"This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history" (35)
The lone rose bush outside of the prison door seems to be the only vegetation visible through the bars of a warn down prison. Everything else is a view of the dirt covered town, waring away as well. That rose bush meant that in Prynne's Grim situation, there was still a ray of hope. Just like the rose bush at the prison, pearl was the beautiful thing that came out of a mistake. Everyone thought her to be the spawn of satan. The towns people labeled pearl based solely on the mistakes of her parents, as an abomination to be handled or shunned. But pearl was not a abomination to Prynne. Prynne, comments how pearl was the only thing good that came out of her current situation. Prynne fights for Pearls custody even though it means going against the leaders and townspeople once more. Pearl is what Prynne has to live for. With out Pearl, Prynne could give up with out hurting anyone.
Symbols are a major part of this story. I noticed how Pearl serves as a reminder to Hester of her past sins, but she also provides Hester with reason to not give up and keep perservering. The rose bush is symbolic of that hope too. Also, I noticed how the letter "A" that Hester embroiders is a symbol as well. This is the obvious symbol, but it serves the same purpose as Pearl and the rose bush, in my opinion. While the letter lables Hester as an alduterer, there is still beauty in it because she made it beautiful. Through her sewing, she made the letter beautiful and found talents within her misfortune. I think its neat how all of the symbols are different, yet they all seem to have an underlying aspect that connects them together.
ReplyDelete