Pearl as a character is a very fascinating example of a
symbol in this novel. It is clear that the ambiguity that surrounds her stems from the
fact that she is the product of an illicit relationship. Being born out of wedlock to a
mother who is branded and punished for committing adultery and to an unknown father
results in her childhood being extremely different from that of other children, as she
grows up isolated and shunned in the same way that her mother is rejected and
spurned.
The ambiguity surrounding her, in my opinion, has
to do with how we "read" her as a character. Her name instantly brings to mind a
precious object, produced by the introduction of an impurity, and developed in secret.
Yet, especially in Chapter 6, we see that she is also surrounded by images that refer to
plants and gardens, being described as "a lovely and immortal flower" being bred "out of
the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion." In her ornamented clothing, she is presented
as the incarnation of the scarlet letter, a living stigma. Yet, vitally, she is also
described as various and mutable. She does therefore not lend herself to any one single
definition:
In this one child there were many children,
comprehending the full scope between the wild-flower prettiness of a peasant-baby, and
the pomp, in little, of an infant
princess.
Pearl in a sense is
similar to the scarlet letter, because neither can be pigeonholed or limited to one
particular meaning. We are told that Pearl's nature "lacked reference and adaptation to
the world into which she was born". Both the scarlet letter and Pearl, as its product,
defy interpretation to any fixed form of meaning, and it is this that creates the
tremendous ambiguity surrounding her character.
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