Pearl, the living symbol of Hester's sin of adultery is a very complex character. She is present in almost every scene with Hester, rarely by her side. However her character remains somewhat in the shadows at all times. She is difficult to understand, she is passionate and wild, and she does not obey any rules but those she wishes to. Her moods seem to change quickly, at times she seems as if she were put on earth to torment her mother for her acts of adultery. At other times she is sweet and loving of her mother. Pearl is said to "react according to her particular feeling of the moment" possibly paralleling the passion of her mother and Dimmesdale. Hester describes Pearl as a " face, fiend-like, full of smiling malice" I do not know if she sees Pearl as evil or possessed or rather just as wild and free. The people of the village sometimes refer to her in comparison to the devil, for she throws rocks at their children, says crazy things and had an awful temper.
The townspeople also look down upon Pearl because she is a child of sin, the product of adultery and they outcast her as much as Hester. Although many people see an evil in Pearl God and nature seem to see something different.
Pearl is described as beautiful and intelligent. She plays happily as most children do with much physical grace. She seems to fit perfectly in the forest where her wildness can run free; her nature is at one in the woods. As she runs, the light that her mother so desperately seeks follows her, shining upon her. The light may be a sign from God that the child is not tarnished for her mother's sins, that she is good and pure although she may seem like a savage. .
Pearl becomes more human in the last chapters of the book. She has a yearning for Dimmesdale to acknowledge she and her mother in public, showing that she cares about him to some extent. This hypothesis is proven in the final chapter when she kisses Dimmesdale on the head after she has joined him at the scaffold.