The Scarlet Letter
What is the significance of Pearl's temper?
Chapters six and seven
Chapters six and seven
Pearl represents a wild energy that cannot be understood or contained by Puritan society. Pearl challenges the status quo. When the clergy asks Pearl who made her, she answers she was picked from the rose bush by the prison. She questions why Dimmesdale holds on to his heart. She sings, she dances, and she loves the dark forest. Her temper is merely an extension of her inherent freedom away from the constraints of Puritan society.