Pearl's response is indicative that, like the prison rose bush,she, too, is a symbol of passion. In fact, she is more symbol than human until the events of Chapter XXIII bring her fully into the world of humanity as Dimmesdale beckons her onto the scaffold,
'Dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now? Thous wouldst not, yonder, in the forest!'....Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken.
In Chapter IV Hawthorne elaborates on Pearl's function as symbol as he tells the reader that when Chillingworth attended to her in the prison, she
writhed in convulsion of pain, and was a forcible type in its little frame, of the moral agony which Hester Prynne had borne throughout the day.
The struggles of Hester's spirit are symbolized in the behavior and nature of Pearl. In Chapter VI, the author tells the reader this much:
The mother's impassioned state had been the medium through which were transmitted to the unborn infant the rays of its moral life; and...they had taken the deep stains of crimson and gold, the fiery lustre, the back shadow, and the untempered light of the intervening substance. Above all, the warfare of Hester's spirit, at that epoch, was perpetuated in Pearl.
This "perpetuated" spirit of Hester in Pearl as symbol is exemplified in the forest as Pearl delights in the sunshine, stands on the other side of the brook, and insists on Hester's replacing the cast-off letter, for Hester delights in being with the minister and stands at a point of possible freedom, but she later must resume the wearing of the letter. When all three are joined as family, they can be true to Nature and Pearl, thus, acquires her humanity.
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