The Character of Flame: The Function of Pearl in The Scarlet Letter

Abstract

JN DISCUSSIONS of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, little attention has been given to the significance of Pearl, the illegitimate daughter of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Indifference to her role in the plot is surprising in view of the general assumption that lack of motivation for the confession of Dimmesdale is a radical weakness in the plot. Since it is obvious that neither Hester nor Chillingworth constitutes an external cause for Dimmesdale's volte face, it seems reasonable to consider the possibility that Pearl may be the agent who effects his unexpected public confession of paternity. If Pearl is a part of the electric chain formed as she, Dimmesdale, and Hester join hands in the darkness and stand on the pillory as a family for the first time (p. 174),1 it may not be illogical to assume that she is as dynamic a force in the plot as are the other two members of the chain. The narrator's extensive treatment of the child, his careful delineation of her physical and spiritual qualities, his presentation of her in juxtaposition to both Hester and Dimmesdale, and his use of her in every decisive scene seem to justify an assumption that she is more than a passive link between her father and mother and more than a static symbol of their sin. Above all, his insistence upon the peculiar preternatural quality of the child and his manipulation of this phenomenon in the crucial scenes (the forest scene and the three pillory scenes) must certainly indicate that she is not merely a fantastically decorative relief in the somber story but a functional element in the structural design.2 It is my purpose to present evidence that Pearl is more than a link, more than a symbol-that she is the efficient cause of the denouement and thus provides the motivation for Dimmesdale's final act