seven chapters, she is an innocent character. My final analysis of the first seven chapters due today will show you what I think will happen to Pearl as the story unfolds. BTW, Good point on the last part of your comment.
Posted by: Jason Pugh at September 13, 2005 09:15 AM