The Scarlet Letter #4

"[Pearl] is my happiness!- she is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter" (103).

The scarlet letter is beautifully embroidered upon Hester's chest, but is meant to be a form of punishment. Likewise, Pearl is a stunning little girl, but represents a token of Hester's shame. A rose also has the same effect, where it is pleasing to the eye, but the thorns lose the rose's delicacy. All three have an enchanting appearance, yet come with some negative attribute. The scarlet letter "hath taught [Hester] [...] lessons whereof [Pearl] may be wiser and better, albeit they can profit nothing to [her]" (101). Hester has learned from her mistakes, but she cannot go back and fix them. Thus, she will use her new knowledge to the best of her ability and make Pearl a better person. The scarlet letter was meant to give shame to its wearer. Once the person has shame, they regret their misdeed. Hester has learned her lesson, making her a wiser woman, so it would not make sense to "transfer [Pearl] to other hands" (101). Pearl may be the scarlet letter, but she is also the red rose that "had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison-door" (102). The rose "symbolize[s] some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow" (46). Pearl fits this description, revealing what her purpose is in the book. Pearl is Hester's torture, but keeps her alive. The rose's thorns can be seen as Pearl's torture, but the rose relieves Hester's "frailty and sorrow" (46) at the same time.

'"You speak, my friend, with a strange eagerness," said old Roger Chillingworth, smiling at [Dimmesdale]" (105).

Being the intelligent scholar that he is, Roger Chillingworth has found his victim. Chillingworth sees the restlessness of Dimmesdale, "whose health had severely suffered, of late" (99). When Hester pleaded to Dimmesdale to keep Pearl, he held "his hand over his heart" (103). In defending Hester, Dimmesdale mentioned Pearl's "father's guilt" (104) and how having Pearl present makes the "sinful mother happier than the sinful father" (105). The audience can infer that Dimmesdale is in distress and greatly suffering by keeping his secret. When Pearl "stole swiftly towards him, and [...] laid her cheek against his [hand]" (105), Dimmesdale must have felt his guilt rise to a new level and hate himself for not returning the tenderness his daughter deserved. Pearl "had been softened by such gentleness " (106) only twice in her lifetime, which reveals the special bond between the father and daughter.