In Chapter VI of The Scarlet Letter,
Hawthorne describes little Pearl in such a way that she seems the embodiment of the
scarlet letter for she is unique and beautiful, just as the elaborately embroided letter
is; also, she brings her mother much pain, just as the scarlet symbol upon her breast
grieves Hester Prynne greatly. However, it is in the next chapter, Chapter VII in
which Hester dresses Pearl in a crimson velvet tunic "abundantly embroided in fantasies
and flourishes of gold thread." Hawthorne writes that this fantastic garment on the
fiery child of a deep beauty possesses a remarkable attribute: The entire appearance of
Pearl reminds the viewer of "the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her
bosom":
It [Pearl] was the scarlet letter in another
form: the scarlet letter endowed with
life!
In her efforts
to create this comparison between the object of her affection and the emblem of her
guilt, Hester has demonstrated that these two cannot be separated for they are what
forms Hester as a person, and what make little Pearl "one as well as the other." Pearl's
identity is that of both Hester's sin (spirit) and also Hester's passionate nature
(form).
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