You could say that Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a story of transformation. The main characters' personalities change with their environments; the scarlet letter takes on a new light. Hawthorne's view of what is happening changes, as does ours. The book is dynamic in a sneaky way. If the reader isn't careful, a character can change dramatically in two or three pages, and no one knows how they got there. Pearl, Minister Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth are just some of these characters. From the moment she is born, is Pearl a flower vase or a Pandora's box? When we first see her, she is just a baby, cradled in her mother's arms. She looks like your normal little girl, screaming loudly and cuddling with her mother. Not for long. As Pearl ages, she becomes more and more unusual. First and foremost, she's simply a mischievous child with a callous disregard for rules. She is compared to a nymph to an elf child. Hawthorne takes a very Dionysian approach to her, describing her beauty and vibrant nature, as well as her relentless pursuit of fun. She is willing to do anything to have fun, regardless of whether or not this is perceived as "moral" by Puritan society. Her fascination with the scarlet letter on her mother's chest constantly causes Hester pain. It seems that as time passes, Pearl becomes more and more obsessed with the letter, until she begins to think that it is a permanent characteristic of her mother, or even that it is her mother (The Child at the Brook-side, p. 198). Pearl continues to mature and shows signs of knowing exactly what the letter means, despite her mother's wishes to keep her in the dark. She wants Dimmesdale to appear with her and her mother in front of the entire town, but he refuses to do so. Her refusal to give him kisses after such responses shows a manipulative side. Finally, in the conclusion, we see that Pearl's fiery personality has transformed into a warm glow as she sends letters and gifts to her mother. Dimmesdale is a strange character. At the beginning of the story, we see him as a trembling young man, full of the Word of God. He appears to be incredibly innocent. Nothing bad can touch it or come out of it.