Hawthorne spends part of this chapter connecting Pearl with nature and the wilderness around them. The brook is suggestive of Pearl, “inasmuch as the current of her life gushed from a well-spring as mysterious, and had flowed through scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom.” Pearl, being a product of passion, seems to speak to nature and understand its wildness and beauty. She sees how the sunshine loves her yet disappears for Hester. Added to this insight is the idea that Hester hopes Pearl will never have to wear a scarlet letter, or symbol of a “sinful” act. Pearl has not yet had a grief that will fill her with compassion and sympathy, humanizing her as Hester has been humanized.
In coming conversations between Hester and the minister, the symbols of nature, natural law, and humanity will be placed next to the more artificial laws of Puritan society as Hawthorne develops the conflict between them.
