Scarlet Letter Character Analyses

Scott Pero
AP English Language-Mr. George
February 21, 2010
Pearl Character Analysis

Pearl is the wild and unruly lovechild of Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale; though seemingly demonic, her intentions are pure.

Because Hester and Dimmesdale indulged in their sin, Pearl was born. Quickly, Pearl’s nature makes itself known. Hester sees herself in Pearl; Pearl is the corporeal manifestation of the Scarlet Letter and everything that is associated with it. She is constantly likened to a rose, as she is always found wearing scarlet, and even says that she was, “plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison-door” (Hawthorne 102). Because Pearl is compared to a rose, however, her true and benevolent purpose is revealed: “It[a rose] may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” (46). Pearl brings out the moral best in her mother and protects her mother from the cruelty of the townspeople, effectively serving as Hester’s ‘moral blossom’. Pearl finally accepts Dimmesdale as her father when he publicly confesses, kissing him and relieving his frail and sorrowful tale.

Pearl is like a naiad, a water nymph. Pearl is elfish and tricky like a naiad, playing in the same manner with her mother. Naiads were tethered to their source of water, usually a river, and if that river dried up, the naiad died. Pearl’s river is the Scarlet Letter. She is its physical manifestation, and when the Scarlet Letter was no longer necessary, Pearl’s iniquity faded away, leaving her to grow up a normal woman.

A modern-day Pearl is Toph, from Avatar: The Last Airbender; both are tough and like to play tricks on the outside, but deep down, they actually have feelings.

Scott Pero
AP English Language-Mr. George
February 21, 2010
Roger Chillingworth Character Analysis

Roger Chillingworth is a brilliant and learned man turned vengeful cuckold, who develops a penchant for his victim’s pain and anguish.

For Hester to commit adultery, she would need a husband to scorn: Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth was believed dead for two years, but when he enters Boston after his sojourn in the wilderness, he finds his wife upon the scaffold with a blazing scarlet ‘A’ on her bosom. Chillingworth is extremely brilliant, possessing knowledge in various areas such as alchemy and philosophy. Using his intellect as his greatest weapon, Chillingworth endeavors to discover the identity of Hester’s paramour. Soon, however, Chillingworth’s search consumes him, as he develops a thirst for the lamentations of his victim, Dimmesdale: “‘Better had he died at once! Never did mortal suffer what this man has suffered…there was a fiend at his elbow! A mortal man, with once a human heart, has become a fiend for his especial torment!’” (155). Chillingworth feeds off of Dimmesdale’s agony, eventually addicting himself to it. When the source of his addiction diminishes, Chillingworth dies.

Chillingworth is an animal trainer at a circus who keeps his animal, Dimmesdale, caged. The animal wishes to free itself, but cannot. When it is let out of its cage, it still is not free because the trainer controls it. The trainer manipulates the animal in his show as he sees fit, reaping the monetary benefits he so desperately craves. When the animal dies, the trainer’s source of money is no more, and his act has no purpose.

Chillingworth is like The Hood from The Thunderbirds, who was never rescued by the Thunderbirds, and addicts himself to mass villainy and vengeance because of it.