A The Scarlet Letter What Happened to Pearl?
What Do We Know? Character: Symbol Smart Capricious Inquisitive Beauty Freedom Innocence (daniels)
What Does Pearl Experience? Shunned by her community Witness to her mother’s shame Identity of father revealed, followed suddenly by his death (Daniels)
How Does Our Story End? Large Inheritance Leaves and never returns A
Pearl’s Adulthood Hawthorne tells us very little Moves to Europe Marries into aristocratic family Minimal contact with Hester
Childhood into Adulthood Exposure of her father (Manheim) Transition from innocence to understanding Leaves strict Puritanism in favor of an established class system (McNamara) A A
Pearl as a Symbol Her parents’ sin Innocence tainted by ugliness Judged, and yet free from judgment (McNamara)
From Symbol to Person Ethereal Presence Probing questions Fully Human (McNamara) Sudden knowledge Pearl becomes HUMAN at the death of her father; no longer a haunting symbol for Hester, she is fully her own (Manheim)
So… What Might Pearl’s Life Be? Wealthy and established Not burdened by her mother’s past How might her childhood have shaped her? What FAMILY means How she views society Anger or bitterness Pearl as a mother
References McNamara, A. M. (1956). The Character of Flame: The Function of Pearl in The Scarlet Letter. American Literature, (4). 537. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d592b600-a485-4606-a035-d1cc4264337e%40sessionmgr104&vid=1&hid=126 Daniels C. Hawthorne's Pearl: Woman-Child of the Future. Atq [serial online]. September 2005;19(3):221-236. Available from: Literary Reference Center, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 28, 2016. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=670f5f50-32af-477b-acac-62fab831c727%40sessionmgr107&vid=1&hid=126 Manheim, D. (2010). Pearl's Golden Chain in THE SCARLET LETTER. Explicator, 68(3), 177-180. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=92e0cb67-23dc-4852-a6b9-ef182ff47db1%40sessionmgr105&vid=1&hid=126