Pearl's Lawyer: On the Removal of the Scarlet Letter from Hester Prynne

As one of Pearl’s lawyers, I represent Pearl in advocating against the removal of the “A,” Since the time she was a small child, Pearl has had a fascination with the scarlet letter. Even when she was a baby, she was simply entranced by the beauty with which the letter presented itself. This natural fascination has carried itself throughout Pearl’s life, most recently manifesting itself when she showed her anger and dissatisfaction at Hester Prynne for taking the letter off and demanding her mother to put the “A” back where it has most usually been.

At first glance, this reaction seems very simple Pearl cannot stand any deviation from the way things normally are, and perhaps that is from where it fully stems. Upon closer inspection, Pearl’s “intelligent touch” further develops that motive Pearl has very often equated Hester’s letter with the pain in Dimmesdale’s chest. This equation implies that, to Pearl, the letter is fully a part of her mother, and the removal of the letter is tantamount to Dimmesdale removing his heart, a frightening prospect for any person.

In regards to punishment, Pearl has inextricably linked to the “At“ Any discard of the letter is, to Pearl, a discard of herse if indeed, after Hester’s brief respite from the letter, Pearl seemed to have to again accept Hester as her mother, and herself as Hester’s daughter. With the letter on her mother’s bosom, she did so very happily. Due to this connection, any argument that Pearl‘s own position in society could be bettered by the removal of the “A” must be fundamentally fallaciousi Regardless of whether society forgives Hester or not, Pearl is doomed to forever remain the mark of sin.

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A sin remains a sin even after forgiveness. Furthermore, while Hester was once seen in good light, Pearl has lived her entire life as an outcast. In the future then, Pearl’s only respite from this treatment would be to leave this country because the minds of the people of New England would be nearly impossible to change Similarly, Pearl’s habits cannot easily be changed, as can be sensed from her aforementioned hatred of deviation from what she views as normal pearl’s behavior is naturally heterodox, she does not conform to the standard Puritan beliefs.

This stems from the fact that she imbibed the spirit of her mother prior to her birth, a spirit which was clearly quite blasphemous in the eyes of the Puritan church. This rejection of Puritanism manifests itself, for one, in the way that Pearl is kept almost completely separate from the whole community. The only people besides her mother that she seems to have any sort of lasting connection with are the old witch lady, Roger Chillingworth, and eventually Dimmesdale, all people who have fundamentally sinner Another manifestation is Pearl‘s inherent beauty, one she gets from her mother but is quite different, Pearl’s pulchritude is so that the Puritans would say it could only be the work of God But why would God, in this case, choose to bestow such beauty on the embodiment of sin? The answer is, of course, that God did not have a role; this beauty could only be done by the faculties of nature.

Though she is often described as preternatural, that is only with regard to the Puritans In her natural state she lives in a world separate from God: the natural world. This makes sense since, in her brief adventures through a natural area, Pearl has often appeared to be more the child of nature than of Hester. On one such occurrence, Pearl even tried to embody her mother’s defining characteristic in a more natural way, creating a green “A” from eelgrass and the like. This deviation from Puritan orthodoxy and propriety poses an interesting problem about Pearl’s morality Pearl likes that which is normal, or, in this case, that which is natural. Again, Pearl‘s morality derives itself from what she spiritually took in from her mother during fetal development.

This morality is based on what is natural, beyond the Puritan church. Pearl‘s morality is then quite different from the average person, but is still existent Pearl’s morality in her current epoch is the same and unlikely to change in the future That being said, Pearl’s morality is based on the natural. This means that the removal of Hester‘s letter could potentially be severely detrimental to Pearl’s morality, as her mother wearing the letter is almost the only thing Pearl has been able to consistently count on to be normal. The statement that Hester is more moral without the letter, therefore, contradicts the primary basis on which Pearl bases her morality and deems her values to be immoral. Such a statement may be fundamentally true in the eyes of many, but to Pearl, it could be extremely destructive. From the point of view of Pearl, the letter should not and cannot be removed, simply because such removal would do more harm to Pearl than good to Hester Prynne.