英美文学作业

The analysis of Pearl

18110605 黄彩 Hester Prynne committed adultery with Arthur Pimmesdale,then she was

delivered of Pearl.To some degree,Pearl represented?Adultery?. Hester Prynne was led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” on her breast.Pearl stayed in her arms just as the?A? staying in Hester?s heart.Pearl lived with her mother and she was beautiful and clever.She had a pair of deft hands and this advantage inherited from her mother.She could make garlands from beautiful flowers.On the other hand ,Pearl always played alone.Because of her mother?s adultery,she had no friends.However,she never felt lonely.This detail

reflected that though she and her mother was excluded by others,they did not feel sad and they had their own life.They had their own belief and lived peacefully. Pearl was Hester?s child. As her name suggested, she was something good that came from sin. She was also a constant reminder–to Hester and to the townspeople–of Hester's sinfulness. At times, she was an unruly child, a burden to her mother. Pearl was so naughty that she was not afraid of Officials and pastors.Posters thought that ,she represented sinful and she must be educated by the pious puritans ,so they wanted to take Pearl away .Hester worried a lot.Though Pearl was the representation of ?A?,she loved her all the same.

Hester arranges an encounter with Dimmesdale in the forest because she is aware that Chillingworth has probably guessed that she plans to reveal his identity to Dimmesdale. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter.This detail meant that Pearl was the defender of moral.When her mother wanted to take off the ?A?,she was the first to prevented her.Pearl kept asking that why Arthur Pimmesdale kept touching his heart.She wanted to stand on the scaffold with Arthur Pimmesdale,and said that she would not allow Pimmesdale touch her unless he admitted his sin.

Pearl in The Scarlet Letter is a great literary character which Hawthorne tried hard to create. She is the symbol of nature and perfection. Her image shows the characters?contradiction relationship in the novel and the contradiction among

religions at that time. At the same time, it reveals Hawthorne?s contradiction thoughts. The perfection of her shows the existence of contradiction, and makes the article sparkling. This article evaluates The Scarlet Letter with the help of analyzing the symbolic meanings of Pearl. In this article, the author attempts to propose the symbols of Pearl from four aspects: naturalness and holiness of Pearl, the symbols of Pearl-the living Scarlet Letter and jewel and fortune, the contradiction of Pearl; the Nathaniel Hawthorne?s love view. From the interpretation of the symbols of Pearl, it has been proved that Pearl becomes Hawthorne?s best vehicle to convey his attitudes toward Puritanism.