Ambiguity In Scarlet Letter

             Ambiguity and The Scarlet Letter go better together than two people that have been happily married for 75 years. There is no exemption in Hawthorne's exquisite symbolism of one of his main characters, Pearl. The Scarlet Letter A, worn by Hester Prynne, was a punishment for the immoral sin of adultery she had committed. Following Hester's act of adultery, she became pregnant with a baby girl whom she named Pearl. From the first moment that we are introduced to Pearl in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, we get the sense that there is something strange and unnatural about her. Pearl acts very differently than the other people in Boston in that she seems to be much more vibrant than the others. We see this displayed in various different forms like her dress, her mood swings, her sometimes mischievous behavior, and her constant liveliness. Throughout the novel, Pearl is used by Hawthorne to symbolize many different elements, and the ambiguity come together for one significant meaning. A critic of Hawthorne states, "when depth and ambiguity are much admired in writing, Hawthorne has continued to offer enough complexity and mystery to hold a wide variety of readers."(Davidson, 361) Pearl was not accepted by virtually anyone; her unavoidable seclusion was due to the sin of her mother. Pearl was always different somehow. Throughout all of this, Pearl is labeled with many symbols that are meaningful in understanding Hawthorne's novel, and they will be explained in the preceding paragraphs. For one, Pearl is the living embodiment of the scarlet letter. She is the result from Hester's and Dimmesdale's sins. Pearl plays one of the most crucial roles in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne uses Pearl as a dynamic character; she is a constant reminder to Hester of her sin. When we were first introduced to Pearl, she was immediately drawn to the Scarlet A on Hester's bosom. "But the first object ...

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Ambiguity In Scarlet Letter. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 15:34, May 08, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/39194.html