FREE ESSAY ON BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS: PEARL AS A LIVING BREATHING SCARLET LETTER

BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS: PEARL AS A LIVING BREATHING SCARLET LETTER

Sometimes beauty is found in places as unexpected as a rosebush growing 
outside of a prison in a puritan colonial village. Pearl Prynne is an 
unearthly beautiful child with a wild spirit born under unimaginably sinful 
conditions, all of which are somehow related to the ideas, actions, and 
views of others on Hester's punishment. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet 
Letter, Pearl serves as Hester's living, breathing Scarlet letter.
Pearl evokes the same emotion and reactions from the townspeople, as does 
the scarlet letter. The people look at the slight sense of pride Hester has 
in her letter in the same way they look at the way Hester lets Pearl do 
whatever she wants. They feel Hester isn't fit to raise the child. The 
extremity of gossip from the females of the village in the beginning of the 
book is only matched by the amount that Pearl's wild attitude stirs up later 
on. Hester's "A" is the example for all of what sin is. The "A" makes Hester 
much avoided and the parents tell their children to watch out for her. 
Theses same parents say the same things to their kids about avoiding Pearl, 
who is infamous for her uncontrollable behavior with her peers and other 
adults. Just as infamous as Hester's "A" for the wild sinful actions it 
symbolizes.
Like Hester's scarlet letter, Pearl shows extreme beauty in a form that is 
not traditional, positive, tame, or fully accepted. When Hester crafts the 
"A" that she has to wear on her chest, She uses a deep, passionate shade of 
red and embroiders it very intricately with bright gold thread. The "A" was 
meant to mark Hester in a negative manor; its purpose is to let everyone 
know that Hester is a sinner. Hester takes something extremely negative and 
makes it appear as passionately beautiful. Hawthorne portrays Pearl in a 
very detailed specific manor, meant to put emphasis on the similarities 
between Pearl and the "A". She is the symbol of Hester's sin but the tone 
that is used when referring to her makes her out to appear as a stunningly 
beautiful creature. The narrator states, "There was a trait of passion, a 
certain depth of hue, which she never lost" ( ). Even the adjectives he 
uses in describing Pearl suggest something color related ("hue"). There is a 
feeling of wildness and uncontrollably in Pearl's appearance; more 
specifically in her eyes. Pearl's beauty has a splendor unlike that of any 
other child. Like the scarlet letter, Pearl serves as Hester's beautiful 
disaster.
There are also many similarities between the relationship of Hester and 
Pearl and the relationship between Hester and her letter. Hester has no 
pride in the "A" on her chest, but even after she is not required to wear 
it, she keeps it on anyway. She shows this same attitude towards Pearl. 
Hester is not proud of her sin, but she understands the consequences of it 
and does not try to hide it from anyone. She could've given the child up to 
the governor and had one less "branding" to worry about, but she fought for 
that child to stay under her care. She even goes so far as to dress Pearl up 
in a velvet dress of a deep shade of red when she takes her to the 
governor's house. Hester consciously envisions Pearl as a living breathing 
scarlet "A", running ahead with free spirit flying. She is proud of her 
child through it all.
In conclusion, Pearl is born from and into sin but still manages to be 
portrayed as a pure entity. Her wildness and free spirit is something that 
was not inflicted by anyone but herself. She manages to embody so many 
things that come along with something like a symbol for adultery in a 
puritan society, but still holds onto the innocence of a child. It is just 
as rare that someone of such a young age is described as so passionately 
beautiful as is the use of the same description for something as negative as 
Hester's scarlet letter. Pearl is Hester's living, breathing, and 
inescapable Scarlet letter.