How does Hester discipline Pearl?

Hester tries to discipline her in a gentle way, much different than the Puritan standard of harsh punishment, but it does not work. Hester finds Pearl all the more difficult because Pearl cannot play with other children. One day, Hester playfully suggests to Pearl that she is not Hester’s child.

How Will Hester Dimmesdale and Pearl leave Boston?

The great amount of land left to Pearl allows her and Hester to leave Boston. Describe the circumstances of Hester’s return to Salem? Several years later Hester returns to Boston.

What message does the ship’s captain give to Pearl?

What message does the shipmaster give to Pearl? He talked to Chillingworth and he’s going to bring his friend she likes.

Why did the townspeople want to take Pearl away from Hester?

The townspeople reason that if Pearl is a demon-child, she should be taken from Hester for Hester’s sake. And, they reason, if Pearl is indeed a human child, she should be taken away from her mother for her own sake and given to a “better” parent than Hester Prynne. Pearl becomes angry and frightens the children off.

What does Pearl notice about the minister in Chapter 21?

Although only a few days have passed since he kissed her forehead next to the forest brook, Pearl barely recognizes the minister. She tells Hester that she is tempted to approach the man and bestow a kiss of her own, and Hester scolds her. Dimmesdale’s apparent vigor saddens Hester because it makes him seem remote.

What does Hester call Pearl?

the devil

What is the irony in the conversation between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth?

Explain the dramatic irony in the conversation between Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Chillingworth says to Dimmesdale in a year you might be gone– could mean dead but the audience knows that Dimmesdale is actually planning on leaving.

How does Pearl save Hester?

The redemption and pride, along with the love and happiness, preserve Hester’s soul. Pearl becomes Hester’s spiritual support because she brings love and happiness to her. When the governor plans to take Pearl away from Hester, she argues for the happiness that Pearl brought to her.

What does Pearl say about Dimmesdale in Chapter 22?

“What should he say, Pearl,” answered Hester, “save that it was no time to kiss, and that kisses are not to be given in the market-place? Well for thee, foolish child, that thou didst not speak to him!”

What is the significance of Pearl not recognizing Hester without her scarlet A ‘?

Beyond Hester’s explanation, why won’t Pearl come to Hester without the scarlet letter? She has grown so accustomed to the scarlet letter on her mother that she does not want her mother without it. Symbolically, she sees her mother with Dimmesdale and feels like she too has been cast aside, like the scarlet letter.

What does the scarlet letter mean to Pearl?

Pearl is a sort of living version of her mother’s scarlet letter. She is the physical consequence of sexual sin and the indicator of a transgression. Yet, even as a reminder of Hester’s “sin,” Pearl is more than a mere punishment to her mother: she is also a blessing.

What does Pearl do when Dimmesdale kisses her?

Pearl desires the minister to acknowledge her in public. While Hester assures her that this admission will happen in the future, Dimmesdale kisses Pearl’s forehead in an attempt to mollify her. Pearl immediately goes to the brook and washes off the kiss.

Who do the townspeople think is Pearl’s father?

Arthur Dimmesdale

What suggests that Pearl will have a child of her own at the end of the novel?

Pearl. What suggests that Pearl will have a child of her own at the end of the novel? Hester is sewing infant clothes. Next to whom is Hester Prynne eventually buried?

What opinion does Dimmesdale seem to have of himself in Chapter 20?

Arthur Dimmesdale fully recognizes his great sin–“A bitter kind of knowledge that!” as he admits to himself his great hypocrisy and guilt for which he knows he will be punished. In chapter 20 of The Scarlet Letter we learn that Hester and Dimmesdale have decided to escape with little Pearl.

Why was Dimmesdale so tempted on his way home?

Dimmesdale hurries home and, because he is agitated, Chillingworth offers to give him some medicine to calm him down. He is tempted several times by the irrational, wild, blasphemous, and — what Dimmesdale calls “involuntary” — desire to do wicked things to members of his congregation and perfect strangers.