longest, involving an interchange with Hester in which Mistress Hibbins claims fellowship .
not only with her and her lover, but impugns the whole community, for whose under mind .
of filth and fear she speaks (Lawerence 66). Hibbins is quite inexplicable in naturalistic .
terms, despite Hawthorne's perfunctory suggestions that she is simply insane (Kaul 104-.
105).
Pearl is Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale's daughter. Impulsive, uncanny, .
and ungovernable, she is a symbol of natural instinct and distinction. At one point in the .
novel the elders of the colony try to take Pearl away from Hester because they think she is .
a demon-child. During her first three years, Pearl, who is named because she came of .
great price, grows into a physically beautiful, vigorous, and grateful little girl. She is .
radiant in the rich and elaborate dresses that Hester sews for her. However, Pearl .
possesses a complex character. She shows an unusual depth of mind, coupled with a fiery .
passion that Hester is incapable of controlling either with kindness or threats. Pearl shows .
a love of mischief and disrespect for authority, which frequently reminds Hester of her .
own sin of passion. Pearl's only companion in her playtime is her imagination. .
Significantly, in her games of make-believe, she never creates friends; she creates only .
enemies.
Pearl is endowed with the morally indirect energies of life. The spell of life went .
fourth from her ever creative spirit and communicated itself to a thousand objects. This .
Rothe 3.
spell is the power of fecundity, and its derivative power, that of imagination. The .
unlikeliest materials -a bunch of rags, a stick, a flower- were the puppets of her witchcraft. .
Its in these things, she brings to life, and she feels in herself kinship with life in every form. .
Although the forest is a place of dread, evil, and the haunt of witches and of heathen .
Indian sorcerers, Pearl is at home among its creatures.
