Once Hester and Pearl approached Governor Bellingham in the garden, the noticed they weren't the only visitors. Of course the visitors were Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. Hawthorne seems to like adding a good coincidence to his writing. When Bellingham notices Pearl's bright red dress, he questions it to Hester. Hester who is already on the brink of losing her daughter, angers Bellingham with dressing her daughter in an "inappropriate" manner. She explains to him that her clothes are made to teach Pearl a lesson that she has learned by wearing the scarlet letter. Bellingham is still not sure whether Hester should keep the child, so he asks Pearl who made her. Everyone suspected her answer to be God himself, but Pearl with her elfish ways answered that she was plucked of the rose bush outside of the prison door. Hawthorne is symbolizing Pearl for her beauty again, and comparing it to the rose bush outside the prison.
Hester pleaded to keep her only child. She stated that God had sent Pearl to her and it was her right as Pearl's mother to raise her. She called for Dimmesdale's help and told him that it was his job as a minister to understand the circumstance. Dimmesdale strangely defended Hester by saying that God had given Pearl to her as a blessing out of her sins. Not only was she a blessing, but a punishment too. The wise minister had spoken and Governor Bellingham couldn't go against his words. He believed everything Dimmesdale had told him because he believed it was everything God was telling him. Pearl, noticing all of this, made a loving gesture towards Dimmesdale:
"Pearl, that wild and flighty little elf, stole softly towards him, and, taking his hand in the grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it; a caress so tender, and withal so unobtrusive, that her mother, who was looking on, asked herself,—“Is that my Pearl?” Yet she knew that there was love in the child’s heart..."-Hawthorne
Dimmesdale hesitated to kiss her on the forehead, but he did. This raises questions to why the two are so loving towards each other. The whole meeting had turned out to be all about Pearl.
Hester pleaded to keep her only child. She stated that God had sent Pearl to her and it was her right as Pearl's mother to raise her. She called for Dimmesdale's help and told him that it was his job as a minister to understand the circumstance. Dimmesdale strangely defended Hester by saying that God had given Pearl to her as a blessing out of her sins. Not only was she a blessing, but a punishment too. The wise minister had spoken and Governor Bellingham couldn't go against his words. He believed everything Dimmesdale had told him because he believed it was everything God was telling him. Pearl, noticing all of this, made a loving gesture towards Dimmesdale:
"Pearl, that wild and flighty little elf, stole softly towards him, and, taking his hand in the grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it; a caress so tender, and withal so unobtrusive, that her mother, who was looking on, asked herself,—“Is that my Pearl?” Yet she knew that there was love in the child’s heart..."-Hawthorne
Dimmesdale hesitated to kiss her on the forehead, but he did. This raises questions to why the two are so loving towards each other. The whole meeting had turned out to be all about Pearl.
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