What reason does the town leadership give for attempting to legally separate Hester Prynne from her young daughter, Pearl, when she is around three years old?
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Correct answer: They think Pearl a demon threatening Hester's salvation, or Hester too sinful to save Pearl.
The Puritan magistrates and ministers believe that Pearl's chaotic, untamed nature is evidence of a spiritual curse that could jeopardize Hester's repentance. Alternatively, they worry that a mother living in open sin cannot properly educate a child in Christian virtue. Hester successfully fights to keep Pearl by appealing to Arthur Dimmesdale's hidden knowledge of her motherly devotion.
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