Many children in the Puritan community treated Hester as cruelly as Pearl treated anyone. Pearl had instincts that allow the reader to understand whose side to be on (in a sense) before the characters are properly introduced. It is fair to say that Chillingworth is not necessarily a good man. If Pearl had been as bad as Chillingworth, would she have cried like she did when he entered the prison to distribute medicine? Instead of being attracted to Chillingworth, “twice in her little life” (216), Pearl was sympathetic to Dimmesdale. Even though he was a sinner, she was drawn to him like a young girl is drawn to her father. Even some of Pearl's most outgoing and atrocious acts could be forgiven in the circumstances under which they were committed. Pearl's screams and running after the Puritan children (106) were perhaps the only way she saw fit to protect herself and her mother from the