by Jessica Setzer

Created on: May 21, 2009

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter has been analyzed on various levels, associated with several themes, and used as commentary on many modern day issues. However, few critics fully recognize the complex interrelationship that Arthur Dimmesdale and his daughter, Pearl, sustain throughout the narrative. Both characters are under constant assault of the same opposing forces: society and nature. The comparable, yet distinct, battles that each character endures are ultimately resolved by the other's action in the novel's denouement.

The basis behind Pearl and Dimmesdale's struggle rests in the Puritan's interpretation of society and nature. In John Winthrop's famous speech, On Liberty, he illustrates the undeniable difference between nature and society in terms of liberty. He states that the first liberty is based in nature. It is the basis of both good and evil actions and is inconsistent with society's laws. Winthrop refers to the second liberty, the one that the Puritan commonwealth lived to follow, as civil liberty, because it is based on following God's laws. To ensure the uprightness of the commonwealth, civil liberty was held as absolute, and natural liberties would not be permitted in society. This ideal is illustrated in Hester Prynne's situation, where she is ostracized from society and labeled as a sinner to serve as retribution for her actions and as an example to the rest of the community.

Pearl's struggle is identified as a battle of nature against society. Hawthorne reveals this conflict from the beginning pages of the book. He presents three symbols: the rose bush, the prison and the cemetery. The prison and the cemetery, Hawthorne notes, are present in any society, and therefore are representative of social order. In contrast, the rose bush symbolizes the wilderness struggling to withstand the throes of society. The Governor, while trying to discern whether Pearl should stay with her mother, asks Pearl who it was that made her. Pearl's non-coincidental reply was 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". This innocent statement cleverly equates Pearl to the wildness of the rose bush and thus refers to her nature.

Hawthorne persistently uses imagery to refer to Pearl's nature. Her "natural dexterity" and "native grace" are commented on even while she is still and infant. Throughout the book, Hawthorne uses definite adjectives to describe the little girl:

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page >>