Firestein Period 1 Group 3

Kaitlyn Marquez Serrina Lam Lily Dragon Hannah Naiditch Elyse Hovanesian

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Theme

Chapter 19 opens with Hester and Dimmesdale watching Pearl play in the woods. Chapter 18 has just closed with Pearl seeing Dimmesdale, but her reaction is not specified. In this chapter, there are two major themes. Both of them are carried through out the entire book, but this chapter supports them in detail. In all previous chapters, the ideas of public vs. private and sin have been mentioned. Both of these concepts are key themes in this chapter. Hester has arranged this meeting so Dimmesdale can finally meet Pearl, but as the chapter shows, Pearl will not accept him until he makes his sin public. This alludes to the universal theme that acceptance must be achieved through honesty. In the beginning, Dimmesdale mentions that Pearl has often alarmed him. This is interesting, because Pearl is the “visible the tie that united them” and is living proof of the sin he wishes so dearly to conceal. When he feels “the child’s eyes upon himself, his hand,—with that gesture so habitual as to have become involuntary—stole over his heart.” This shows just how threatening Pearl is to his private sin.

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 Pearl is later described as what is beautiful and natural. She is even said to be “glorified with a ray of sunshine,” which has previously meant revelation and to illuminate the truth. Once Pearl finally comes over, she questions Dimmesdale’s integrity by asking if he will “go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town” and if he will “always keep his hand over his heart?” If Dimmesdale joins them, he is making his sin public and revealing his heart. Pearl will only accept him if he acknowledges his sin. She continues to reject him as long as his sin is private. When he kisses her, she immediately goes to wash the place he kissed. To have Pearl, who in this chapter represents nature and honesty, accept him, he must reveal why he covers his heart.

The second major theme found in this chapter is the idea of sin. Once Pearl is finished playing, Hester beckons her over. As mentioned before, Pearl symbolizes the honesty in nature, so it is not surprise that “the child and mother were estranged, but through Hester’s fault, not Pearl’s.” At this point, Hester is not wearing her scarlet letter, and believes “(n)ow thou art my mother indeed” only when she bears the symbol of her sin. Pearl refuses to come to Hester without the letter on her chest. She is “wildly gesticulating, and, in the midst of all, still pointing its small forefinger at Hester’s bosom,” because it lacks the scarlet symbol of her wrongdoing! She is distraught to put the symbol back on her bosom. “She had flung it into infinite space!—she had drawn an hour’s free breath!—and here again was the scarlet misery, glittering on the old spot! So it ever is, whether thus typified or no, that an evil deed invests itself with the character of doom.” Regardless, Pearl will not accept her without her sin being public. Hester may try to hide and ignore her sin, but Pearl serves as a reminder that sin remains with one forever. 

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Setting

Chapter 19 of The Scarlet Letter, The Child at the Brook-side, takes place in the middle of a forest where Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are isolated from the rest of the puritans and finally are able to have a private conversation. Hester and Dimmesdale are talking on one side of the brook and Pearl standing at the other playing with flowers. This not only expresses the physical separation from Pearl and Dimmesdale but the emotional barriers in place. Located in the brook is Hester's scarlet A revealing feelings of separation from Hester and the symbol, both the A and the living symbol of her sins Pearl. 

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Chapter XIX The Child at the Brook-side

Hester and Dimmesdale converse in a conversation about Pearl. They talk about how pretty, wonderfully strange, and passionate she is. Dimmesdale’ worries Pearl will not love him. Pearl was by the brook playing with the flowers and then came to the margin of the brook, near where Hester and the Reverend are standing. Hester calls Pearl over to introduce her to Dimmesdale and tells her she will love Hester’s friend just as much as she loves Hester. Pearl extends her arm and points to where the Scarlet Letter usually sits upon Hester’s chest. It isn’t there, it was on the ground by the brook. Hester realizes how much the Scarlet Letter means to Pearl and puts it back on. Pearl runs to hug her and kisses her face. As Hester asks Pearl to show the same affection to her friend, Pearl refuses and asks if the man with his hand on his heart will stand on the scaffold with them. Dimmesdale doesn’t say yes and places a kiss on her forehead instead. Pearl, upset by the rejection, runs to the brook to wash off the kiss Dimmesdale had place on her forehead.

