Pearl is the illegitimate child between Hester Prynne and Rev. Dimmesdale. The novel begins with Pearl being a baby in her mother’s arms upon the scaffold. It is not until Chapters 5 and 6, when a few years have passed that Pearl is no longer a baby, but is a young child. As a child, Pearl is treated like an outcast and is a very imaginative child due to her isolation. Also, she has developed a fascination with the Scarlet Letter upon her mother’s breast. There is some action that occurs with
Pearl as a focal point; Hester has heard that people are discussing taking Pearl away from her and goes to solve the matter.
Pearl chases away a group of onlookers who are slandering her mother. At the governor’s manor, Pearl refuses to answer the simplest questions and thus Dimmesdale argues for Hester and Pearl and it is concluded that the mother and child would remain together. In Chapter 10, Pearl dances in a graveyard and attaches burrs to the Scarlet Letter; upon seeing that
Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are nearby, she leads her mother away stating that the “Black Man” must not capture them.
In Chapter 12, Pearl and Hester join Dimmesdale on the scaffold late at night, and Pearl innocently asks Dimmesdale if he will ever join them on the scaffold in midday for all to see. Shortly afterward, Pearl notices Chillingworth watching them and the grouping is broken up. Through the first 12 chapters, Pearl plays a very important part in causing the adults around her to think.
Pearl being in her mother’s arms on the scaffold for Hester’s humiliation.
“Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch’s anathemas” (pg.64)
“In giving her existence, a great law had been broken; and the result was a being, whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder” (pg.62)
“An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants.” (pg.64)
“A crimson velvet tunic of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread.”
(Page 69)
“Some such -half-fledged angel of judgment...” (page 70)
As Hester and Pearl enter the governor’s manor, Pearl points out the reflection of Hester in a suit of armor. Hester is unable to see past the Scarlet letter on her chest when
Pearl points this out.
When Pearl is asked where she comes from, she says Hester picked her off the rose bush.
Pearl is “as beautiful as the day but [is] in one of those moods of perverse merriment which, whenever they occurred, seemed to remove her entirely out of the sphere of sympathy or human contact.” (pg. 91)
It is highly possible Pearl’s participation in this event and being squeezed closely to her mother’s breast and to the scarlet letter has created a subconscious memory, which is the root to her fascination with the Scarlet Letter.
Pearl’s overreactions to the children’s taunts are completely contradictory to Puritan society, and the fact that she scares her mother and Hawthorne likens her screams to that of witches shows the true fear with which Puritans view sin, luxury, and indulgence.
The sin that created Pearl has left her personality in disorder, and is a reference to The Chain of Being, which also puts her at odds with Puritan society.
When Hawthorne says this, his indication is that Pearl does not belong in either Puritan society or the world in general.
Also, the indication is that Pearl is a demon-child and foreshadows that she will cause mischief.
Likens Pearl to the boldly embroidered “A” on Hester’s on chest and reinforces the idea that Pearl is a mirror of
Hester’s own sin.
Ironic as Pearl is about to be judged as to whether she is a demon or not.
Pearl’s indirect role in making her mother realize just how much the Scarlet letter has come to define her also demonstrates how Pearl just accepts the letter as part of
Hester.
Pearl is likening herself to a wild rose, thorny, but a beautiful color of red, and an ever present reminder of her mother’s sin.
The phrasing reminds the reader that Pearl does not always act this way. The description of her joy as perverse underlines her deviance from normal human behavior, but also suggests an ability to keep some high spirits amidst her rather bleak situation, which would be expected to affect her more heavily.

Pearl skips irreverently from gravestone to gravestone, and stops to dance on one belonging to an important citizen. (pg.
91)
After Chillingworth remarks that Pearl has no regard human concerns, he asks Dimmesdale whether she has any discoverable nature, to which he replies: “None-, save the freedom of a broken law” (Pg.92)
Pearl picks up some burrs and sticks them onto the scarlet letter, where they cling “as their nature” causes them too, outlining it. (Pg.92)
Pearl calls Chillingworth the Black Man (Devil) and says that he has “got hold of” Dimmesdale. (Pg.92)
When Hester and Pearl meet Dimmesdale at night on the scaffold, Pearl asks him to stand there with them during the daylight hours. When he declines she refuses to identify
Roger Chillingworth, pretending to know something of him, instead rebuking Dimmesdale for being neither bold nor true. (Pg.105-108)
This demonstrates Pearl’s indifference to the laws and mores of society, as she breaks them in a somewhat shocking manner. It also suggests an active disrespect, or even disdain, for those strictures. It is unlikely that Pearl actually bears animosity to the owners of those gravestones and their descendants, as she is probably too young to understand their significance, but it does give that appearance to observers.
Dimmesdale may interpret Pearl through the filter of his own guilt, imputing a metaphysical link between the sin of her conception and her character. However, this also could also suggest a more mundane influence from her origin: that she has grown-up with a non-conformist character because of her separation from society, caused indirectly by her mother’s shunning.
This act represents Pearl’s constant re-intensification of the guilt that Hester feels. It suggests that it is only her natural characteristics and her presence that cause Hester pain, and not any specific malice.
Here, Pearl demonstrates an almost supernatural sensitivity, guessing something of Chillingworth’s nature and relationship with Dimmesdale.
Pearl demonstrates her intuition and sensitivity, seeing
Dimmesdale’s weaknesses. It may be that she desires his public vindication of her, in front of the townspeople who habitually disrespect her, but this seems unlikely. Whether or not she is demonstrating something beyond simple childish perversity in asking him to reveal himself is left ambiguous.
Pearl provokes a struggle within the reader. There is an inclination to view her as many of the less sympathetic characters do: as an immoral being, tainted by the sin of her origin. There is little obvious evidence to contradict this, especially since the content of her mind is not well described. Thus the somewhat repulsive attitudes of the puritans in the community are made understandable to the audience, at least in this matter; its members must themselves struggle with the prejudice that a situation such as Hester and Pearl’s can provoke. She also seems to more of a literary device than a full character at times, delivering thematic messages or insights into the other characters, without being developed very much herself.