Quotations

“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. . . . It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!” “Nor ever will, my child, I hope,” said Hester. “And why not, mother?” asked Pearl, stopping short. . . . “Will it not come of its own accord, when I am a woman grown?”
-Pearl is noting that the light (symbolizing truth and goodness) will not touch Hester. Hester committed a sin according to the community, and the scarlet letter shows this. The light chooses to leave Hester in the darkness with her guilt and shame.


"Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these."
- Our physial appearences can be affected by our emotions and personality. For instance, Chillingworth’s evil showed itself in his deformed shoulders. Whatever is important to us will manifest itself emotionally and mentally, as well as physically. ;


"Trusting no man as his friend, he could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared."
- If we don’t have friends how will we recognize an enemy. You have to trust some people and make friends in order to recognize and defeat enemies.


"A pure hand needs no glove to cover it."
- Many people wear “masks” to hide their true self. This is because they are afraid of what others might think. However, if we are pure and innocent on the inside, we have nothing to hide. Only the imperfet put up fronts.


"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."
– If you spend your whole life living a double life, they will eventually blend. You cannot live a lie in society to hide your true self. You will lose yourself in who you really are, and who you want society to think you are.


"It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. 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 object."
- Love and hate are very similar. They both consume a person and you can devote your entire life to loving/hating a person. It is also true that once the object of your love/hate dies, you will be crushed. Just as you would miss a loved one, you would miss a mortal enemy. You “need” them both.


"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."
– On a field, black, the letter A, red- This can be seen as relating back to the red rosebush standing out in the drab opening seen. It suggests that there can be good in all the evil of the world. There can be truth amidst all the lies. There can be hope among all of the world’s guilt.