Scarlet Letter pg. 82

Entry 17:

"Whenever that look appeared in her wild, bright, and deeply black eyes, it invested her with a strange remoteness and intangibility; it was as if she were hovering in the air and might vanish, like a glimmering light that comes we know not whence, and goes we know not wither."

All the motifs are compared in the first part of this sentence. Wild, or untamed, like a rose, was a part of Pearl's character, which had to do with the fact that she was born outside of the society's jail cell. However, now, bright and black are in contrast to one another. Brightness is usually in comparison with the scarlet letter, or the sun which goes back to earth. Darkness refers back to sin, or hell. Even though they're all different meanings, they all connect back to one another. To have sinned you have to be wild, but to show that sin, you have to have light shown upon it.

Pearl, instead of comparing her to a 'glimmering light,' can be compared back to a bird which 'hovers in the air and might vanish.' It comes and goes when it pleases, as when describing the light it isn't known when it's going to be there or when it leaves.

Pearl is a sin in another sin of hiding the father, and the light is supposed to show sin, where is it?