come] Puritan elders [and]Šthe ugliest of weedsŠtheir children" (65). Pearl acts to use her environment as a basis for her manifestations:"She never created a friend, but seemed always to be sowing, broadcast the dragon's teeth, whence sprung a harvest of armed enemies, against whom she rushed to battle. It was inexpressibly sad- then what depth of sorrow to a mother, who felt her own heart the cause! (65) Hester feels guilty because she truly believes in her heart that it is her sin causing Pearl to become aware of harsh realities of the world. Pearl responds to this harshness by defending her mother, sticking up for Hester against the Puritan children when they start to hurl mud at her. What stands out is Pearl's love for her mother, and the way she spurns these "virtuous youths" who condemn her without even knowing the reason. Pearl is a very vivacious child whose love for her mother is deep even though she does not always show it. By the end of the story, when Hester is finally able to release her sin, Pearl is no longer a creation of a clandestine passion but the daughter of a minister and a ravishing young woman. She is only from that moment onward able to live her life without the weight of her mother's vice. In fact, Hawthorne points out that she is viewed as normal because of the burden lifted from her soul: "they [Pearl's tears] were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow." Pearl is an offspring of sin whose life revolves around the affair betwixt her mother and Reverend Dimmesdale. Due to her mother's intense guilt during her upbringing, she is not able to become more than a mirror image of her surroundings; like a chameleon, she is a part of everything around her, and the changes that occur externally affect her internally. Pearl stands out as a radiant child implicated in the sin between her parents. It is only once the sin is publicly revealed that she is liberated by the truth. ...