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Conflict

At the beginning of the chapter, Hester and Dimmesdale are "sharing a feeling which neither of them had ever before" as they watch Pearl in the forest. In awe of their child, the chapters initial conflict comes to light in the nervousness Dimmesdale expresses to Hester. He wants so badly for Pearl to like him, but is uncertain she will feel a bond. When Pearl is finally near, her parents note that the small brook separating the couple from their child "is the boundary between two worlds," and it is here that Pearl chooses to stop. This creates another conflict in the chapter as Pearl refuses to cross the border unless her mother puts the scarlet "A" back on her chest. When Hester doesn't respond to Pearl's initial inquiry regarding the letter, Pearl loses herself in a passionate fit. The letter proves to be at the upmost importance the the little child and eventually Hester takes her daughters direction and puts the letter back on. The free and happy Hester we were just getting know is immediately transformed to her old, sad self "as if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her." When the change was complete, Pearl is satisfied and will finally cross the brook. This resolves the chapter's conflict, but the chapter ends on a note of conflict in regard to the story as a whole. Though the letter allows Pearl to embrace her mother, Dimmesdale's inability to publicly show his love for Hester and Pearl keeps her skeptical about her father. She refuses to embrace him and even goes out of her way to wash his kiss from her forehead. Hawthorne leaves this chapter with the father and daughter's relationship up in the air and encourages the reader to continue on for the final resolution.

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Quotations

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“Be the foregone evil what it might, how could they doubt that their earthly lives and future destinies were conjoined, when they beheld at once the material union and the spiritual idea, in whom they met, and were to dwell immortally together?”

Hawthorne implies that Hester and Dimmesdale will eternally be together, both in the physical life and after life. These two will be connected, be it in heaven or in hell. “The maternal union” is the thing they created together, Pearl, and the “the spiritual idea” is the passionate feelings they have for one another. Hester and Dimmesdale are connected together physically and spiritually, even if they had sinned while possessing such passion for each other.

“She had been offered to the world, these seven years past, as the living hieroglyphic, in which was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide, - all written in this symbol – all plainly manifest, - had there been a prophet or magician skilled to read the character of flame!”

Pearl is often referred to, in some way or another, as Hester’s scarlet letter vivified. The affair between Hester and Dimmesdale has been kept a secret for Pearl’s entire life; the only indicators that the affair happened are the scarlet letter and Pearl herself. She is a living representation of the symbol of the scarlet letter, hence Hawthorne’s use of the world “hieroglyphic.” While the rest of Puritan society has found the direct connection between Pearl and the scarlet letter, it has failed to realize that Dimmesdale is Pearl’s father and thus the reason for the scarlet letter’s existence in the first place. Until Dimmesdale confesses his sin, Pearl is simply a manifestation of the scarlet letter with no known correlation to the reverend.

"How my heart dreads this interview, and yearns for it!” 

Dimmesdale says this line during his conversation with Hester about Pearl. Hester is about to introduce Dimmesdale to Pearl, but Dimmesdale is worried about meeting her. He fears that Pearl will ask him to stand on the scafford with her and Hester, but Dimmesdale is not ready to publicly stand with them. He is not ready to stand with them as he does not want to publicly confess his sin yet. This line helps describe where Dimesdale stand currently. At that moment, he is still trying to keep his sin private yet he wants to be able to publicly repent and openly stand with Hester and Pearl. He is still conflicted in his battle of whether to hold his sin privately or publicly. The word “interview” also adds impact to how he fears his meeting with Pearl, making the meeting sound like a formality, a interaction in which he will be judged in.

“Hester felt herself, in some indistinct and tantalizing manner, estranged from Pearl; as if the child, in her lonely ramble through the forest, had strayed out of the sphere in which she and her mother dwelt together, and was now vainly seeking to return it.”

Since Pearl’s birth, she and Hester have lived in isolation. They have cultivated their own little world of alienation. In this moment of the story, Hester and Pearl are at the book, and Hester catches a glimpse of Pearl in which the child is lit by a ray of sunshine. Up until this point, Hester has referred to her daughter as a “demon.” This is the first time she sees Pearl literally in a new light, in which she is a beautiful and innocent child. Because of this suddenly new and brief perspective of Pearl, Hester feels as though Pearl has escaped their lonely world of isolation.

