There is no doubt that ​The Scarlet Letter​ by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel about morality. The way society judges Hester Prynne and the actions of Arthur Dimmesdale speaks to Hawthorne's views on puritanism and religion as well as the treatment of women. However, very little attention is paid to the importance of Pearl, Hester's illegitimate daughter with Dimmesdale. In many ways, Pearl is essential to understanding the connection between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. In fact, not only is Pearl the visible connection between Hester and Arthur, but her character speaks to the presentation of truth and the idea that sometimes children see the truth more clearly than adults. Through Pearl's detailed imagery and sympathetic interest in her mother's plight, Hawthorne presents Pearl as a moral compass and an ideal of compassion in The Scarlet Letter. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an original essay Although a cheerful seven-year-old, Pearl is precocious and intelligent, almost to the point of being overly independent and well-behaved beyond his age. Hawthorne emphasizes Pearl's importance in the story through his consistent imagery applied to Pearl. For example, Pearl is “endowed with natural dexterity and native grace” (Hawthorne 194). While in one case Pearl is a pretty, possessed flower, in another case she has a “wildflower prettiness.” Hawthorne also compares Pearl to a bird several times in the book: "a wild tropical bird, with rich plumage" and "a floating seabird." Hawthorne also gives Pearl a supernatural description such as an aerial sprite with "elven intelligence" as if she were "a little elf gathering handfuls of wildflowers". Mistress Hibbins suggests that the child is of the Air Prince's lineage! These descriptions make Pearl a saint, beyond this temporal world which could judge and confine her, as was done with her mother. In this sense, when Pearl demonstrates her perversity toward social and religious authority, readers share her hostile anger toward the Puritan kids and her sympathetic interest in the scarlet letter on Hester's breast. Another important aspect of Pearl's character is her instinct for truth and compassion. perception of Hester's predicament. Pearl appears to have an unconscious awareness of her blood connection to Dimmesdale, such as when she rests her cheek against Dimmesdale's hand in the governor's mansion. Pearl also has the insight to see the truth about hiding in humans, perhaps because she lives with her mother in the woods. Since she is surrounded by nature, she is able to preserve her innocence in the face of society's harmful conventions and religious pretensions. Hawthorne also connects Pearl to nature by saying that "the mother forest and the wild things she nourished all recognized a kindred wildness in the human child." He likens this wilderness “not to the desert of savagery but to the desert of innocence” and that Pearl is a “child worthy of having been brought into the world in Eden.” For example, Hawthorne describes how "a wolf in the forest, sensitive to her primal innocence, approached, smelled Pearl's dress, and offered his wild head to stroke his hand." Pearl therefore constitutes an undeniable link between humans and nature, untarnished by the perverse regulations of society. Hawthorne also uses the character of Pearl symbolically as a social commentary against religion and the arbitrary rules of society. In Governor Bellingham's Room, Hawthorne Depicts Kinship