Cindy Lou Daniels writes of a recurring example in: “In Hawthorne's novel, the rigid authoritarianism of Puritan patriarchy finds its object in the little girl Pearl, who becomes the target of the Puritan effort to control both the human being and sexuality, and its literary and historical expression.” (Daniel). The Puritans believed they had the authority to determine how Hester and Pearl should live the rest of their lives. Hester is considered less valuable than the rest of society as she lives in seclusion and also has to wear the scarlet letter mark to distinguish her from everyone.