One of the most complex and elaborate characters in The Scarlet Letter is Pearl, the misbegotten offspring of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the story Pearl, becomes quite the dynamic little individual, as well as an extremely important symbol- one who is constantly changing. Pearl's involvement in the complex history of her parents inadvertently forced her to be viewed as different and is shunned because of her mother's sin. Pearl is a living scarlet letter to Hester, Dimmesdale and finally the reader, acting as a constant reminder of Hester's, as well as humanity's shortcomings. Hawthorne uses vivid descriptions to characterize Pearl, as he dose to every character thought the story. Pearl is first described as the infant; " Whose innocent life had sprung, by the inscrutable decree of Providence, a lovely and immortal flower, out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion." . From the beginning of her life Pearl is viewed as the result of a sin, and as a punishment. Physically, Pearl has a "Beauty that became every day more brilliant, and the intelligence that threw its quivering sunshine over the tiny features of this child." Pearl is described as beautiful, with a "Beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints" a bright complexion, eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glossy brown, and which, in after years, would be nearly akin to black." Combined with her lavish beauty Hester dresses her child in copious dresses that are the envy of even the finest dressed adults in the town. The lovely dresses and her beauty cause her to be viewed as even stranger from the other typical Puritan children ,whom are dressed in traditional clothing. As a result, she is accepted only by nature and animals, and ostracized by the other Puritan children. "Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world the whole peculiarity, in short, of her position in respect to other children.
