It is in Chapter 15 that Pearl constructs her own Scarlet
Letter, which is formed from fresh green plants, to wear upon her own breast. This
triggers of a discussion between Hester and Pearl about the significance of the letter
"A". Hester draws back from explaining to the seven year old the intended meaning of the
stigma, which curiously makes her feel as if she has been false to the
letter.
Consider what the text says about the "A" that
Pearl fashions:
She inherited her mother's gift for devising
drapery and costume. As the last touch to her mermaid's garb, Pearl took some eelgrass,
and imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so
familiar on her mother's. A letter - the letter "A" - but freshly green, instead of
scarlet! The child bent her chin upon her breast, and contemplated this device with
strange interest; even as if the one only thing for which she had been sent into the
world was to make out its hidden
import.
Interestingly, and
perhaps ironically, Pearl tries to "decode" the symbolism of the scarlet letter herself
with great intensity. Clearly the fact that Pearl has fashioned her own "A" out of
eelgrass to form a green letter, instead of a scarlet one, confirms her description as
an "elf-child", a character who seems more at home in nature than in the "civilised"
town. She is confirmed in the novel as a character of the world of romance, and is an
incarnation of physical pleasure and imaginative freedom, entirely contrary to the
Puritan way of life. This "A", therefore, highlights a key theme in the novel, which is
the way in which symbols can be ascribed or imposed on others, but how then they can be
reinterpreted to symbolise other things. Just in the same way that Hester re-interprets
her "A" as a sign of honour, shown by the care with which she embroiders it, so Pearl
takes the sign of shame and uses it to symbolise her own position as an outsider in the
community, as one who is of nature rather than of civilisation.
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