The Scarlet Letter: Pearl Children are incredibly sensitive and can sense almost all of an adult's emotions by observing body language and facial expressions. This is the case of young Pearl in the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. As the daughter of the adulteress Hester Prynne, the townspeople see Pearl as a demon disguised as an angel; who not only knows exactly what the letter "A" on his mother's breast means, but also how the demon who put it there. The townspeople believe that Pearl uses this information against Hester by constantly mentioning the letter to make Hester extremely uncomfortable. This belief of the inhabitants of the city is certainly not supported by the following dialogue." "No, mother, I have said everything I know," said Pearl more seriously than she used to speak... "But now it is serious, dear mother, what what does this scarlet letter mean? - and why do you wear it on your chest? - and why does the minister keep his hand on his heart?' She took her mother's hand in hers and looked into her eyes with a seriousness rarely seen in her wild and capricious character." (Hawthorne 164) This dialogue does not appear to be the words of a demon, but of a little girl who is absolutely curious to know what the letter "A" on her mother's breast means. Pearl's intelligence should not be underestimated. She is not the demon that many citizens consider her to be; instead, she is intelligent and sensitive to her surroundings and can understand a lot of the scarlet letter Hester wears. “The neighboring townspeople… had taken it for granted that poor little Pearl was a demon's child; as since the days of the Old Catholics had occasionally been found... in the middle of the newspaper... the information leads the reader to realize that she sees a connection between Hester's letter and Dimmesdale's habit of covering his heart with the hand, even if he doesn't know what this connection is. Pearl is an extraordinary child and perhaps one of the few multifaceted characters in the novel although some readers of this novel may not care to read between the lines and see beyond the labeling of a demon, the real Pearl is completely different from this stereotype. The real Pearl, the curious, intelligent, and beautiful creature that she is, becomes the symbol of salvation in this novel Pearl may be the product of sin and "filth," yet she possesses traits that make her an extraordinary child. Indeed, Pearl is the rose bush growing near the prison door: she is the only bright spot this novel's prisoners see as they peer through the small windows of their confinement..