Hawthornes Moral Wilderness Pearl the Rosebush Jessica Goessler

Hawthorne's Moral Wilderness Pearl & the Rosebush Jessica Goessler Grace Kim Casey Nolan Gabriela Tapia Michaelynn Welther Period 3, Gerber

Thesis The beautiful yet wild nature of the rosebush, personified in Pearl, expresses both of their abilities to thrive in locations abnormal to them, suggesting that truth, though wild and difficult to accept, has beauty and will prevail even in adversity.

Pearl: The Beauty • • • "Pearl? -Ruby, rather!-or Coral!or Red Rose, at the very least, judging by thy hue!" (Chapter 8). Pearl has a natural beauty Well dressed She had few similarities to a Pearl More similar to a rose

The Forest Nymph • • Though Hester loved Pearl, she also feared her. Pearl was the result of Hester's sin “Pearl resembled the brook, inasmuch as the current of her life gushed from a well-spring as mysterious, and had flowed through scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom” (Chapter 16). Pearl was like nature

Pearl, "a blessing and a curse" • • • Pearl is beautiful, yet people avoid her, like a rose with it's thorns Chapter 8, p. 103 Villagers think she is demonic, represents her "evil" side Chapter 8, p. 107 She exemplifies the truth and brings out the truth in people, which represents her "good" Chapter 19, p. 198

The Rosebush Symbolically ) b r u t s i d to : y y t i s l a a e e / e l d In R n a h to d r a h ( -Fragile on i s s a p s e z i l o b -Sym h c u o t e th o t y n r -Tho r o l o C s e d i z v i i l V o / t b m y s -Brigh y l n i a m h s u b e d l i s o r -W e. h t e , p l o e v h l o n mora In the Chapter 8: ". . . the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door, " (93).

The Rosebush • • • "This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history. . . " (72). Pearl and the rose bush represent nature, which is a foil to Puritan civilization. They both represent a harsh truth and reality in an environment that mainly tries to conceal its sin. The rose- and Pearl- thrives in nature, where it belongs, and also in the village, where it stands out. The rose is juxtaposed against the prison door; it grows next to it and exudes a beauty which was uncommon to the Puritans until Pearl came along.

• • Plucked from a Rosebush Pearl and Rosebush= TRUTH of society both arise in sinful nature ". . . on one side of the portal. . . was a wild rose-bush with it's delicate gems which might. . . offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in. . . in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him" (33 -34). Thrived in or near the prison ". . . the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison door" (76).

The Ugly, The Lovely, The Truth The beauty of Pearl and the rose bush is the simple truth they represent. Although sinful, the truth that they represent is moral. Both thriving from the prison, the rosebush reminds the society of kindness and forgiveness. Pearl believes she was born from being plucked from the rosebush and entered the world in the prison. It is ironic how such beautiful figures exist near a place of the sinners, yet prevail in representing the truth. The truth is their sinful background embraced and accepted in the midst of society.