Character: Pearl Setting: Forest Symbolism: RedSymbolism: Letter A Why does the human mind first view the world as evil? "Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants." (Hawthorne 85) ""Here is a child of three years old, and she cannot tell who made her! Without question, she is equally in the dark as to her soul, its present depravity, and future destiny! Methinks, gentlemen, we need inquire no further.”" (Hawthorne 104) "It was as if an evil spirit possessed the child, and had just then peeped forth in mockery. Many a time afterwards had Hester been tortured, though less vividly, by the same illusion." (Hawthorne 89) "It had the effect of a magic spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself." (Hawthorne 49) "From first to last, in short, Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never grew callous; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture." (Hawthorne 79) "They averred, that the symbol was not mere scarlet cloth, tinged in an earthly dyepot, but was red-hot with infernal fire, and could be seen glowing all alight, whenever Hester Prynne walked abroad in the night-time." (Hawthorne 81) "Having also the passes of the dark, inscrutable forest open to her, where the wilderness of her nature might assimilate itself." (Hawthorne 383) "So that the capital A might have been thought to mean Admirable, or anything rather than Adulteress." (Hawthorne 243) “The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,— stern and wild ones,— and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.” (Hawthorne 188) “Had seven long years, under the torture of the scarlet letter, inflicted so much of misery, and wrought out no repentance?” (Hawthorne 165) ““Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!” whispered her mother. “We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.”” (Hawthorne 226) “The great black forest- stern as it showed itself to those who brought the guilt and troubles of the world into its bosom-became the playmate of the lonely infant, as well as it knew how.” (Hawthorne )

In this case, Pearl is first viewed as evil by everyone in the colony and her mother, as she is basically the result of Hester’s “crime”. It takes the whole story for her to finally become acknowledged as a person. The forest is originally seen as a evil because of its “untamed” nature and the wilderness that thrives there (animals, Natives, Hester, etc.). Eventually, Hester and Pearl see the true beauty of the forest despite how dark it is said to be. Due to its conspicuous nature, red is a bad omen in the austere world of the Puritans. This continues to the end, as it is partly responsible for Hester’s suffering. “A” could have a variety of different meanings, but the villagers immediately conclude that its meaning on Hester’s chest is “adulterer”. It’s not until the end of the story that the people accept that the letter has a different, more positive meaning. Nathaniel Hawthorne seems to fully emphasize this question throughout the whole novel. Usually in stories, the beginning is more delightful and as the story progresses, the purpose of the story runs deeper. However, in this book, it is basically the opposite. Hester’s crime is almost immediately introduced and ostracized in the community she lives in. Nearly everyone treats her as an outcast, and quickly assume that the scarlet letter that is adorned on her chest is the proof of sin and nothing else. Her daughter, Pearl, also receives the same treatment, as to the Puritan society, Pearl is the scarlet letter, the embodiment of the sin that Hester committed, an evil. Both are sent to live at the edge of the forest, the dark place where the wild and savage lurk beneath the shadows, the place that cannot be tamed by the human hand. Time eventually shows the villagers that sin doesn’t last forever and that not everything is evil. That kind of explains human nature; humans have the tendency to judge rather quickly and will stick to that set of mind until they believe otherwise. Also, people immediately view things as “bad”; it’s only after time passes that good is seen.