Little Pearl

Pearl is the single most confusing thing in this novel. My first question is: is she a child or a demon? Hester refers to her as both, but she truly does seem to love her... at times. Question number two: Does Hester love her daughter or does she view her as some sort of never ending punishment sent by god? Once again Hester gives proof for both of these theories. This leads me to believe that it is a mix of the two. Pearl is a symbol, she vexes her mother more than most children did at the time, but her mother loves her and never leaves her cabin without Pearl at her side. In a way Pearl is the scarlet letter; a constant reminder of the sin she committed. But she is also more than that, she is Hester's reason for living, she gives Hester her strength without her she would be lost; "God gave me the child! He gave her in requital of all things else which ye had taken from me. She 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, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a millionfold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first!" When Hester claims that Pearl is the scarlet letter the only real difference being that she can be loved she is truly explaining what the girl is to her. She is not only a constant reminder of the sin committed, she is also a reminder of the reason for the sin. The love between Hester and Dimmesdale is constantly there, in the form of a little girl. Hester Prynne may be the main character in this novel, but Pearl is the most important component.

The Power of the Truth

Another really crucial component of The Scarlet Letter is the idea of truth being one of the most powerful forces. Many secrets are kept, mostly by Hester; the identity of Pearl's father and The identity of Roger Chillingsworth being the most important. The idea of the truth first crops up when the Magistrates ask Hester to reveal who her partner in sin is, then again when Chillingsworth asks the same question. Chillingsworth it is then revealed is Hester's husband who had just arrived in Boston, he keeps his identity a secret rather than have to face the crowd as the shamed husband of an adulterer and it becomes his obsession to uncover the truth of Hester's shame. When he does uncover his identity his constant malicious presence makes the man suffer immensely; "Better had he died at once! Never did mortal suffer what this man has suffered. And all, all, in the sight of his worst enemy!" At this point Hester believes that had she been completely honest, told Dimmesdale who Chillingsworth was and told the town who the father was it all would have been better. She believes, as Dimmesdale does that the suffering that he is going through is punishment because he never had to wear the scarlet letter on his chest and wasn't publicly shamed. In the end Dimmesdale does die, but he confesses everything in front of his entire congregation before he does. He dies peacefully, and Chillingsworth feels the pain of having all the power he held over the reverend taken away by the truth. I know it sounds corny, but the fact is, the truth set the reverend free. He was suffering because of the sins he never confessed to, Hester however was not suffering because every secret she kept wasn't her own. Hester was honest about her guilt, not that she had a choice. The morality behind the idea of truth in this novel is simple; tell the truth and you're fine, you may be punished but there is nothing anyone can really do to you. Lie and you will be punished severely in ways that you didn't think guilt could affect you.

Hester Prynne: "The First Real Heroine of American Fiction"

The main word I would use to describe Hester Prynne would be strength. Through her strength we see so many different things; it helps to illustrate the weakness of the Puritan society along with the power that can be brought out of a common woman. Her punishment was regarded as severe, mostly because of the shame it caused, but when she is presented with the option of possibly getting rid of the scarlet letter by naming the father of her child she refuses protecting the man; "I will not speak! ... And my child must seek a heavenly Father; she shall never know an earthly one!" We later discover that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is the father of little Pearl but long before this fact is known to the reader he says: "She will not speak!... Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman's heart. She will not speak!" Here he illustrates how grateful and amazed he is by Hester's strength which is the only thing keeping him from being hanged. This isn't said outright but I think it's a safe assumption based on the Puritan society. She was strong to begin with but this woman is basically forced into exile and is the subject of mockery, but her spirit never breaks; "She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness... The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong." Hester never backs down from her punishment, in fact at one point she clings to it as if it is her sense of identity. By the end of the novel Hester is known for her kindness instead of the scarlet letter. Her strength ends up making the punishment of the scarlet letter obsolete. Hester Prynne was by no means innocent, and she never tried to play the victim, she stood up and faced her punishment and for that reason she is the strongest female character I have ever heard of and, adultery aside, she would be a wonderful role model to any young girl.

Religion

One of the most important components of The Scarlet Letter is the Puritan religion. As this novel is set in a time period with very little scientific discoveries people relied on religion to guide their lives. Hester Prynne is imprisoned and punished based on religious reasons, the people of the town despise her because she has shamed them by going against the bible and the people adore the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale because he speaks so powerfully about god.

At the beginning of the novel as Hester is about to walk out of the prison with the scarlet letter embroidered on her dress one of the women waiting to witness her appearance utters the words "This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book." The people did not want her around them, for many reasons one of the strongest being that they feared God and what punishment he might have for them if they should allow this sinner back into their society. At the same time the law-enforcers feared what God's wrath might be if they should take away this woman's life. So for the rest of her life she must wear the letter A embroidered in scarlet on her dress as a sign of shame. Now to us this may not seem that bad, but keep in mind the religious beliefs at the time; death wasn't as feared as it is now, there was no doubt in the afterlife and as long as you were good on earth you were guaranteed into heaven. This punishment forever displayed on this poor woman a sign basically saying that she is never getting into heaven, for a religious society this is truly awful. The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is a young, but beautifully worded priest in Boston at this time. He is greatly admired by the citizens but is pitied by them as well, as he Hester is a member of his congregation and therefore, in their eyes, he is responsible for her soul and must feel a small portion of the blame. Ironically enough he is much more to blame for Hester's situation than they realize, but that's going off topic. Religion continues to come up throughout the entire novel through signs, suffering, and multiple other things that I'm sure our generation could explain through science should they happen now.

Ridiculous though it is, religion is the main concept this civilization and therefore this novel is built. I'm not going to turn this into any sort of discussion of my beliefs or lack there of, but i do think that it can be agreed that any person in our society as radically religious as these puritans were would be regarded as insane and brutal. The Scripture is the law, and everyone, criminals included believed this.