A Twenty-First Century Analysis of Pearl

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter portrays a Puritan setting with characters of

Puritan mindsets. The people of this religious era had a fear of the unknown and abnormal.

Without the open-mindedness possible because of the science we now have in the twenty-first

century, many situations were unfairly labeled atrocities. Pearl, a child born through the sin of

adultery, is feared by her own mother, who at times believes Pearl may not be an earthly

being but one that transcends into the world of the supernatural because of her “abnormally”

precocious and mercurial behavior. She also has a great attachment to the scarlet letter and

seems to recognize Dimmesdale as a familiar person. Although strange to the Puritans,

Pearl’s characteristics are partially explainable through science and the changed perspective

and mindset of our modern era.

Pearl, the elfin child, seems from infancy endowed with an awareness that surpasses

the normal range of other children her age. Hawthorne explains that “the mother’s

impassioned state had been the medium through which were transmitted to the unborn infant

the rays of its moral life; and however white and clear originally, they had taken the deep

stains of crimson and gold…” (81) This explanation that Hawthorne offers is the precursor to

the modern explanations of how a mother’s situation during a pregnancy can influence the

child. Pearl’s capricious temperament is attributed to her absorbing her mother’s negative

emotions during the pregnancy, yet Hester, living in the Puritan mindset, “[cannot] help

questioning… whether Pearl [is] a human child” or and “airy sprite” (82). Although she

recognizes in Pearl the qualities Hester herself fostered during her captivity, she chooses not

to believe that it fully explains Pearl’s otherworldliness. Hester reflects the “perspective of

the Puritan society and its superstitions” (Lois 152) and chooses to relate Pearl to the

supernatural. This is a form of self-torment for Hester who “[looks] fearfully into the child’s

expanding nature; ever dreading to detect some dark and wild peculiarity, that should

correspond with the guiltiness to which she owed her being” (Hawthorne, 80) Hester, guilt-

ridden by her sin, exaggerates the personality problems Pearl seems to have and thinks of her

emotionally unstable daughter as her punishment from God. Pearl’s personality is not

abnormal considering the stress Hester went through during her pregnancy. “During periods

of rapid cell division, organs are especially vulnerable to perturbations such as stress” (Davis

738). According to research, 10% to 20% of maternal cortisol, or stress hormones, pass

through the placenta and therefore increases the stress hormone level in the child. This leads

children to be more “irritable” and “display increased disturbance behaviors in response to

novelty” or unfamiliar environments (Davis 738). Therefore, as a result of Hester’s stress

during pregnancy, Pearl’s actions, such as “[growing] positively terrible in her puny wrath”

and “snatching up stones to fling at [the children]” (Hawthorne 84) when they gather around

her, are justified.

Pearl also seems to have an avid fascination with her mother’s scarlet letter, which is

always fastened to her bosom, so much so to the point that when Hester rids herself of the

letter during her rendezvous with Dimmesdale, Pearl refuses to recognize Hester as her

mother until she again dons the “scarlet misery” (Hawthorne 184). This is because Pearl and

Hester have a “‘special form of interaction’” (Lois 154) that begins to develop from the

mother’s cues and infant’s instincts after birth. This special interaction “‘creates for the baby

a unique world of [her] own, with its own emotional climate’ and which transforms every

action ‘into meaningful signals’” (Lois 154). Pearl, from birth, has been conditioned to see

her mother with the scarlet letter, and such a child like Pearl, born under much stress, is

especially “hyperactive in [her] responsivity to stimuli” (Lois 153), which would be the

missing letter from her mother’s bosom. Hester’s every action is read by Pearl from birth. It

is understandable that Pearl reacts so violently to the missing letter, which Pearl only knows

to be a symbol she encounters every day of her life from birth. To further exemplify the

sensitivity of infants to their mothers, the example of Hester and Pearl at the scaffold can be

examined. Although Hester attempts to “hide all her anxiety, humiliation, shame and rage,”

Pearl is able to “[sense] the discomfort” (Lois 154) and cries out as a reflection of her

mother’s emotion. This is why even the slightest change in the environment can be upsetting

for children such as Pearl.

