Pearl is also very much associated with nature, rather than with society. This conflict, between nature and society, is one of the central conflicts in the novel. Hawthorne is interested in the difference between natural law our instincts and emotions and social law what society says we should and should not do. Chillingsworth becomes friends with the young minister, Reverend Dimmesdale, who has a promising career in front of him as a clergyman. Remember that Puritan society was governed by both the church and politics, but that the church ultimately had more power than the government.
Puritan theology is a very harsh Protestant belief system that disparaged other forms of worship.
A Puritan church inside was absolutely plain, more like a meeting hall than a church, and there were no ornaments whatsoever. A Puritan minister could have tremendous power over his congregation because it was in his power to designate whether or not someone was a sinner and that person could be exiled or even killed, as a result. And certainly Dimmesdale seems distraught about something, upset about something that he will not discuss with his new friend. Eventually we realize that Dimmesdale is Hester s lover and Pearl s father, although he has never stepped forward to admit what his society would think of as a crime. His guilt is eating away at him, however, and is the reason why he seems ill all the time.