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Pearl's Moral Development In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Pearl's Moral Development In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet letter the character Pearl falls under stage 5 of Kohlberg’s moral development. Pearl personally has her own standards of living and is reliant on her own beliefs as right or wrong, and anything that falls short of that makes her uncomfortable. Although Pearl is merely a child and may lack full understanding of the idea of morality, she is still fully able to comprehend situations that unfold around her. When she sees her mother meet with Dimmesdale in the woods, she knows that something is strange: "Doth he love us? Will he go back with us, hand in hand, we three together, into the town?"(97.) While although this does not provide the reader with any moral understanding of Pearl it allows us to follow her thought

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