The Scarlet Letter 4: P91-107

I. Quotations
1. "God gave me the child!" cried she. "He gave her in requital of all things else, which he had taken from me. She is my happiness! - she is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million-fold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first!" - Hester Prynne (page 103)

• We can see the great strength of Hester's maternal instincts from there. As Hester had said, Pearl is a part of her body, like the scarlet letter, which is a torture but somehow a relief for her too. Pearl is "the scarlet letter endowed with life" (93); she is a living evidence of Hester's fatal sin. Every second, Hester has to bear seeing her sin growing up. However, because Pearl is a living sin, she gave Hester a chance to be able to change her. She is not identical to the scarlet letter, which all Hester can do is to embroider it in gold thread; she is, indeed, the hope of change and redemption for Hester. By teaching her child to be a good Christian, Hester can make her way to Heaven too. No wonder why Hester does not want to let her precious little one go. Pearl is a gift from God - a second chance for Hester to be back in God's arm.
  

2. Pearl [...] taking his (Mr. Dimmesdale) hand in the grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it [...] Yet she (Hester) knew that there was love in the child's heart [...] The minister [...] accorded spontaneously by a spiritual instinct, and therefore seeming to imply in us something truly worthy to be loved, - the minister looked round, laid his hand on the child's head, hesitated an instant, and then kissed her brow. (page 105-106)

• This is the only quote in the book so far, that is lightened by the tenderness of love. Why there is love in the air? It is because Mr. Dimmesdale is here - the love of Hester Prynne. This love is forbidden, but a three-year-old child could not know that. This is why when Pearl's natural instincts told her that the young minister is his father, she followed her feelings and laid her cheeks against Dimmesdale's hand. In the book, or to an extend view - the society, everyone is hiding their true feelings and faking to be good. Pearl is an exception, thus she is considered as a wicked little demon. But, as we always believed, the love will never fade when one's heart is connected to the other. This is why by the end of this chapter, the minister cannot help kissing Pearl, his own daughter.
• Therefore, the power of love may be our last hope of the changing of people's minds and the washing away of sins.
  

II. Discussing Questions
1.Is the young minister Pearl's father?

2. What is the point of mentioning Mistress Hibbins at the end of Chapter 8?