The Scarlet Letter: Ch 23-24

"Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies, and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it. Towards her mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled"(229).

Pearl formerly served as the separation and deciding factor between Hester and Dimmesdale returning to their old lives of sin and guilt, or a new life of light and forgiveness. Dimmesdale finally confessed his sin to the town, and that allowed Pearl to accept him. Dimmesdale revealing his sin seemed to free Pearl's identity from being hidden in secret, and allowed her to escape from being thought of a possible devil-child. It allowed her to become fully human, not just a sin or the representation of it. Pearl could accept the happiness of Dimmesdale and her mother because she was finally accepted and brought into the open. She was able to be at peace and take her place as a person in the world, not just the product of sin.


"Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his subject. Philosophically considered, therefore, the two passions seem essentially the same, except that one happens to be seen in a celestial radiance, and the other in a dusky and lurid glow"(232).

Hate and love entail almost the exact thoughts and feelings. Both hate and love each take over almost all of one's feelings. They are both passionate, time consuming, and force one to care deeply about their subject. However, although very similar, hate and love stem from very different places. Hate begins in a dark place expressed though negative actions, while love is seen through beauty and light. It is the routes behind both hate and love that are almost the same, the consuming nature of each feeling. In either situation, when the subject is taken away, the lover or hater is left with almost nothing because they are so consumed with the subject. It is expected when a loved one is taken away, that the lover is left with almost nothing. However, we see through Chillingworth that one who hates is still left with nothing after the subject is taken away because hate is in fact just as passionate and consuming as love is.

1. repudiate- to reject as having no authority or binding force

"It was to teach them, that the holiest among us has but attained so far above his fellows as to discern more clearly the Mercy which looks down, and repudiate more utterly the phantom of human merit, which would look aspiringly upward"(231).

1. antipathy- a natural, basic, or habitual repugnance; aversion

"...have found their earthly stock of hatred and antipathy transmuted into golden love"(232).