Pearl Prynne, Is She Older Then She Seems Or Just An Elfish Child?
             "See ye not, this is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a millionfold the power of retributation for my sin?" (Hawthorne pg. 109) Critics have suggested that Pearl did not always act the way other children might have been known to and I agree with this. Using details from the book, and other resources, the following paragraphs will look further into Pearl's social behavior, different moods, and personal relationships with other characters.
             In The Scarlet Letter, Pearl had no childhood friends. She was born an outcast and even at an early age, seemed to know that she didn't fit in. One example of her maturity in society was "If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them." (Hawthorne pg. 90) This action not only showed her defending herself but also protecting her mother. Hester was the town gossip and the outcast as well as Pearl. Since birth, Pearl had sensed she was not supposed to fit in. When children talked to her, she would never talk back, but when she was picked on she wouldn't think twice to hold her ground. Not only was she wise in this way but very independent and strong.
             You can tell that Pearl was not always well behaved but quite clever. When she was young, she had quite an imagination. "After putting her fingers in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson's question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door." (Hawthorne pg. 108) She was only around three years old here and if you think of your average three year old, Pearl would be quite different by comparison. She might have thought of the Governor as a threat because it was said that sh...