Scarlet Letter
...letter, mocking her sentence. She shows her skill, and it seems like she takes pride in her token of isolation. When Hester is led back to the prison from the platform on the pillory, "It was whispered that the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark passage-way of the interior." (58) Hester's mark becomes the guiding light throughout her whole life, even though, or, rather, because, the scarlet letter keeps the people and their prejudices away. Pearl, as the illegitimate daughter of Hester, is also an outcast. Raised by Hester who never tries to impose any discipline on her, Pearl "could not be made amenable to the rules." "In giving her existence, a great law has been broken; and the result was a being, whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder." (76) Pearl is the most natural and pure character in the book. She goes "dancing and cavorting" on the streets, she chases sunlight, she is full of energy and is constantly in motion. Like Hester, she is given a very acute sense of the people around her. For example, she recognizes her father through her second sight. "[Pearl], that wild and flightly little elf, stole softly toward Mr. Dimmesdale, and, taking his hand in the grasp of both of her own, laid her cheek against it; a caress so tender that her mother asked herself, "Is this my Pearl?"" (98) Pearl, not bound by anything except her own fancies, always does whatever she feels like in that instant. She is completely in tune with the world around her. Another character who is not a part of the common people of Salem is Roger Chillingworth, Hester's former husband. His main purpose in the book is to find out and slowly punish Hester's lover with whom she had committed adultery. People sense at once that Roger Chillingworth is not one of them because of his great skill and knowledge and because many see "something ugly and evil in his face" (109). Some people even call him "a guise of Satan, or Satan's emissary" (109) People are afraid of him; no one knows who he really is when he comes into the town all by himself. No one knows much about his past, or about his purpose, which provokes rumors and stories behind his back. Roger Chillingworth, as an outsider, can also sense people very well. Almost immediately, he discerns Dimmesdale to be Hester's former lover, even though only Dimmesdale and Hester know the secret. "Old Roger Chillingworth had perceptions that were almost intuitive." (112) Dimesdale, although a man of great knowledge and imagination, is so caught up in hiding his secret because he is afraid of being discovered and thrown down from his respectable position in society. He strives to remain a part of the town, and therefore does not have the ability of perception like those who can look at the townspeople at a distance do. "Trusting no man as his friend, Dimmesdale could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared." (112) Roger Chillingworth, so determined in his persecution "of the man who has wronged him" (63), moves in with Dimmesdale, meanwhile pressuring him psychologically all the time to confess his sin. Dimmesdale's health becomes worse and worse, but he still cannot feel that it is his so-called physician that is ruining his life. Dimmesdale conceals his passions, like his love for Hester and desire to redeem his sin by confession, in order to remain within the society, and is therefore untrue towards himself and other people. Another character in the story that possesses magical perception is Mistress Hibbins. She is a "venerable witch-lady" (130) and "a bitter-tempered sister" (99). "A few years later, [she] was executed as a witch" (99). During her life she is the woman viewed as "Satan's snare" (100), the evil to be avoided by any respectable member of the society. "The crowd gave way before her, and seemed to fear the touch of her garment as if it carried a plague among its gorgeous folds" (212). However, Mistress Hibbins has the ability to see. She know...