Chapter 19: The Child at the Brook-Side

-Hester is excited for Dimmesdale to meet Pearl. She calls for her and Pearl slowly approaches. It is clear that Pearl is Dimmesdale’s daughter because of their close facial resemblance.
~“that my own features were partly repeated in her face, and so strikingly that the world might see them!” “In her was visible the tie that united them” (186).

-Pearl is slow to cross the brook and Dimmesdale fears she won’t like him.
~“Arthur Dimmesdale felt the child’s eyes upon himself, his hand-with that gesture so habitual as to have become involuntary- stole over his heart” (188).

-Pearl refuses to cross the brook and points her finger at her mother. She likes seeing her mother with the scarlet letter. Only after Hester puts the scarlet letter on Pearl is willing to cooperate.
~“Children will not abide any, the slightest change in the accustomed aspect of things that are daily before their eyes. Pearl misses something which she has always seen me wear” (189).
~“Pearl put up her mouth, and kissed the scarlet letter too!” (190)

-Hester tells Pearl about their plans for the future, but Pearl is not pleased with them or Dimmesdale.
~“We will have a home and fireside of our own; and thou shalt sit upon his knee; and he will teach thee many things, and love thee dearly. Thou wilt love him; wilt thou not?” (191)
~“Pearl would show no favor to the clergyman” (191).
~“Pearl broke away from her mother, and, running to the brook, stopped over it, and bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off, and diffused through a long lapse of the gliding water” (191).