Scarlet Letter Pearl Symbolism

The Scarlet Letter Essay In the extraordinary novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a very unusual main character named Pearl. At the beginning of the novel, she is just an innocent infant who is abhorred by all the townspeople because of the sin her mother, Hester Prynne, committed before Pearl was born. In this novel, Pearl is a static character and living symbol of sin. In the beginning, the reader is introduced to Pearl as the infant “whose innocent life had sprung...a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank and luxurious of a guilty passion” (59). Hawthorne describes Pearl as an impeccant infant who is brought to the world without knowing she is a symbol of sin. “God, as a direct consequence of the sin...had