||Scarlet Letter 4: 91-107||

“‘No, my little Pearl!’ said her mother. ‘Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee!’” (94).

• After Pearl finds the wonder and amazement of Governor Bellingham’s house, she begins to dance as though she is in demand for the sunshine to be in her possession for her to play with. This quote follows Pearl’s excitement and reveals Hester’s understanding of her own self. Hester is aware of the sin she has committed and believes she no longer has purity or “sunshine” to give. By encouraging Pearl to find her own sunshine, Hester is claiming that Pearl is certainly capable of obtaining it, while she herself cannot offer it.
  
  Will Hester ever forgive herself?

“That this boon was meant, above all things else, to keep the mother’s soul alive, and to preserve her from blacker depths of sin into which Satan might else have sought to plunge her! Therefore it is good for this poor, sinful woman that she hath an infant immortality… to remind her, at every moment, of her fall, —but yet to teach her” (105).

• Pearl was certainly a symbol of sin considering the fact that she was conceived through adultery. However, this passage reveals how, regardless of Pearl being a representation of sin, she is there to remind Hester of her mistakes. Pearl is also destined to help Hester search for repentance and absolution from her sin. Hester now strives to carry herself in a manner that is beneficial toward the bringing up of Pearl.
  
  Is Pearl a symbol of goodness, rather than sin?