The Scarlet Letter # 9

"'Yes; now I will!' answered the child, bounding across the brook and clasping Hester in her arms. 'Now thou art my mother indeed! And I am thy little Pearl!"(190).

While Pearl's tantrum may have been caused by a child's inability to cope with change as Hester said, I believe it may go deeper than that. I believe that Pearl's attachment to the scarlet letter is not merely caused by the fact that she is used to seeing her mother wear it. In a stange way, Pearl may very well love the scarlet letter. It was mentioned earlier in the novel that the scarlet letter was the first thing that Pearl saw. That in itself could have caused Pearl to become infatuated with it. After all, many animals recognize the first being they see at birth to be their mother. Since Pearl is always described as wild, it is not impossible that she could have some animalistic tendencies. The fact that Pearl goes back to behaving like her normal self after Hester puts the scarlet letter back on may mean that Pearl does not believe Hester to be her mother without the scarlet letter. Also, Pearl's insistance that Hester pick it up and put it back on may mean that Pearl does not want Hester to reject the scarlet letter. Perhaps Pearl can sense Hester's shame and agony, and feeds of it just as Chillingworth feeds off Dimmesdale's shame and agony.

"'Why, know you not,' cried the shipmaster, 'that this physician here-Chillingworth, he calls himself-is minded to try my cabin-fare with you? Ay, ay, you must have known it; for he tells me he is of your party, and a close friend to the gentleman you spoke of,-that he is in peril from these sour old Puritan rulers!'"(210)

Just as Hester and Dimmesdale devise a way to free themselves of their shame, Chillingworth comes up with a way to stomp on their hopes once again. Chillingworth is indeed as intelligent as he is vengeful. I can only imagine what he has planned. Perhaps he will begin tormenting Hester as he did Dimmesdale, now that she has told Dimmesdale of his plan and twarted his hopes of punishing Dimmesdale further. I would not put it past Chillingworth. He was so close to breaking Dimmesdale, but Hester ruined everything for him. Dimmesdale must feel some sort of fury. Or perhaps he considers this more like a challenge. He may have even encouraged Hester to tell Dimmesdale in the hopes of something greater arising as a result. Perhaps deep withing Chillingworth's darkened heart lingered a sense of boredom. He could be attempting to amuse himself by bringing his twisted game to a new level. After all, Chillingworth has been compared to the devil many times. In most legends, the devil has a great interest in games that involve a gamble of some sort.