.
Hester's social life is virtually eliminated as a result of her shameful history. She is treated so poorly that often preachers will stop in the street and start to deliver a lecture as she walks by. Hester also begins to hate children, who unconsciously realize there is something different about her and thus start to follow her with "shrill cries" through the city streets. .
One of the things which Hester starts to notice is that every once in a while she receives a sympathetic glance, and feels like she has a companion in her sin. Hawthorne puts it, "it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts." This is interesting because many of the people Hawthorne accuses of hypocrisy as regards the scarlet letter are, "a venerable minister or magistrate," people who are viewed as models of "piety and justice." .
Chapter Six: Pearl.
Summary.
Hawthorne discusses the choice of the name Pearl. He indicates that Hester chose the name to represent something of great value- namely the cost of her virtue. Hester is afraid that nothing good can come from her sin, and thus she fears that Pearl will in some way be retribution for her sinful passion. .
Hester spends hours clothing Pearl in the richest garments she can find, even though Hawthorne comments that Pearl would appear just as beautiful in any garment. Hester's passion exists in the child's demeanor in the form of "flightiness of temper.and even some of the very cloud-shapes of gloom and despondency that had brooded in her heart." .
Pearl turns out to be unmanageable as a child, forcing Hester to let her do what she wants. Pearl has a particular mood where nothing Hester does can persuade the child to change her stance, and so eventually Hester "[is] ultimately compelled to stand aside, and permit the child to be swayed by her own impulses." .
Pearl is compared to a witch in both the way she interacts with other children and in the way she plays.