Chapter Sixteen
Entry Thirty
Pearl and Hester sit down in the forest at a place where they are invisible to persons walking by. Next to them, a stream runs down. The picture of the brook created by Hawthorne looks magical to me, like something supernatural appearing in the middle of a dark and mysterious forest. The big, old trees let their leaves hang over it as protection, on the ground of the water are pebbles and brown, sparkling sand. In some parts, the sunlight is reflected, but soon it disappears and gets lost in the woods. To Hester and Pearl, it seems like the the intention of the forest is to make sure that the brook in its liveliness does not reveal long kept secrets. They compare it to a young child which normally are unexperienced, venturous, not afraid of anything and always in a good mood. But this child is different: It is
"kind, quiet, soothing, but melancholy."All in all, it is a sad child. For Pearl it is hard to "listen" to the brook's sad mood because she is the total opposite of it. She never gets sad and is always full of temperament. So she tells the stream to
"Pluck up a spirit, and (not to be) sighing and murmuring all the time.”Hawthorne mentions that both of them have the same origin. Pearl and the brook's roots come from something mysterious and dark (the forest and adultery). But in contrast to the stream, Pearl doesn't let it get her down. She is happy and sparkly as ever.
Pearl rarely gets upset in the forest, but she can be a rebel in the town. When she talks to the stream does it response? Is she really talking to the stream? Or is she just playing.
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