Scarlet Letter D.J. # 45 - Chapter 21: Part 2.

"Pearl was decked out with airy gayety. It would have been impossible to guess that this bright and sunny apparition owed its existence to the shape of gloomy gray; or that a fancy, at once so gorgeous and so delicate as must have been requisite to contrive the child’s apparel, was the same that had achieved a task perhaps more difficult, in imparting so distinct a peculiarity to Hester’s simple robe. The dress, so proper was it to little Pearl, seemed an effluence, or inevitable development and outward manifestation of her character, no more to be separated from her than the many-hued brilliancy from a butterfly’s wing, or the painted glory from the leaf of a bright flower. As with these, so with the child; her garb was all of one idea with her nature. On this eventful day, moreover, there was a certain singular inquietude and excitement in her mood, resembling nothing so much as the shimmer of a diamond, that sparkles and flashes with the varied throbbings of the breast on which it is displayed. Children have always a sympathy in the agitations of those connected with them; always, especially, a sense of any trouble or impending revolution, of whatever kind, in domestic circumstances; and therefore Pearl, who was the gem on her mother’s unquiet bosom, betrayed, by the very dance of her spirits, the emotions which none could detect in the marble passiveness of Hester’s brow."
Hester is hiding herself in these gray clothes because she thinks that the "A" gets her enough public attention. What I find weird is that she hides herself behind her clothes, but creates these really colorful dresses for pearl. Hester is trying to fit in with the rest of the town, while Pearl is trying to be herself and show it. I think that Hester would like to wear colorful dressed and express how she really feels but she is to worried about the society's judgements about her. Imagine what they would say if she was walking around in bright dresses, with the "A"on her chest.