“…as Hester had spoken of drowning it in the deep sea, there was a sense of inevitable doom upon her, as she thus received back this deadly symbol from the hand of fate.”

A major theme of the novel is isolation and, moreover, Hester’s inability to escape it. For years, she has struggled with her inner desire to remove the scarlet letter and destroy it. Here, she toys with the idea of drowning it. However, she knows deep down that the scarlet letter will always haunt her, and escape is impossible. Even if she were to confess her sin and rightfully be stripped of the scarlet letter, she will still live her life with a feeling of guilt and the sentiment that she deserves to be damned. Rather than taking her chance to destroy the symbol or rightfully be rid of it, she has accepted that it is her fate to forever be haunted by the scarlet letter’s existence.

"Now thou art my mother indeed! and I am thy little Pearl!" 

Pearl finally runs to Hester and hugs her once Hester puts back on the Scarlet Letter. Pearl refused to come to Hester when the Scarlet Letter was not on Hester's chest anymore. Once Hester placed it back on, Pearl accepted her and showed her much love, even kissing the Scarlet Letter. The line shows us how without the Scarlet Letter, Pearl does not consider Hester her mother. It is as if, she doesn't recognize Hester without the Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter is a part of Hester, a part of who she is. It is also what holds together the relationship between Hester and Pearl as Pearl will only love Hester if she has it on.

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Character(s)

Hester Prynne is protagonist of the novel, she is the mother of Pearl and has been forced by the puritan colony to wear the scarlet A.  The letter A signify that Hester is an "Adulterer" and as punishment she is "Alienated" from society. She is motivated by passion and ultimately transforms the scarlet letter from something that is burdensome and villainizes her to something that turns her into a proto-feminist hero.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is a well known and respected reverend of the Puritan colony. He is able to produce powerful sermons that seem to speak directly to ones heart. He feels an unbearable amount of guilt and remorse for acting on his passions alone but cannot bring himself to confess. 

Pearl is the child of Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale born out of wedlock.Pearl is the living symbol of the Reverend and Hester's sin, she often amplifies the effect of the scarlet letter. She is free spirited and passionate like her mother. 

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Structure and Syntax

The first two paragraphs of “The Child at the Brookside” are written in parallel structure to express Hester and Dimmesdale’s similarities. Hawthorne purposefully has the character’s dialogue toward each other appear in the same like to enforce that they work together as one, though they cannot act as such. Both characters are also very expressive with their language and this is shown in a multitude of exclamation points. When Hester or Dimmesdale exclaims something, we the reader can see his or her passion bouncing off the page in the form of such excited punctuation.

Hawthorne also uses syntax and parallelism to portray the similarities between Hester and Pearl. We learn a lot about their relationship through the chosen phrasing and Pearl is very commanding of her mother. When Hester tells Pearl, “Bring it hither!” Pearl responds, “Come thou and take it up!” This set of dialogue is very short and to the point. It is an example of how the mother and daughter communicate and actually shows the power Pearl commands over her mother. The two stand on equal footing. Because Hester actually follows Pearl’s direction, it could also be argued Pearl has the upper hand. 

“It was with a feeling which neither of them had ever before experienced, that they sat and watched Pearl's slow advance. In her was visible the tie that united them. She had been offered to the world, these seven past years, as the living hieroglyphic, in which was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide—all written in this symbol—all plainly manifest—had there been a prophet or magician skilled to read the character of flame! And Pearl was the oneness of their being. Be the foregone evil what it might, how could they doubt that their earthly lives and future destinies were conjoined when they beheld at once the material union, and the spiritual idea, in whom they met, and were to dwell immortally together; thoughts like these—and perhaps other thoughts, which they did not acknowledge or define—threw an awe about the child as she came onward.”

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 This passage from chapter 19 is very important in supporting the themes of this chapter. As previously mentioned, the two main themes at hand are that sin is eternal and honesty (being public) is necessary for acceptance. Pearl embodies both of these themes, and this is shown in this passage. Hawthorne uses the technique of a flashback to give insight as to what Pearl has meant regarding Hester’s sin and Dimmesdale’s secret. Through out the paragraph, he prolongs sentences with hyphens, commas, and parallelism, thus supporting the theme that sin stays with one forever and does not fade. The parallel phrases create a repetitive pattern that does not seem to end. Hester must always bear her sin. The elongated sentence is then finished with an exclamation point, indicating excitement and tension that Pearl holds her parents’ secrets and sins. Although Hawthorne generally uses loose sentences, he varies them with the occasional periodic sentence. Pearl is described as the “oneness of their being.” In light of the themes, it can be said that Pearl is the reason that Hester has to deal with an eternal sin and that Dimmesdale continues to hide his secret. The final sentence is also an elongated periodic sentence. When Pearl approaches, Hester must face the reality of her sin, and Dimmesdale must be honest with the townspeople to be accepted by Pearl. 

