Pearl the elf child essay examples

Summary and Analysis Chapter 8 - The Elf-Child and the Minister. The group of men approaching Hester and Pearl include Governor Bellingham, the Reverend John Wilson, the Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, who, since the story's opening, has been living in Boston as Dimmesdale's friend and personal physician.

Nevertheless, Dimmesdale adds to Hester's plea when he states that Pearl is a "child of its father's guilt and its mother's shame" but still she has come from the "hand of God.". As such, she should be considered a blessing. The minister argues that Pearl will keep Hester from the powers of darkness.

The poetic, intuitive, outlawed nature of the artist is an object of evil to the Puritans. As a symbol, Pearl represents that nature. As she looks in the brook in Chapter 19, she sees “another child, — another and the same, with likewise its ray of golden light.” This child is an image of Pearl but not quite.

Pearl also functions as a constant reminder of Hester’s adulterous act. She is, in fact, the personification of that act. Even as a baby, she instinctively reaches for the scarlet letter. Hawthorne says it is the first object of which she seemed aware, and she focuses on the letter in many scenes.