Kyoko Baba

Dr. Ramsey

2/18/2000

Hester Plynne is a monstrous figure in The Scarlet Letter. Desalvo(1987) suggests that Hester is “the person with the most power and with the most responsibility for the outcome of the tale.”(p65) Though she was punished for her adultery and shunned by the society, she did not get weak nor desperate. She also avoided another danger of being a witch. Hawthorne writes:

The stigma “A” put on Hester’s breast, which should have functioned as a penalty, also functioned in another way. With this stigma, Hester was made to be special in the society, and she outlawed from society. Hawthorne describes that “t[T]he scarlet letter was her passport where other women dared not tread.”(p137) In addition, the stigma would have given her a special power. Though Hester tried to neglect that temptation, she sometimes felt that “it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts.”(p59) This situation enticed Hester to outstrip human power stronger than they would have enticed other people because she inherently have a rebellious spirit towards the society. Hawthorne pointed out:

It was always a hidden but strong motive of Hester to become a chosen person by the divine like “the destined prophetess”(p180) who recreates a new world. For such proud Hester, the lure of the stigma was attractive and perilous.

Then what saved Hester from becoming desperate or a witch? It was her identity as a mother, and Pearl, daughter of Hester, plays an important role for her. First of all, love of the daughter gave her power to survive in adversity. For Hester, Pearl was an only pleasure and hope in her life. When Pearl was about being deprived of by the Governor, Hester got half mad and resisted him fiercely. Hawthorn writes, “Alone in the world, cast off by it, and with this sole treasure to keep her heart alive, she[Hester] felt that she possessed indefeasible rights against the world, and was ready to defend them to the death.”(p77) Hester herself said to the Governor, “Pearl keeps me here in life!”(p77) Pearl also saved Hester from a witch. Hawthorn admits in p113 that without Pearl, Hester could have become a witch. Hester also knows this. She said to Mistress Hibbins, “Had they taken her[Pearl] from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man’s book too, and that with my own blood!”(p80) I will later examine in detail how Pearl tied Hester to the society rather than to “the Black Man”.

Before going to the relationship between Hester and the society, I should first reveal the nature of the relationship between Hester and Pearl. What does the existence of Pearl mean for Hester herself? Actually, it was impossible to separate Hester and Pearl because Pearl was a part of Hester. Dinnerstein(1976)asserts in The Mermaid and The Minotaur that a mother is essential for the early growth of a child’s self, but that later she becomes a menace to that self because she works to melt the child into herself. If the child is male, he resists the mother and creates his own self. However, if the child is female, it is difficult for her to create her own self because she comes to feel more identified with the mother than the boys. It is partly the case with Hester and Pearl. Though Pearl’s character is incomprehensive, two steadfast principles were emerged: “a sturdy pride, which might be discernible into self-respect” and “ a bitter scorn of many things, which, when examined, might be found to have the taint of falsehood in them.”(p123) These two principles are what is most essential for Hester. So it can not be denied that Pearl are dependent on Hester and their characters are fundamentally the same.

However, if seeing the differences of Hester’s and Pearl’s characters, we notice that their characters are complementary. In other words, Pearl is also the “shadow” of Hester in Jung’s meaning. After the stigma was attached to Hester, she lost her charm:

In contrast, such passion as Hester once had was outstanding in Pearl:

Moreover, in Pearl’s nature, there was “a shadowy reflection of the evil that had existed herself[Hester]. All this enmity and passion had Pearl inherited, by inalienable right, out of Hester’s heart.”(p65) These unquiet elements “that had distracted Hester Prynne before Pearl’s birth, had since begun to be soothed away by the softening influences of maternity.”(p65) As I described above, Hester had “the unquiet elements” in her deep heart, like the spirit reforming the society, but the stigma kept them from coming to her surface as its original function. This “shadow” part is represented by Pearl. For example, when the old minister tried to test Pearl’s Christian belief, Pearl escaped from him “like a wild, tropical bird”(p76), and she gave an astonishing answer to his question, though she knew how she should have answered. There is no description about Hester’s feeling about Pearl’s behavior, she must have been applauded Pearl because Hester had hostility towards those tried to take Pearl away from her. There is another example. When Pearl was gathered by Puritan children, she “would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations that made her mother tremble.”(p64) To our surprise, “these outbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, and even comfort, for her mother[Hester].”(p65) Although Pearl’s such characters confused and scared her mother, they must be psychologically necessary for Hester, for Pearl was a spokesman for Hester’s concealed character in the suppressing society.

The existence of Pearl was beneficial not only for Hester’s psyche, but also for her position in the society. In one sense, Pearl was a breakwater against the society. Generally, the combination of an infant and its caretaker melts people’s suspicion away, and provokes sympathy. We can find such an example in Silas Marner by George Eliot. Silas, an old weaver, was an outsider in his society, but after he happened to raise a little girl as his daughter, people loosened the guard and received him into the society. The situation of Hester was not so simple, but keeping Pearl was at least more profitable for Hester than not doing so, for Pearl was considered as pure and salvable. People have not deserted the idea of disciplining Pearl and of removing “such a stumbling-block from her[Pearl’s] path.”(p68)

Although it was not Pearl’s direct effect that finally made the stigma an honorable symbol in the society, without Pearl, Hester could not have done such a great achievement. One may wonder why Hester devoted herself to the poor and the weak so earnestly “with no hope, and seemingly no wish, of gaining anything.”(p110) Hester did not expect any sympathy nor did she intend to fuse into the society. She even rejected people’s accosting with “laying[ed] her finger on the scarlet letter.”(p111) Such Hester’s behavior can be explained by Pearl and Hester’s hidden motive. While Hester’s hidden motive is eager to depart from the society and overturn it, the existence of Pearl linked Hester to that society. She was telling the very truth when she claimed her right on Pearl to the Governor:

The Governor admonished that it was that token which would harm the child. Then Hester again claimed:

Hester’s selfless devotion to the society and “her blameless purity”(p110) were on behalf of Pearl’s education. Hester could endure the penance for Pearl, and Pearl incessantly reminds Hester of her mission by the existence itself and questioning Hester about the stigma. That is why people’s praise was just a side effect for Hester, and she was indifferent to their favor. Without the intention of Pearl’s education, or Love for Pearl, Hester would have less connection with the society because she inherently abhorred the assimilation to that society. Such Hester’s nature is found in that she did not desert the hope of reformation of the society till she died. Pearl and Love for her made a bridge between the society and Hester, who was a natural enemy of that rigid society, and otherwise could have been destroyed by it.