"Pearl is the medium through which Hester and Dimmesdale are able to express their true identity." Discuss in relation to The Scarlet Letter.

A life-giving symbol, little Pearl represents the bondage
of sin and love that exists with Hester and Dimmesdale.  As such, she does not reach
full humanity until Chapter XXII of Nathaniel Hawthorne's seminal novel.  In this
chapter, Pearl acts as an extension of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale by connecting
the physical and spiritual triangle; with this act she, thus, provides redemption for
her father.  Her act, symbolized by the kiss, causes Pearl herself to be "freed" as "a
spell was broken" and she becomes fully human since her "errand as a messenger of
anguish was fulfilled."

After Pearl kisses the clergyman,
Arthur Dimmesdale is able to make his redeeming confession as he "lookest far into
eternity."  He praises God,

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"He hath proved His mercy...By bringing me hither
to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people!  Had either of these agonies
been wanting, I had been lost for ever!  Praised be His name! His will be done!
Farewell!"

For Hester, it has
been the wearing of the scarlet letter, of which Pearl is the representative, that has
effected her redemption.  In her charitable deeds of helping the sick and sitting with
the aged and offering them comfort Hester performs penitential acts that redeem her and
exhibit her kind nature.  Without the letter upon her breast, ironically, Hester may
well have not been accepted into homes of illness and death so readily and been afforded
the opportunities to redeem herself through good works.

In
Chapter VIII when Hester is before the Governor and questioned about her fitness as a
mother, Hester explains how Pearl is the expression of
herself,

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 Alone in the world, cast off by it, and with
this sole treasure to keep her heart alive, she felt that she possessed indefeasible
rights against the world, and was ready to defend them to the
death.

“God gave me the child!” cried she. “He gave her, in
requital of all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!—she is my
torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too! See ye not,
she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a
million-fold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die
first!”

As
the link between them and the reminder of their sin, Pearl acts as a catalyst for
redemption in both Hester and Arthur Dimmesdale.  Indeed, she acts as the liasion
between the earthly and the spiritual for her parents.