The Connotation Of Pearl In 'The Scarlet Letter' By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In chapter nine Hawthorne uses diction to engrave the outcome of Hester's actions which is inflicted to Pearl. Before the narrator's description of who Pearl is, the narrator describes Pearl to be, "the infant; that little creature, whose innocent life had sprung, by inscrutable decree of Providence, a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion." (Hawthorne 74). “creature”, “inscrutable”, and “guilty” are words that Hawthorne writes to highlight that even as a child no matter if she turn out to be a good person she is forever marked to be the “creature” that has no home within society. This “inscrutable” infant is condemned to forever be a child of from the Puritans believed as a child of Satan. He characterizes Pearl to be "a lovely and immortal flower" which has a good connotation when read separately from the sentence however in this context the connotation of this is very melancholy because the characteristics of a flower are that they are beautiful for a certain amount of time which is how Pearl is viewed as an infant. When examined closely the flower as soon as they are blossomed they immediately begin to decay. …show more content…
When Hawthorne states, “Throughout all, however, there was a trait of passion, a certain depth of hue…the child could not be made amenable to rules…” (Hawthorne 75). Hawthorne chooses words like "trait", "certain", and "could" to highlight that even though Pearl was born out of spite and that in that society she would never be accept, he introduces the utopia belief that life is precious. Nathaniel Hawthorne then characterizes this idea of utopia to be unattainable and attainable at the same. Which relates to Gladwell’s idea of how opportunities are rare and that is why some people are successful or in this case