Chapter 6-Pearl

1. Hester's daughter Pearl
Throughout the opening chapters of the novel author Nathaniel Hawthorne outlines the severity of sins committed by Hester Prynne, her husband, and Reverend Dimmsdale, but he does not consider the product of these sins, Hester's baby Pearl, until chapter 6. To many of the Puritans in this society Pearl is seen as "not-puritan" because she was born out of wedlock; they see her as almost a divine/devil figure. Hester's describes, "But she named the infant "Pearl," as being of great price, --purchased with all she had, --her mother's only treasure!" (67).  In Hester's eyes her daughter is beautiful and special no matter what Puritan society tries to force her to believe. At this point in her life the only thing she has to cling to is her child. It may be that her child only reminds her of the wrongs she has committed, but she can also be a reminder of her boldness and strength and ability to be different than true Puritan society.

"Certainly, there was no physical defect. By its perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried limbs, the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in Eden; worthy to have been left there . . ." (67). Hester goes on to describe how her daughter Pearl is beautiful in a different way. Towards the beginning of the book, Hester's husband is described as being a deformed man with crooked shoulders, and in this quotation Hester is stating the exact opposite of her child. This shows that she is believed to be perfect in every way humanly way possible even to the point of perfection in Eden when the everything was pure, untouched and undamaged. Her child is clearly not that of her husband Dr. Prynne, which makes her comparison to a place of great purity and no sin quite ironic. 

2. Wild Flowers

In the beginning chapters of the book there are images of flowers and wildlife that are also introduced. Red roses represent wild, untamed, not-pure Puritan society while black roses represent harshness and order and what will happen to those that do no follow Puritan society. Hawthorne uses more wildlife imagery in the following, "The pine-trees, aged, black, and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze, needed little transformation to figure as Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their children . . ." (71).  The author describes how the big, tall, thick, and strong pine-trees represent the elders and/or more important and high-class people of the society that have grown old and scraggly with age. Many know the famous quotation, "the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree," and in this case Hawthorne is saying something very similar in that the younger generation of Puritan citizens who came from the elders are also scraggly and ugly not from the passage of time but from their parents who have instilled them with their exact looks, personalities, and actions. 

     "In the afternoon of a certain summer's day, after Pearl grew big enough to run about, she amused herself with gathering handfuls of wild-flowers, and flinging them, one by one, at her mother's bosom: dancing up and down, like a little elf, whenever she hit the scarlet letter. Hester's first motion had been to cover her bosom with her clasped hands. But, whether from pride or resignation, or a feeling that her penance might best be wrought out by this unutterable pain, she resisted the impulse, and sat erect, pale as death, looking sadly into little Pearl's wide eyes" (73).

This quotation goes on to describe how the flowers can be some what of a punishment too. It is almost as if Pearl wants her mother to feel some sort of reaction from the impact of each and every flower that is being thrown one by one at her. Pearl may not know what she is doing to her mother, but then again she may know because of the fact that she is a child born out of sin and passion and therefore could potentially be in the eyes of the devil and have possible divine powers. In this act there is another show of a facade put on by Hester. She is clearly being punished in some way by having flowers, which are a sign of multiple things, both good and bad, thrown at the scarlet letter, which in turn is making her pale and death-like even though she may be putting on an act for her child so she continues to have a sense of strength when around other people of society.

In conclusion . . .

In this video Spongebob Squarepants travels to the zoo with Patrick and they come across a clam that is sleeping. Spongebob throws a bunch of peanuts at it to wake it up but ends up upsetting it and it goes into a crying fit. The entire town of bikini bottom blames him for upsetting the clam but we learn at the end that after the clam wakes up it is not upset because it had peanuts thrown at it, it is upset because it's pearl is missing. This video clip is relevant to The Scarlet Letter in that all eyes are on Hester Prynne as they are on the clam in the zoo and they may look strong and bold on the outside but if you upset them or take something away as important as their Pearl's then they're true emotions will erupt.