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Symbolism and Figurative Language

The overall metaphor of this chapter is that Hester is the scarlet letter, as seen through the eyes of Pearl. She has only seen her mother with the scarlet letter on her breast and has therefore come to associate her mother with the letter. When Hester is without the scarlet letter, Pearl does not even recognize her. It is not until she puts the scarlet letter back on that Pearl says, “Now thou art my mother indeed! And I am thy little Pearl!” Pearl only recognizes herself as Hester’s daughter when the scarlet letter is in sight and thus sees her mother as the scarlet letter.

Hester’s anger intensifies and she says to Dimmesdale, “The forest cannot hide it! The mid-ocean shall take it from my hand, and swallow it up forever!” Here, Hawthorne personifies nature as the only thing that has some sort of control over the scarlet letter. Hester claims even the forest cannot hide the symbol. She believes the only thing that can destroy it is water, which is why she later tries to drown the letter. This personification is meant to signify that, in Hester’s eyes, no man can rid her of the guilt that the scarlet letter brings her. Even if she were to confess and rightfully be rid of the scarlet letter, she would not be at peace. Only something as powerful as an inhuman force could rid her of her agony.

As the day progresses by the brook-side, Hester falls deeper into despair. As Hawthorne puts it, “As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine, and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her.” He describes the scarlet letter as a void that consumes all the good things Hester has the potential to embrace. Instead of embracing her beauty, warmth, and womanhood, she is solely confined to what the scarlet letter has to offer her. Hawthorne’s describes it as a metaphorical gray shadow. It follows her everywhere she goes and limits her opportunities in life.

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Core Connections

Looking at Danto's theory, we can see that the Scarlet Letter is an art piece to a certain little girl, Pearl. Pearl views the Scarlet Letter the way a person looks at a mesmerizing art piece. She looks at the Scarlet Letter with aesthetic pleasure and is always curious about it's meaning. There is an “aboutness” to the Scarlet Letter that she even always asks Hester what it means. Pearl has a strong attachment to the Scarlet Letter that she even says that she wants to wear one like her mom's. In Chapter Nineteen she does not accept Hester until Hester puts the Scarlet Letter back on. “Seen in the brook once more was the shadowy wrath of Pearl's image, crowned and girdled with flowers, but stamping its foot, wildly gesticulating, and, in the midst of all, still pointing its small forefinger at Hester's bosom.” (Hawthorne, Chapter 19) Pearl points firmly to Hester that she wasn't wearing her Scarlet Letter, making Hester realize how she needed to endure wearing it a little longer in order to make Pearl happy.

Another example of a connection to CORE is how there is always a fear of the Other. Looking at Sartre's concept of the Other and how Dimmesdale can not publicly announce his sin, we can see that he fears the Other. Dimmesdale chooses to keep his sin private and to himself rather than publicly confessing it in order to repent.

“'Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?'

"Not now, my child," answered Hester. (Hawthorne, Chapter 19)

Dimmesdale is not ready to publicly stand beside Hester and Pearl. He fears how society will view him as they put so much trust in him and view him as the man who will lead everyone to heaven. As a result, Dimmesdale suffers internally and becomes weaker and weaker the longer he keeps his sin private.

Pearl is also a victim of word magic. She, just like everyone else in the community, think that the Scarlet Letter “A” means something. She continues to wonder what the “A” stand for and puts much value into it, so much she won't hug her mom until she has the Scarlet Letter back on her chest. The “A” is not actually “adultery,” “angel,” “abysmal,” or anything, it is just an “A.” “The word is not the thing.” That is something Pearl and those in society does not understand.

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Credits

Lily Dragon

Elyse Hovanesian

Serrina Lam

Kaitlyn Marquez

Hannah Naiditch