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Character Analysis of Pearl

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The Character of Pearl
Pearl is a major character in the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Even though she is a young child through most of the book, she plays a very important role. Pearl asks many different questions throughout the text that make the adult characters even question themselves. She is more perceptive and more honest than anyone in the rest of the book. Without Pearl, “The Scarlet Letter” would not be as successful as it is. Pearl is supposed to be an average child, but she is also there to help us realize things we might not have seen on our own, and to symbolize sin and guilt. When we first meet Pearl, most of us realized that there was definitely something special about this little girl. She has a special insight into things in the book that I would have never noticed without Pearl. Hawthorne uses Pearl in a special way to reveal that Dimmesdale has something to do with the scarlet letter. Pearl is not used to being around a lot of people, so when she accepted Dimmesdale so openly it helped the readers realize who he truly was. It says “Pearl, that wild and unpredictable little elf, crept over to him. She took his hand in both of hers and laid her cheek against it.” (92) This is a kindness that most little girls would only share with a family member, such as their father. There is also other information that Pearl gives to reveal to us that she knows who her father truly is. When Hester and Pearl come across Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale on the scaffold, she asks him “Wilt thou stand here with mother and me, to-morrow noontide?” (121) When he says he won’t stand with them on the scaffold, Pearl feels like her father is denying her. Dimmesdale was frightened of public humiliation of everyone knowing his sin, but yet was also glad to know that Pearl knew that he was her father. Later on in the book, Hester asks Pearl if she knows why

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