The Scaffold

The Scaffold

Monday, February 25, 2013

Chapters 7 + 8- The Governor's Hall and The Elf-Child and the Minister

Background


The Governor's Hall describes Hester and Pearl's trip to the Governor's mansion and the mansion itself. The Elf-Child and the Minister describes the discussion between Hester, the Governor, Reverend Dimmsdale, Roger Chillingworth, and Mr. Wilson. On the way to the mansion, Hester and Pearl encounter two townspeople who criticize and insult Hester. Pearl is unwilling to accept this, and screams like a wild creature at the townspeople before returning to her mother and continuing on their way to the mansion. Once there, Hester takes Pearl to look at the garden, expecting to maybe see the lavish gardens she would have seen in England. But the Governor had not succeeded in planting in the barren land of the new world. The men discuss the fate of Pearl, as the town had been contemplating taking her away from Hester. Hester begs Reverend Dimmsdale to plead her case for her, which he does successfully. They decide to leave Pearl and Hester as they are.

Pearl as the Scarlet Letter


Hawthorne has emphasized in past chapters that Pearl is not just Hester's pearl, she is also a reminder of her sin and the shame she bears in the eyes of the community. But this is the first time he refers to Pearl as the Scarlet Letter, and it is a significant development in the symbolism. Hawthorne describes Hester's epiphany.



"But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and, indeed, of the child's whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!" (77)

Not only does Hawthorne stress that Pearl is the scarlet letter in living form, but he also tries to show her as a wild, untamed creature. He does this multiple times in the two chapters, first with her screaming at the townspeople on the way to the mansion, then with her conversations with the Governor and Reverend Dimmsdale, and finally with her walking down the hall at the end. Hawthorne refers to her as a wild creature.



"But the child, unaccustomed to the touch of familiarity of any but her mother, escaped through the open window, and stood on the upper step looking like a wild tropical bird, of rich plumage, ready to take flight into the upper air." (84)

Both descriptions of her aid Hawthorne in painting a picture of Pearl, but he never comes out and says that Pearl is the side of Hester that she both can't and won't show to the world. She is Hester without a filter, and though Hawthorne never states this, it is the idea he wants the reader to have.

Flowers

A motif that continues throughout the novel is the image of flowers and what they symbolize. From wildflowers thrown at the scarlet letter to roses growing outside a prison door, Hawthorne has used many examples to move the motif forward. At the Governor's mansion, Hester expects to see the magnificent gardens grown in England, but even he can't make flowers grow on the harsh soil. But he is able to plant a few rose bushes.



"But the proprietor appeared already to have relinquished, as hopeless, the effort to perpetuate on this side of the Atlantic, in a hard soil and amid the close struggle for subsistence, the native English taste for ornamental gardening.[...] There were a few rosebushes, however[...]" (81)

Hawthorne specifies rosebushes, just like the bush that grows outside the prison. He also states that the ground in New England is not suited for the growing of the civilized gardens of England. While the ocean and the woods on either side of the colony are considered the wild areas and the colony was supposed to be the civilized part. But the Governor's inability to grow in the area shows that it isn't truly the civilized area, and the society itself may not be as civilized as they thought it was. The rosebushes also add to the imagery of Pearl as a wild creature.

"After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson's questions, the child finally announced that 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." (85)

Wow Factor


In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy's best friend, Willow, is the nerdy one. She is known as being reliable and bookish, and in the episode "Doppelgangland", she decides she doesn't want to be seen as that anymore. When another character wishes them into an alternate universe a few months earlier, they discovered Willow in the other world was a vampire and evil. In "Doppelgangland", evil Willow is brought into the normal world by magic. Much like Pearl is the part of Hester that doesn't have a filter, bad Willow and Willow are the same person, but evil Willow is bolder.

1 comment:

  1. I couldn't fix the misspelling of "Dimmsdale" to "Dimmesdale", so I'm commenting here as a sort of author's note to say, I know it's misspelled here but I wasn't able to edit the post to fix it. Sorry!

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