One might ask, then, how we can explain why as a newborn the “first object of which

Pearl [seems] to become aware [is]… the scarlet letter on Hester’s bosom”. This may at first

seem like a result of Pearl’s unearthly identity, for how could a mere infant notice upon her

mother the pendant of shame before she notices the “mother’s smile” and “[respond] to [the

smile], as other babies do”? (Hawthorne 86) But Pearl’s diverting her attention to the scarlet

letter is in reality not so remarkable an event. It has been experimentally proven that “infants

direct their attention primarily to the red objects in the field.” A study done by the Society for

Research in child Development shows that the “chromatic salience” (Nagata 2619), or the

noticeability of the color red, engages infants more easily that other blander colors such as

green and gray. This explains her initial interest in the letter as an infant. Latter on in life, that

fascination continues to be part of her personality. Pearl is known to be dressed by Hester in

flamboyant garbs, much like the fancy letter on her mother’s bosom. “Because she is dressed

in the same color as the letter,” “she would recognize the affinity between herself and that

aspect of her mother” (Lois 158). This explains her preoccupation with the letter even as a

growing child. Pearl’s attempt at mimicking the letter with seaweed is not a show of “her own

wickedness or demonic influences” (Hawthorne 85) but an attempt to mimic her mother, who

is the only role model she has.

Pearl also gives special attention to Dimmesdale, Hester’s fellow adulterer, when she

is an infant and when she is a young child. In this aspect, Pearl acts as Hester’s voice and “

Projects what Hester dare not admit even to herself” (Lois 160). Pearl acts familiar with

Dimmesdale because she is able to perceive Hester’s positive emotions towards Dimmesdale

and outwardly reflects those emotions. For example, during Reverend Dimmesdale’s urging

for Hester to speak the truth, Pearl directs her “hitherto vacant gaze towards Mr. Dimmesdale

and [holds] up [her] little arms, with a half pleased, half plaintive murmur” (Hawthorne 62).

Her familiarity towards Dimmesdale is not a result of her precocious knowledge that the

Reverend is her father. It is because to “the three-month old… one human face is as good as

another, so she might well hold up her arms to the stranger whose soft voice seems to be the

only soothing emotional message received in the noon sunlight” (Lois 154). It is true that

Dimmesdale during this scene speaks with a voice that is “tremulously sweet, rich, deep”.

This voice “[vibrates] within all hearts,” (Hawthorne 62) including Pearl’s. At other times,

too, she is sweetly received by Dimmesdale. He is a rare caring male figure in her life, and

this, combined with her hypersensitive perception of Hester’s positive attitude toward

Dimmesdale, makes Pearl more comfortable around Dimmesdale.

The Puritan mindset toward Hester and other characters such as Reverend

Dimmesdale thinks Pearl to be one whose soul has been tainted by being born of an

adulterous mother. This tainted soul, they believe, is the reason for Pearl’s capricious nature

and fiery outburst. Hester herself fears her daughter at times because she is convinced that

Pearl’s behavior is God’s punishment for Hester. The Puritans coped with the inexplicability

of issues by labeling them “supernatural” and accepted that they were issues that transcended

the mortal world. The people’s fear of Pearl’s seemingly aberrant behavior is also

exaggerated by the circumstances surrounding her birth and controversy over the sin of her

mother. Yet the science of today proves that Pearl’s behavior was not abnormal at all, but

corresponds with the normal behavioral patterns of a child born under her circumstances.

Works cited

Davis, Elysia Poggi, Laura M. Glynn, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Calvin Hobel, Aleksandra

Chicz-Demet, and Curt A. Sandman. “Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Depression and

Cortisol Influences Infant Temperament.” Journal of the American Academy of Child

& Adolescent Psychiatry #46.6 (2007): 737-46. JSTOR. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Pearl.” The Scarlet Letter. New York: Penguin Group, 2003. 62+

Lois, Cuddy A. “Mother-Daughter Identification in The Scarlet Letter.” Hester Prynne. Ed.

Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004. 151-66. Print.

Nagata, Yoko. “The Selectivity of Motion-Driven Visual Attention in Infants.” Child

Development #67.6 (1996): 2608-620. JSTOR. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.