’The Scarlet Letter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel about sin, guilt, love and redemption. Hawthorne questions, through this novel, some of the most fundamental ethical dilemmas and shows how something beautiful can appear from the darkest place. Pearl, the illegitimate daughter of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, is the one truly good thing that shines through this puritan society of viciousness. Pearl is the most virtuous character of the book. She seems to have an appreciation for passion, and therefore an understanding of the meaning of life and love even from a young age, that the other characters are still seeking as adults. The adults in the novel are therefore unable to be truly happy. Throughout the book, Pearl’s purpose is to humanize the puritans, and take them down from the pedestal they seem to have placed themselves upon.
‘Pearl’, is the name the illegitimate child is given. A girl created through one of the greatest sins one can possibly commit. Adultery. So, what causes Hester Prynne to name her child after something so entirely pure? She certainly didn’t try to find a name like other puritan children. Other puritans would have names such as ‘Fear God’, ‘Anger’ or ‘Wrestling’. Imagine the reaction among these puritans - who already felt great hatred for Hester Prynne - when she chose to name her child ‘pearl’, like she was better than them. What Hawthorne is symbolizing here, is everything Hester gave up for this child. Pearl is her happiness, as well as her torture, as she puts it herself. Pearl is the one good thing, that came out of everything bad. Just like a pearl is created, by a small pure grain of sand that finds it’s was into an oyster, and turns into something so beautiful because of the pressure of the things around it. The oyster doesn’t look like something that can contain nor create something beautiful, but then it opens and reveals something so utterly stunning. In the same way is Pearl created through Hester’s sin.
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