How is Pearl behaving?

Hester has decorated Pearl in a "crimson velvet tunic" embroidered with gold thread. The narrator comments that "the child's whole appearance ... was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life! After Hester convinces Pearl to look at the garden, Pearl immediately demands a red rose. This scene hearkens directly back to the first chapter, where Pearl and the rose blossoms become connected for the first time. The rose blossom serves as a "moral blossom" within the story. Pearl demands it as though she sees a link between morality and passion, and she may be the only one to believe in a possibility of reconciling both.