Nudelman’s Argument on The Scarlet Letter Essay Example

In Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Pearl’s relationship can be interpreted in many different ways. One of these interpretations, discussed by Franny Nudelman, argues that Pearl is a reflection of her mother’s inner feelings. As a physical embodiment of Hester’s scarlet letter, a physical embodiment of her sin, Pearl reflects the emotions and thoughts that Hester herself cannot outwardly express. Using this lens given by Nudelman, we as readers can look at passages from the novel in a different light, revealing new insights about Hester by observing Pearl’s thoughts, words, and actions. We can note how Hester is truly feeling during certain scenes, when she sits expressionless, by noting how Pearl is unafraid to speak those feelings or act the way Hester wishes she could internally. 

In her article, “Emblem and Product of Sin”, Nudelman argues that Pearl is a reflection of her mother’s innermost thoughts and feelings, expressing things that Hester cannot due to the societal restraints the scarlet letter has placed upon her. Nudelman begins by explaining that, since Pearl is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, she is the portrayer of all the things Hester is being forced to suppress. Nudelman writes, “The suffering that Hester suppresses in public is communicated directly to her child. As a result, [. . .] Pearl expresses, indeed typifies, Hester’s moral state” (193). She begins by introducing this theoretical lens to her audience, enabling the reader to view scenes of Hester and Pearl through this different light. Nudelman continues by giving the reader more examples of this view and thought process of Hawthorne’s work. By giving Pearl this new meaning, it enables the reader to better understand Hester and her innermost thoughts, feelings, and motives to everything that is going on within the novel, including insight into her actions and what she was feeling during those moments. The first example that Nudelman uses to showcase this different perspective is at the beginning of the novel. When Hester is first released from prison, with an infant Pearl in her arms and her new scarlet letter brandished on her bosom, she is forced to stand upon the scaffold for hours with Pearl kept in her arms. After awhile, the scorn and criticism of her community staring at her, Hester remains expressionless, while Pearl becomes restless and agitated, “As a result, the infant’s body, ‘writh[ing] in convulsion of pain,’ becomes ‘a forcible type [. . .] of the moral agony which Hester Prynne had borne throughout the day (64).’” (193). Nudelmen continues with her examples, citing another moment in the novel between Hester and Pearl wherein Hester remains emotionless on the outside, the mask she wears in public in place, while Pearl dances and is clearly feeling joyous - just how Hester is feeling on the inside. Now that Hester is leaving the strict Puritan community with Pearl and Pearl’s father, Arthur Dimmesdale, she is feeling happy and excited on the inside, but she has to keep her facade up, as Nudelman argues, “‘[There was] a certain singular inquietude and excitement in Pearl’s mood [. . .] [she] betrayed, by the very dance of her spirits, the emotions which none could detect in the marble passiveness in Hester's brow (200).’ Hester’s thoughts and emotions are revealed by Pearl’s behavior” (207). While Nudelman uses specific moments from Hawthorne’s novel to prove her point about Pearl being a reflection of Hester’s innermost thoughts and feelings, she also uses the novel to discuss how this reflection of her mother is broken in Pearl once Dimmesdale reveals the truth and kisses Pearl. Once this moment happens, Pearl becomes more of her own person, no longer reflecting her mother’s feelings and instead feeling her own. As Nudelman writes, “Dimmesdale’s kiss inaugurates Pearl into the world of human feeling. [. . .] Dimmesdale grants Pearl an interior - the capacity to feel. But he also provokes the signs of feeling - tears - that will render her interior visible to an approving public” (209). Once her father reveals himself to the community as Pearl’s father, Pearl gains the ability to convey her own emotions, rather than her mother’s. This lens that Nudelman gives us with her article can be used to draw out new insight about Hester by interpreting Pearl’s actions in terms of Hester’s inner feelings. 

Franny Nudelman discussed only a few of the moments in Hawthorne’s novel where we can see Hester’s inner thoughts and emotions expressed through her daughter Pearl. For example, in chapter 7, when Hester and Pearl are walking through town they encounter a group of children who throw mud at them. While Hester remains emotionless and gives no reaction, Pearl is the opposite. She yells at them and stamps her feet, threatening them, “‘Come, therefore, and let’s throw mud at [Hester and Pearl]!’ But Pearl, [. . .] after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush at her enemies, and put them all to flight” (81). Looking at this moment through the lens given to us by Nudelman, we can think about Hester in a deeper way. Hester resents the townspeople for their hurtful words and actions, but cannot express this due to the scarlet letter that was forcibly placed on her for her sins. Instead, the things she wants to say and do are instead enacted through Pearl. Pearl is the expression of her inner thoughts and feelings throughout the novel. Another example of this can be found later on in the novel, with the words Pearl speaks to her mother voicing Hester’s inner thoughts. When Hester seeks out the minister in the forest, she brings Pearl along as Pearl is always with her, or at least close by. Before being sent off to give them some privacy, Pearl sees the minister approaching, hand over his bosom, reflecting Hester’s own scarlet letter, “It is the minister!’ [. . .] ‘He has his hand over his heart! Is it because, when the minister wrote his name in the book, the Black Man set his mark in that place? But why does he not wear it outside his bosom, as thou dost, mother?’” (147). Many things can be inferred from this moment when looking at this particular moment through Nudelman’s argued lens. It can be seen that Hester is also questioning why Arthur won’t wear a scarlet letter as well. She’s wondering why he won’t tell the truth, why he won’t own up to what he’s done like she had. They were both being affected by ‘the devil’, or ‘the Black Man’, but only one of them was bearing the weight of the community’s disapproval. Though Pearl questions this aloud, Hester says nothing, she just sends Pearl away so she and Arthur can speak in private. Hester does not express her thoughts and emotions outwardly; they are expressed quite outwardly through Pearl. In chapter twelve, Hester’s inner emotions are expressed through Pearl once again. Hester and Pearl stand with the minister on the scaffold that the two of them had once occupied seven years prior, without him, as he had never been able to bear the community’s judgement and scorn. They stand on the scaffold in the middle of the night, where the rest of the townspeople are fast asleep, no one is around to witness this moment except for them. Arthur is still hiding his secret from the townspeople, only having the courage to stand on the scaffold in the dark. Hester’s inner thoughts and feelings are expressed through Pearl as Pearl asks if he will stand with them on the scaffold tomorrow, during the daylight and while people are awake, while people are able to witness them together. Hester is wondering if Arthur will join them in the daylight, if he will tell people the truth and join her up on the scaffold like he should have seven years ago. The minister replies with “I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee [on the scaffold] one other day, but not to-morrow!’ Pearl laughed” (120). When we look through Nudelman’s lens, Pearls’ laugh informs the reader that Hester is laughing on the inside as well. She isn’t believing what Arthur is saying to Pearl, as Pearl expresses for her outwardly in this scene. She doesn’t believe that Arthur will ever join her and Pearl out on the scaffold, that he’ll keep the secret forever. That isn’t what either of them want, as we see expressed through Pearl. 

When looking through the lens given through Nudelman’s argument, Pearl’s outward expressions and actions can help the reader understand Hester’s inner thoughts and feelings on a deeper level. It can be noted that while Hester remains outwardly emotionless and holds back her instinctive actions, Pearl has no problem expressing these strong feelings and thoughts through both her dialogue and her actions throughout the novel. As she is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, Pearl has no problems expressing what the scarlet letter stops Hester from expressing herself. This aspect of Nudelman’s argument can successfully help the reader understand both Hester Prynne and the novel itself on a deeper level.