Pearl's False Perception

I chose the passage on the bottom of page 103, "Even thus early the child saved her from Satan's snare." This particular passage follows Hesters conversation with Mistress Hibbins, when Hester was invited to go to the woods and meet the Black Man. The passage introduces Pearl as a character that is not loathed, like previously put forth by the Bostonians. Because of Pearl's birth into an awkward situation where both her parents are considered sinful, these townsfolk have labelled her with a fallacious accusation. Here, Nathaniel Hawthone portrays Pearl as someone who is helping out her mother by just being there. The view of Pearl being a possessed child is almost pushed aside as Hester denies the invitation to sign her name in the devil's book.

It is almost ironic, the fact that as Pearl is being compared to the devil, she is now the antithesis of the devil, avoiding a potentially harmful, and for sure sinful, situtation for her already corrupted mother. Pearl her can live up to her namesake as a treasure while she clears her name from false assumptions. Hawthorne once again uses irony to enhance the interpretation in his writing, as is present throughout his novel. With the use of "thus far" in the passage it almost feels like Hawthone may be foreshadowing into the book, showing that Pearl may help out her mother in similar situations involving the selling of herself to the devil. And she will be a light of hope at the end of the tunnel when things turn bad.