Scarlet Letter: Pearl As An Outcast

Puritanical settlements in early America were built around the idea of simple living. This idea represents the notion of a perfect society, also called a Utopia, where everyone is equal in terms of their work labor and way of living. In this community, committing a sin of any kind usually resulted in an isolation from society because the notion of predetermination allowed Puritans to label an outcast as being evil. This kind of societal influence is displayed in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter when Hester was exiled from Boston because they classified her as an adulterer. Yet, Hester’s daughter, Pearl, is described as an outcast for different reasons. The intelligent features given through relationships with nature around her seemingly make her a God-like figure throughout The Scarlet Letter. Throughout the novel, Pearl’s several connections to the natural world demonstrate how she is an outcast in her Puritanical community by her unusual understanding of the situations around her at a very young age. Pearl’s …show more content…
However, it is in the forest that she sees many animals approach her. The text states “a partridge, indeed, with a brood of ten behind her, ran forward threateningly, but soon repented of her fierceness, and clucked to her young ones not to be afraid” (Hawthorne 194). This quote, along with other examples in The Scarlet Letter, make it evident that Pearl is accepted by nature. This notion that Pearl is a natural figure is explained when the narrator states that “the truth seems to be, however, that the mother-forest, and these wild things which it nourished, all recognized a kindred wilderness in the human child” (Hawthorne 194). This further determines that Pearl is, in fact, a very natural figure in the text and that she lives her life as an outcast because of it. She only truly feels welcomed when she is involved in nature in some way or