Scarlet Letter; Pg. 144-158

"there seemed to be no longer anything in Hester's face for Love to dwell upon; nothing in Hester's form, though majestic and statue-like, that Passion would ever dream of clasping in its embrace; nothing in Hester's bosom, to make it ever again the pillow of Affection" (148).

This is the root of all Hester's problems. Her beauty is thoroughly described throughout the novel, this being one of them, and it is the reason that she had an affair with Dimmesdale. It is obvious that these words capitalized mean more than just emotions, they are emphasized to demonstrate their representation for something greater aka Dimmesdale. As mentioned before and here as well, Hester is very beautiful. As to her unpleasant photo on the front of the book, this is probably because her hair is tied up and hidden under a hat. She is described as having "rich and luxariant hair" that no longer "gushed into the sunshine" (148). I believe Hester has also realized that her beauty is partially responsible for her sin. This is another way that she punishes herself on top of the ridicule she recieves everyday. She is making an effort to conceal all the things that brought her into a life of shame.

"The child's own nature had something wrong in it ... and often impelled Hester to ask, in bitterness of heart, whether it were for ill or good that the poor little creature had been born at all" (150).

The chances of Pearl's birth being for anything good are slim to none. In the beginning, we made the parallel between Hester Prynn and The Virgin Mary. What separates the two is the way they're children were conceived. Mary was known for her sacred and holy birth of Jesus while Hester's birth of Pearl was more scandalous and done out of sin. The outcome of Jesus' birth was to save the world, therefore one must ask - Is Pearl's birth a warning for her destruction of the world? It almost seems ridiculous or unlikely but Pearl has already acted in some ways that point to her diabolical character: "Pearl mumbled something into [Dimmesdale's] ear, taht sounded, indeed like human language, but was only gibberish ... it was in a tongue unknown to the erdite clergyman" (142). People possessed by the devil are known to speak in tongue, I'm not jumping to conclusions here but I do believe this is foreshadowing to events that may come. Pearl may not have been born to destroy the world but maybe to carry out the work of Chillingworth and see to it that DImmesdale will receive much more punishment than he already has.