“But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a 
piece of his own heart?” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pearl, Hester Prynne’s daughter, is said to be the embodiment of sin, being the living result of her adultery. She is believed to be a witch or the devil because of her fierce actions. While she does have the evil in her heart which she cannot be rid of, Pearl is not only a destructive force in Hester’s life; she protects Hester and gives her a reason to live even though it is with the weight of her sin.
Since Pearl is a bastard child born in a town of Puritans, both she and her mother are ridiculed. When Hester has to go to the governor’s house to fight for custody of Pearl, he asks the child where she came from as a test. Despite her mother telling her repeatedly that she came from God, “at the most inopportune moment, [her caprice] took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. . . the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door” (Hawthorne 63). This deliberate neglect that ‘took thorough possession of her’ is ruining her chance of staying with her mother. This hurts Hester since Pearl is the only light left in her life, and if she is taken away, Hester has nothing left to live for. Even so, Pearl causes Hester a considerable amount of pain, especially when it is related to her letter. While the mother and daughter were sitting in a field, Pearl continuously threw flowers at her mother’s letter as a game, “But whether from pride or resignation, or a feeling that her penance might best be wrought out by this unutterable pain, she resisted the impulse [to cover her letter], and sat erect, pale as death, looking sadly into little Pearl’s wild eyes” (Hawthorne 55). Pearl either never noticed the pain that she caused her mother or completely ignored it; either one provokes a clear agony for Hester. The way that Pearl treats her only brings Hester pain and suffering, which, coming from her own daughter, is distressing.
While Pearl is a detriment to her mother, she also saves Hester both from herself and protects her from others. When Hester is at the Governor’s house to fight for the custody of Pearl, Mistress Hibbins invites her to a ‘merry company in the forest’ to see the ‘Black Man’. She declines saying, “with a triumphant smile. ‘I must tarry at home, and keep watch over my little Pearl. Had they taken her from me, I would willingly have gone with thee into the forest, and signed my name in the Black Man’s book too, and that with mine own blood’” (Hawthorne 66). If Hester had not been able to keep Pearl, she would have gone with Mistress Hibbins to the forest, she would have signed her name in the ‘Black Man’s book’, which is joining Satan. Because of Pearl, Hester has something to live for, and she doesn’t lose herself to the Devil. She ‘triumphantly smiles’ displaying how she won: keeping Pearl and in turn that saving her from the Devil. Also while they were at the Governor’s house, the Governor asks Hester what she can do for Pearl to support her, and while she is fighting for custody of Pearl she says:
She is my happiness!- she is my torture, nonetheless! 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 millionfold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first! (Hawthorne 64)
The love that Hester has for Pearl is evident in this scene. She even states that will die before she has Pearl taken away from her, and that Pearl is the reason that she is still alive. Even though she does bring pain and torture, Pearl is also the most positive thing in Hester’s life being judged for her sin.
One person can never be all good or all evil, and Pearl is a perfect example. She does hurt her mother at times, whether it is related to her letter or putting her custody at risk. The boundary between good and evil is almost lost on her, but in the end, she helps Hester become a better person. Hester starts to help the community more and becomes on the most influential people in the town. No one can be solely good or bad, but Pearl protects her mother and becomes a better scarlet letter than the letter itself, while giving Hester joy that the letter never could.
As one of our first critical analysis essays, this essay was not well thought out. I had too many ideas and mashed them all together. Despite this, I thought it came out alright. While not the most focused piece of writing, I didn’t think it was my worst one.