The Scarlet Letter
Chapter Eighteen
Entry Forty-Seven
Hester calls Pearl to them after she and Dimmesdale made plans for their future. While they were sitting on the tree, feeling passion arising again, Pearl played in the forest on the other side of the stream on her own. Hester and Arthur became unified and Pearl built a unity with nature. She played with the animals and flowers like she would play with friends if she had some. When she hears her name called by her mother she walks slowly towards them. Arrived at the water, Hester sees that the brightness of the forest was not conveyed to Pearl. Instead, she stands in gloom. This is when Hester realizes she feel sort of seperated from her daughter. The imaginary bond that holds mother and daughter together seems to be gone. Did she and Arthur think one moment ago of Pearl as the cord which makes them become one, now Hester has to see that is not true. Although Pearl is the result of their love and makes them become a family, Dimmesdale and Pearl cannot exist equally next to Hester. Either Pearl's or Arthur's invisible bond to her has to be destroyed whenever she is together with both of them. But Hester does not refer this development to her relationship to Dimmesdale but to Pearl who had left to go to the other side of the stream. With crossing the sides she left the mother-daughter-sphere. And now she can't find a way to enter back into it.
But didn't Hester send her away because she wanted privacy with Arthur Dimmesdale?
Yes, the mother/daughter and Dimmesdale/Hester bond exists but the Hester/Pearl/Dimmesdale bond does not yet. Why, Pearl hasn't been brought into the picture. It's like your mother being a new man home and saying, "Hey, here's your father." The father has to also make some connection to Pearl. He is unwilling - so far.
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