Book and Author: Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne Title: Pearl's Thoughts - Descriptive essay of Pearl's thoughts

During the course of the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I Pearl feel very scared, confused and angry. I am apparently the daughter of a woman who is convicted of committing something called adultery. This makes me wonder what this word means, and why my mother has the letter “A” upon her bosom. People in the town have been saying this is a very bad sin. Even though the people of the town say that my mother Hester Prynne committed this horrid sin, I love her a lot! These people will never tear me apart from her or vice-versa.

I remember vaguely, one day my mother stooping over my cradle and my eye caught a glimmering of the gold embroidery about the letter upon my mother’s bosom. This was the first encounter of the letter “A” that intrigued me. From that point on, I always wondered what that letter stood for.

The Scarlet Letter (1860) by T. H. Matteson. Oil o...

English: Hester Prynne & Pearl before the stocks

This is the title page for the first edition of Th...

From that point on, my mother has been treating me as if I were not her child. “From that epoch, except when the child was asleep, Hester had never felt a moment’s safety; not a moment’s calm enjoyment of her” (Hawthorne 66). Every day, it seems as though the people of the town do not want me and my mother around. I feel bad vibes coming from the people as my mother and I walk around town: “Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from human society” (Hawthorne 65).

Every time I walk outside, people give me odd looks, as if I am not human. I know I do give out temper tantrums, but because I get angry and confused sometimes and people do not understand that. I am only a child, and I cannot do anything about it: “[…] and observing some of her odd attributes, had given out that poor Pearl was a demon offspring” (Hawthorne 68). I remember one day, mother and I were going to see the Governor, for mother had made him a pair of embroidered gloves. Upon reaching there, some of the town’s people started to speak of horrible things to do to us: “Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!” (Hawthorne 70) How could they do such a horrible thing to us, I felt so angry that my angered flared up to a very high level and I made a rush towards them.

I am not like all the other children in the town. Because of my mother’s crime and the letter “A” upon her bosom, the people of the town always mock us. At least I know I have my mother to love and care for me. The day we went to give the embroidered gloves to the Governor, he told my mother I should be given to someone else. “Were it not, thinkest thou, for thy little one’s temporal and eternal welfare, that she be taken out of thy charge, and clad soberly […] and instructed in the truths of heaven and earth?” (Hawthorne 75) But I know mommy would do anything to stay with me because even though she questions my behavior, she loves me greatly. “I can teach my Pearl what I have learned from this!” (Hawthorne 76)I did not have a father to take care of me so I always did wonder who my father was. My mother always told me “thy Heavenly father sent thee!” (Hawthorne 67) which was strange for I never met this “Heavenly Father.” During the day my mother and I were at Governor Bellingham’s he asked me “who made thee?” (Hawthorne 76). I did not know any better so I replied by saying I had been plucked off a rose bush I had seen the way here near the prison. “she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door” (Hawthorne 76). I did not want to say my father or Heavenly father, for I have not met either one of them.

Because I did not know who my father was, I had such a great curiosity to find out who he was. One day, mother and I went into the forest and I heard a voice calling my mother’s name. It was the minister, Reverend Dimmesdale. My mother told me to go play which was very annoying for I had been told that many a times. “Go silly child!” (Hawthorne 128) Later I was across the Brook-side and my mother was near the minister. She looked very different and I could not recognize her. She was calling me over, yet I could not speak, for I did not know who she was anymore. Her hair was down, and the letter, the letter “A” was missing. “So speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter […] she took off the formal cap that confined her hair” (Hawthorne 138-39). She put back her hair and put back the letter upon her bosom. Only then did I feel comfort enough to return to my mother. I did then realize that Reverend Dimmesdale was my father. This was such a shock to me, for this was all of a sudden and I only a child could not handle so many events at once. Of course I would not love him in time, for I just met him as my father.

All in all, even though we have been mistreated so much by these cold-hearted people, my mother and I have each other to care for. As long as we have each other, we are invincible. I will still never understand the reason for being called a demon or why people would mock an innocent child like me. I will forever yearn to acknowledge what this crime of adultery means and why it has impacted our lives greatly.

BibliographyScarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Bulls Head and Hawthornes - Stratford Road, Wo...

Nathaniel Hawthorne

English: Engraving of American author Nathaniel Ha...