The
incarnation of 's and 's sins of passion,stands more as a symbol than a character. She is a
mixture of emotions, laughing at one moment, sullen at another. In fact, her behavior is so
unusual that she is referred to as "imp," "elf-child," and "airy
sprite." In Chapter VIII when the Reverend Wilson asks the three-year-old Pearl who made
her, she impetuously replies that she was not made, but was picked by her mother from the
rose-bush by the prison door. When the old minister is shocked, Hester appeals to the Reverend
Dimmesdale to speak on her behalf; as he does so, little Pearl comes to him, takes his hand in
both of hers and lays her cheek against it--much to Hester's surprise for she is not an
affectionate child. But, intuitively the child recognizes her father. The minister lays his hand
on the child's head, looks nervously around, then kisses Pearl's brow.
After
this occurrence, Pearl does not see Dimmesdale for a long time. Then, when she encounters him in
Chapter XII in the second scaffold scene as he calls to her and Hester to stand with him on the
scaffold, little Pearl whispers,
"Wilt thou stand
here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide?"
When
the minister replies that one day he will, but not tomorrow, Pearl laughs and tries to pull her
hand from his. Again she laughs when the minister repeats his words and looks at him with
"a naughty smile" and an "elfish" expression. When Dimmesdale shivers at the
sight of , Pearl tells the minister she knows who Chillingworth is, then she laughs
again, retorting after he scolds her for mocking him,
"Thou wast not bold!--thou wast not true!....Thou wouldst not promise to take my
hand, and mother's hand, to-morrow noontide!"
As
she grows, Pearl seems more and more unearthly in character as an active and forceful symbol,
focusing more and more on the scarlet letter, by pelting her mother's breast with flowers and
another time placing a seaweed A upon her mother. In Chapter XVI as Pearl
sees Dimmesdale approaching, also acting more now as a living conscience, she inquires, "Is
it the Black Man?" In Chapter XVIII, when Hester casts off the letter after talking with
Dimmesdale in the forest, Pearl refuses to cross the brook to her mother until she returns the
letter to her breast. She also refuses to kiss Dimmesdale.
Finally, in
Chapter XXIII, as Dimmesdale publicly invites Hester and Pearl onto the scaffold with him in an
admission of his sin and recognition of his child, Pearl gains in humanity and sheds her
sprite-like characteristics of impetuous behavior. Dimmesdale holds the hand of "the
sin-born child" and living conscience and asks her if she will kiss him now that they are
together on the scaffold. She does so, and
[A] spell was
broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her
sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she would
grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor for ever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it.
Towards her mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled.
With the trinity of the family formed, Pearl has acknowledged her
father as she did as a three-year-old. Her humanity is established and her father admits his
sin, so now Pearl can become a woman. With his admission of his sin of passion, Dimmesdale has
given Pearl this new human life of joy and sorrow.
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