Scarlet Letter Literary Analysis

Kelsey Federspill
Scarlet Letter Literary Analysis
R5 12.2. 12
Over Coming Guilt Remorse is a feeling experienced after committing an act that produces a sense of guilt. A life lesson can be learned in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, about the theme of guilt. Everyone experiences guilt when they commit a sin or human frailty but the way one handles the feelings of guilt is different. Guilt is expressed in three main ways: ignoring or hiding the sin and letting the guilt build up on the inside, blaming others for the sin and wanting revenge for the way the person feels, and embracing the sin committed and not releasing the guilt. The different ways guilt is experienced determines the way it is punished: by others or
When Hawthorne depicts the town he describes the rosebush on the side of the prison, “but, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of nature could pity and be kind to him” (33). The rosebush symbolizes forgiveness from guilt throughout The Scarlet Letter. Pearl, Prynne’s daughter, was visiting the governor’s hall with her mother one day to deliver a pair of embroider gloves Prynne had made. While at the governor’s house, Pearl saw a rosebush and reacted in an unusual way, “Pearl, seeing the rosebushes, began to cry for a red rose, and would not be pacified,” (73). Pearl responded with this meltdown because she wanted forgiveness for her mother and for her father, Reverend Dimmesdale, to be accepted by the community. Pearl felt guilty but blamed it on others. She was seeking revenge on the townspeople for the way they made her mother feel. The irony of the rosebush is how it hurt Prynne, Pearl, and Dimmesdale, like the thorns on a rosebush when touched. In the end the family moved out of their community attempting to not let the mistakes of the past take
Pearl’s birth was very humiliating for Prynne; nevertheless Pearl still meant the world to Prynne. Pearl’s name even has significance, “but she names the infant ‘Pearl,’ as being of great price,-- purchased with all she had,-- her mother’s only treasure” (61). The biblical allusion to the pearl is referred to in Matthew 13 about a parable of a man who gave up everything for a pearl of great price. Prynne gave up everything she had for her daughter. She even dresses Pearl in the best clothes, while she dresses very poorly. To Prynne, Pearl was a symbol of strength and overcoming obstacles. Prynne said, “I can teach my little Pearl what I have learned from this [the scarlet letter],” (76). Prynne is a great example and life lesson to Pearl of how to accept the mistakes made in the past and not let the shame define oneself. Prynne uses Pearl to show how tough a young child can be. On the other hand, the town viewed Pearl as the devil child: evil. The town discussed Pearl as, “an imp of evil, emblem and product of sin,” (64) and, “poor little Pearl was a demon offspring,” (68). Pearl herself is truly a symbol of ignorance and hope. Hawthorne described an occurrence of Pearl talking to Mr. Wilson, a pastor, “after putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson’s question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off