Pearl's Contribution to the Scarlet Letter
In Hawthorne's epic novel, The Scarlet Letter he discusses Pearl, a
main character, and her contribution in making the novel a romantic one.
Hawthorne uses three types of romantic topics relating to Pearl. Stereotypical
characters, supernaturalness of characters, and the imaginary aspect of
characters are all qualities of romantic language Hawthorne uses to better
develop Pearl's character. Over the course of the novel Hawthorne uses all of
the aspects of romantic language to unfold the life of Pearl and how she acts
having these qualities.
Pearl's quality of being a stereotypical character makes her blend into
some situations and not into others. Pearl was portrayed as a stereotypical
'victim of Hester's sin', adultery, because as she walks through town with her
mother the other kids shout and curse at her. Pearl takes it in stride and
defends her mother and fends off the evil children.
The adults of Boston,
mostly Puritans, talk behind Hester's back about the child being one of a
sinner. Another common stereotype filled by Pearl is whenever an adult is
occupied with something then the child finds something to do. When Hester
went to the woods to meet with Dimmesdale, Pearl went off to play in the
brook while the two adults talked and then she stopped when her mother
called. A second example is when Pearl accompanied her mother to the
seashore where they met Chillingworth, Pearl wandered off by herself and
occupied her time by playing with seaweed and the various animal life that
happened to be around. Children can also notice small differences in their
surroundings that are normally familiar to them. When Hester and
Dimmesdale where in the woods and decided to flee Boston and travel to
Europe, Hester removed her scarlet...