also
has a profound internal conflict over her feelings for her daughter, . On the one hand, there's
no doubt that Hester genuinely loves Pearl. She is Hester's happiness, as she herself openly
proclaims. Yet, at the same time, Hester frankly acknowledges that Pearl is also "her
torture, nonetheless." The main problem is that Pearl acts as a constant reminder of her
sin, her adultery. She is 's love-child, and her birth out of wedlock is the direct cause of
Hester's public branding as an adulteress and her subsequent expulsion from the
community.
But Pearl also represents that side of Hester's character which
led her to conduct an adulterous liaison with Dimmesdale, the slightly wild, artistic, creative
free-spirit; someone who really doesn't belong in a Puritan theocracy. It is Pearl's wayward,
effervescent nature that leads many of the townsfolk to regard her as the devil's spawn. Hester
is disturbed by Pearl's nature, but blames herself as she sees it as a...
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