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In the Puritan town of Boston, you will face extreme criticism upon yourself, along with the punishment of standing behold the scaffold. Imagine being a top-tier employee for a successful company, and you end up having an affair with the owner of that company. As a result, when the people around you find out, they will bash your name harshly, as well as labeling the ones related to you. Your peers will think of you as one who has committed great sin that has been publicized through the community.
When peers label you, you won’t only have to deal with it hanging over your head mentally; you will physically have to take care of the contents for aftermath of your sinful action: your offspring. Hester’s child, Pearl, is not the “Pearl” that you think, because looks can be deceiving. Think of this as a child who is cookie-cutter of your nature, but balled up into a fire of evil.
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This is like a monkey on your back, poking at you for your actions, and not leaving you alone until you fix it. But ultimately, she manages to overcome her trials and tribulations through the power of hopefulness. However, on your chest, there is an igneous “A” molded into your flesh. The people around you see it as “adulterous”, but it could be changed that meaning to “able”. This shows that there is hope in the mix somewhere, despite your actions (Austin 142). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the scaffold, the scarlet letter, and Pearl are all relevant symbols that connect to the author’s point of focus in sinful nature and character.
The scaffold is a location where the people of Boston go to as “The Wall of Shame”, in modern terms.
It not only serves as a loyalty to Puritan code, but as a symbol of truth and public exposure. It represents humiliation, then insight, and finally redemption for Hester and Dimmesdale, but for Chillingworth, it symbolizes birth of sin, growth of sin, and ultimately consummation by sin. In chapter 12 when Dimmesdale has his encounter at the scaffold, it states: “Then, and there, before the judgment seat, thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!”(Hawthorne 236). From a fate standpoint, this scene where Dimmesdale stands acts as a forecasted symbol of dishonesty, which has been brought upon him due to his sinful acts. It subsequently becomes a place for expiation for the minister – first on the ark night of the vigil and later when he climbs it to make a public confession of his guilt. It seems as if it is a type of torture or sin being hung over their heads as punishment.
As ironically seen in the title, the scarlet letter, represented by the letter “A”, is physically symbolized as hope, as well as seen on Hester Prynne’s chest. The scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame, but instead it becomes a powerful symbol of identity to Hester. Hester had to face the consequences of her transgression through the community with silent dignity. Eventually, Hester had to confront herself to her neighbors, giving a blunt apology, yet not face-to-face. To an extent, the red, igneous “A” on Hester’s chest represents impulsiveness and recklessness in her heart. However, there comes a sliver of hope even though a sweet, beautiful, and young Hester Prynne was married with a cold, rude, and arrogant Roger Chillingworth (Gao 1725). Throughout the story, the scarlet letter was interpreted as many different meanings, including: hard work, sacredness, skill, and sin. As quoted, the engraved letter gives a first impression of evil, but later changes its meaning and upgrades to “hope”.
Equally important, Pearl, Hester’s child, serves its purpose as well as conveying herself through evilness and hereditary sinful nature. Pearl is Hester’s offspring who shows many actions of sin passed on from her mother through her sparks of bombarding temper-tantrums and spazzes of anger on other people. Pearl of course , is the living embodiment of the scarlet letter. Like the scarlet letter, Pearl is the ‘retribution’ for her mother’s sin. She never forgets the symbol, which is constantly the center of her attraction and in her thoughts. It has a strange fascination for her. She cannot see her mother without the scarlet letter. When Hester takes it off and throws it away during her meeting with Arthur Dimmesdale in the forest, the act disturbs Pearl. When Hester married to Roger Chillingworth, both of their elements mixed in to make a hasty, fierce Pearl in the ultimatum (Lei 2164). Therefore, Pearl gets much of her energy from her mother, uncontrollably acting out of her morals that a regular human being would acquire (Yao 1244). However, Pearl had to grow from her sporadic episodes, and childish ways. She learns to grow throughout the novel, maturing through her tribulations, even without a father figure in her life. Ultimately, Pearl symbolizes that even though one is condemned, that doesn’t mean their life is over.
Even though Pearl is very much a distinct character in her own ways, she also acts symbolically as the living embodiment of her parents’ unchastity. As a result, whenever Hester glances at her, she must confess what she has done, almost more so even than when she looks at the scarlet letter. More importantly, though, she represents not just her parents’ unchastity, but also her mother’s independence. This is conveyed by some of the townspeople trying to take Pearl away from Hester, which forces the mother to argue before the governor for the right to keep her child. Essentially, she must fight to prove the validity of her desires and affections in the face of this highly rigid and patriarchal society that they live in. Pearl managed to drag herself from the bottom of the social ladder to the top and realize her full potential. Regardless of her wildness, nevertheless, Pearl is still worth being loved. This the most imperative symbol that Pearl portrays: hope.
There was much focus on the punishment of sin, by the scaffold, which held dishonest people and showed the truth to all the people around them. For true example, As the story progresses, Hester’s “A” on her chest, the scarlet letter, changes from “adulteress” to “able” by the community. This represented a drastic change and showed hope towards changing its meaning. Through Hester’s sinful nature, she birthed Pearl. She gave much hardships on Hester, and defined the true meaning of evil. However, that changed due to her growth and maturity throughout the story, representing hope changing from evil. But, compared with a human child, the letter seems insignificant, and thus helps to point out the ultimate meaninglessness of the community’s system of judgment and punishment. The child has been sent from God, or at least from nature, but the letter is merely a human contrivance. In addition, several important symbols pop up throughout the novel to highlight these themes, including the scarlet letter, the scaffold, and Pearl. Through the use of these themes and symbols, Hawthorne builds up a world of Puritanical guilt and redemption in the earliest days of American history. Hester is forced to wear the over her clothes for the rest of her days in the colony, which is itself a judgment she must endure, as well as an ever-present symbol of her shame and lowly position in the community. As such, wherever she goes she is quickly judged and identified as the person who committed adultery, an act for which the townspeople pass judgment on her, causing her to feel a great degree of shame. This comes to a head when the townspeople try to take Pearl away from Hester, an act that mostly comes from their misguided assumptions and views of the mother and daughter. Over time, both the town’s point of view of Prynne and her own feelings of guilt begin to dissipate, but for many years these feelings are quite strong for each party and serve as a central theme, and motivating force throughout the novel.
Works Cited
Summary: Symbolism Throughout The Scarlet Letter. (2024, Feb 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/summary-symbolism-throughout-the-scarlet-letter-essay
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