Children are often categorized into two groups: the devil children and the angel children. The character Pearl from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous novel, The Scarlet Letter, does not seem to fall into either of these departments. Being the illegitimate offspring of the revered Puritan minister Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, a beautiful woman publicly viewed and shunned as an adulteress marked with the scarlet A, little Pearl is seen as the evil born from her parents’ sin and is generally avoided by the Puritan populace. The strictly religious colonists of 17th century New England keep their children from playing with this mystery child, and she faces the threat of being taken from her mother, the only person in the world whom she loves.
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At times, she can appear as an evil child with a desire to harm anything that stands in her way. For example, at a point in the story, she sees the minister Dimmesdale and his friend watching her and Hester through a window, and her first inclination is to throw prickly burrs at them (111). By the same childish reasoning, she dances on the graves of the honored dead of the colony (110). Observing her daughter’s misconduct, ‘It appalled [Hester] to discern in her a shadowy reflection of the evil that had existed in herself’ (78). Even while wondering what made Pearl act so crudely, Hester would be surprised by signs of affection from the child. In an instance when it is proposed that Pearl should be taken away from Hester in order to be raised properly, the minister Dimmesdale opposes such action and allows the two to stay together. The girl kisses his hand as a sign of gratitude and ‘…[Hester] knew there was love in the child’s heart….’ (96). At a later date, she bids him goodbye at his death with a tender farewell kiss (209). When the day finally arrives that Pearl asks about the origin of the scarlet letter upon her mother’s breast, she appeals to Hester as a friend and ‘the thought occurred to Hester that the child might really be seeking to approach her with childlike confidence…to establish a meeting point of sympathy. It showed Pearl in an unwonted respect.’ (148). Along with her determination to resist conforming to the public expectancies, Pearl displays curious quirks. After reconciling with her mother after a brief tension, she kisses her scarlet letter ‘….by a kind of necessity that always impelled the child to alloy whatever comfort she might chance to give with a throb of anguish…’ (174). Already in a tense bond with Hester and jealous for her attention, Pearl is upset by a relationship between her mother and Arthur Dimmesdale that
At times, she can appear as an evil child with a desire to harm anything that stands in her way. For example, at a point in the story, she sees the minister Dimmesdale and his friend watching her and Hester through a window, and her first inclination is to throw prickly burrs at them (111). By the same childish reasoning, she dances on the graves of the honored dead of the colony (110). Observing her daughter’s misconduct, ‘It appalled [Hester] to discern in her a shadowy reflection of the evil that had existed in herself’ (78). Even while wondering what made Pearl act so crudely, Hester would be surprised by signs of affection from the child. In an instance when it is proposed that Pearl should be taken away from Hester in order to be raised properly, the minister Dimmesdale opposes such action and allows the two to stay together. The girl kisses his hand as a sign of gratitude and ‘…[Hester] knew there was love in the child’s heart….’ (96). At a later date, she bids him goodbye at his death with a tender farewell kiss (209). When the day finally arrives that Pearl asks about the origin of the scarlet letter upon her mother’s breast, she appeals to Hester as a friend and ‘the thought occurred to Hester that the child might really be seeking to approach her with childlike confidence…to establish a meeting point of sympathy. It showed Pearl in an unwonted respect.’ (148). Along with her determination to resist conforming to the public expectancies, Pearl displays curious quirks. After reconciling with her mother after a brief tension, she kisses her scarlet letter ‘….by a kind of necessity that always impelled the child to alloy whatever comfort she might chance to give with a throb of anguish…’ (174). Already in a tense bond with Hester and jealous for her attention, Pearl is upset by a relationship between her mother and Arthur Dimmesdale that