Elf Child

"But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and indeed, of the child's whole appearance, that it irresistibly and inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form: the scarlet letter endowed with life! The mother herself--as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain that all her conceptions assumed its form--had carefully wrought out the similitude, lavishing many hours of morbid ingenuity to create an analogy between the object of her affection and the emblem of her guilt and torture. But, in truth, Pearl was the one as well as the other; and only in consequence of that identity had Hester contrived so perfectly to represent the scarlet letter in her appearance. " (Pg 93)

The passage above surely illustrates a fiery red image of Pearl, a young lass who not only represents her mother's shame and guilt but is sort of an lively version of the actual scarlet letter. Hester cleverly and probably subconsciously dressed Pearl in this scarlet manner as a reminder of her deeds for herself and others. She has accepted her fate as one of the symbols of sin in her community, in addition to Pearl maintaining a her status as a mixture of demon child and lovable young girl.
This passage demonstrates Hawthorne's unique ability to convey an incredible sense of passion through his choice in diction and sentence structure; hopefully, both can arouse such intense emotion in the readers. The diction he chose for this paragraph allows each of the words to just pop and express itself completely yet blend in with each other. The syntactical structure makes use of complex, periodic sentences that bleed imagery and allegorical ideas.

1. Describe the tone and mood Hawthorne implies through this passage.
2. Using your knowledge of the story, create your own idea of the attitude an adult Pearl would have towards her Hester, after being seen in this way from birth.
3. What does Hester want to accomplish by dressing Pearl in a bold scarlet gown?
FB me if you have questions.