The Scarlet Letter: Pearl as an Expression of Hester's Hidden Emotions In literature, authors often represent a character's hidden emotions or inner thoughts by presenting them in a separate character. This is the case in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne as he uses Pearl to express Hester's inner thoughts and hidden emotions. "Above all, the war of Hester's spirit, at that time, was perpetuated in Pearl." Despite the public shame she experienced and many years spent wearing the garb of her adulterous sin, Hester Prynne remains proud and displays her letter with courage. Anyone who did not possess her level of emotional resilience and pride would surely have lost character and perhaps even lost all hope in life, but Hester proves to be very different. Instead of reacting to the humiliation and remarks of the common people in a hostile manner, Hester instead ignores these things and focuses her mind more on memories of years past, as she did while standing on the gallows for the first time. Hawthorne then uses his lively young daughter, Pearl, to represent the emotions that Hester cannot, or chooses not to openly show to others. In chapter 6, Pearl is described as someone who shows "a love of evil and a disrespect of authority," which often reminded Hester of her sin of passion. Likewise, in Pearl's make-believe games, she never makes friends. He only creates enemies: Puritans whom he pretends to destroy. It is a rare occurrence that such a young child could have such thoughts of morbidity, thus strengthening the evidence for Hawthorne's use of Pearl as a manifestation of Hester's thoughts - thoughts of retaliation against the Puritans for... mid article ......ks CitedChase, Richard (1996). "The Ambiguity of the Scarlet Letter." Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne (pp. 145-152). San Diego: Greenhaven.Fiedler, Leslie A. Love and Death in the American Novel. Normal: Dalkey, 1998.Hawthorne, J. (1886, April). “The Scarlet Letter”. The Atlantic Monthly [Online], pp. 1-20. Available: http://wwww.theatlantic.com/unbound/classrev/scarlet.htmlHawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: St. Martins, 1991. Loring, G. B. (1850). “The Scarlet Letter and Transcendentalism.” Massachusetts Quarterly Review [online], pp. 1-6. Available: http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/loring.htmlScharnhorst, Gary. Critical response to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. New York: Greenwood, 1992. Author unknown. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99 [online], pp. 1-4.