Beginning of Essay
"What is one man's poison is another's meat or drink," Beaumont and Fletcher wrote in one of their plays. Almost everything in the world is interpretable in at least two conflicting ways. In The Scarlet Letter, the Puritan society shuns a character named Pearl, y ....

Middle of Essay
.... flawless. Hester notices that Pearl has no physical defects, but Pearl's character has an unexplainable aspect of oddity and unpredictability. When she plays near Hester's cottage, Pearl "[smites] down [and] uproot[s] most unmercifully [the] ugliest weeds"(87) which she pretends are the Puritan children. Hester believes that Pearl is so emotional and temperamental because the passion which Hester and Dimmesdale experienced during their sinful act somehow transferred into Pearl's soul. However, Pearl's antipathy for the Puritans is justified; the children often torment her for no good reason. When Hester and Pearl go into town, the Puritan children ....