Why does Pearl seem to be a bit elfish even to her mother Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter?

The reason why Pearl is more than a handful for her mother
Hester in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, is because the character of Pearl is
meant to be a literal and philosophical consequence of Hester's
actions.

This being said, Pearl is not only the product of the illicit
relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale: She is also the source of Hester's
"preternatural" punishment for having allowed herself to defend a man who has clearly
committed a crime much worse than her own. Dimmesdale deserves no mercy. Yet, for
whatever her real reason is, Hester elects to spare him the humiliation and the
punishment that he truly deserves.

Since her decision is not
necessarily the correct choice to make, she will pay for the consequences of it through
Pearl, who is a spiritual extension of Hester. It seems as if Pearl can read her
mother's soul. She knows what her mother's weaknesses are, and what makes her mother
upset. She manipulates her mother's emotions as if reminding her that, because of her
choice of saving Dimmesdale, both Pearl and Hester live a life of pariahs. Pearl is a
manifestation of Hester's weaknesses, but her strength of character makes those
weaknesses more evident in Hester's eyes.

In not so many words, Pearl
was put in this world to make Hester pay for saving Dimmesdale, and for her not to ever
forget how this decision basically destroyed life, as she knew it,
forever.