Examples Of Moral Conscience In The Scarlet Letter And The Crucible

By revealing this small, hidden regret, he exposes Hester’s tortured state of mind. Unable to reach salvation in the town she desired to live in, she regretfully decided to leave and abandon her sorrows. The burden society placed on her with the scarlet letter was too demanding for her to handle any longer. Similarly, Arthur Dimmesdale was distressed from his ignominy. Afraid of societal repercussions, Dimmesdale had been “overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast” (102). Society’s extensive honor toward him exacerbated his pain, thus causing society to trap Dimmesdale; this prevented him from revealing his dark secret and reaching salvation. Additionally, he began to picture his surroundings as an obstacle designed to hinder his path to redemption. His shortcoming to reach salvation agonized Dimmesdale to the point where he was incapable of recalling “[any] text of Scripture, nor aught else, except a brief, pithy, and, as it then appeared to him, unanswerable argument against the immorality of

Guilt is often one of the hardest emotions for a person to overcome. Guilt is one of the few emotions that can hurt someone long after their integrity was damaged. Lying about something or someone, majority of the time makes a person ask themselves “ Did I make the right choice.” However, guilt can be a blessing and a curse. Guilt can show someone the truth behind their actions and make them act upon it. In contrast of that sporadically it makes situations worse. For example in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible one of the main characters John Proctor feels as if he would feel too guilty if he signed his paper confessing his satanic works.He refuses to have this paper hanged on the church door, his emotions overtake him and he rips the document into two halves. Contradicting that statement, Abigail Williams a teenage girl, blames her use of witchcraft on a clueless slave named Tituba and she has no disregard for her actions. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller seems to prove that habitually people would rather hold other people accountable for their actions other than themselves.

“The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself” (Addams). Immorality is a very subjective concept, but sometimes it is undeniable. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Abigail Williams is shown to be the most immoral character through her constant disregard of others throughout the different events of the story, furthering the point that when in fearful situations people will only think about themselves.

Many people underestimate the powerful affliction that is guilt. People think that if they simply turn their back on what they have done and to the feelings of remorse over the wrongdoing, these feelings will eventually subside. However, this is not the case, as the moment one turns his or her back on feelings of guilt is the exact moment it sneaks up behind that person and eats him or her alive. In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter, which tells the story of two people who commit adultery and the aftermath of their crime. Almost exactly one hundred years later, Arthur Miller published the play The Crucible, also set in Puritan society, which tells the story of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Though written years apart,

The presence of guilt has been felt by all human beings. As guilt grows in a

Between the two stories of The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, Both authors agree to the fact that one's conscience should take over the rules of one's religion. To support their argument, each author uses the rhetorical devices of either logos, ethos, or pathos in their own way. Nathaniel Hawthorne( The author of The Scarlet Letter), uses the rhetorical device of logos to strengthen his argument. By applying this technique, Nathaniel Hawthorne puts the Guilt and shame of Minister Dimmesdale on display. The Guilt of his sin eating away at him every day, with the only logical answer already thrown out of the window, for he should have turned himself in from the beginning, but for the sake of his religion and his high-class reputation, he couldn't.

“I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you.” The Crucible is written around the theme of sin and guilt. The girls dancing naked in the forest, the affair of John and Abigail, and John refusing to sign the agreement about the affair to be hung up on the church doors are all examples of sin and guilt.

In the book, The Crucible, Arthur Miller writes about the Salem witch trials in the town of Salem in 1692. The plot of this story revolves around a group of girls who obtain all of the power, and are the main accusers of those who have committed witchcraft. This story shows how important choices are, because the people who were tried in court had the decision of making a false confession or to be hanged. These are vital choices, and how one responded is very important. Miller suggests that positive or negative decisions will influence one’s character, to the extent that they will establish positive or negative attributes.

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many characters’ behaviors are called into question. Similarly, people in today’s society often base their actions on one of two things--vanity or honesty. Reverend Hale addresses this dilemma when he states that people who won’t falsely confess are committing a greater crime than witchcraft by willfully giving up their lives. Abigail Williams chooses vanity over honesty. She, as well many others in the story, chooses to put herself first. Individuals in today’s society are motivated by their own desires rather than caring about the desires of others.

A researcher by the name of Lawrence Kohlberg demonstrated ways in which moral reasoning changes as people mature. In The Crucible, Abigail shows growth in decision making when she transitions from stage one to stage three of Lawrence Kohlberg’s “Stages of Moral Development”

The Scarlet Letter’s main character, Hester Prynne, committed adultery with the town priest, Reverend Dimmesdale, and she was punished not by death, but by having to wear the scarlet letter “A” on her bosom for the rest of her life. This “A” signified she committed adultery, and the entire town looked down upon Hester for what seemed a lifetime. The theme is best described by the narrator in The Scarlet Letter when he/she says that “the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it” (pg#?). Similarly, this quote also describes The Crucible. One of the main characters, Abigail Williams, committs several sins, but she is never punished. One of her sins was that she kept telling Judge Danforth she saw other people conversing with the Devil just so she would not get in trouble for doing it. Abigail confessing the names of innocent people led to many of their deaths or imprisonments. Abigail never got punished for the actions she took, but she certainly felt the guilt after the witch trials because of all the lives she destroyed. The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible demonstrated what life was like for a

The McCarthy hearings (The Red Scare) in the 1950’s with the political issues that were happening during those years could be depicted as the 1692/93 Salem Witch Trials. Accusing people of being communists is the same as accusing people of being witches. Arthur Miller, the author of the play,The Crucible, that was based on the Salem Witch Trials is a good example of a morality play. In 1692, there were accusations against innocent people in the town of Salem. In The Crucible, a group of teens accuse others of witchcraft even though, they are trying to cover up their mistakes that had been caused. After John Proctor had an affair with Abigail Williams this had opened a full can of worms throughout Salem. The Crucible displays characterization and bold symbolism and is represented in good and evil morals during the Salem Witch Trials.

Moral ambiguity is a character trait that is used in many novels to add depth to the plot structure. Arthur Miller creates John Proctor to be a very morally ambiguous character in The Crucible. Proctor can be viewed as such because of his lack of being completely evil or good. Throughout, Proctor is viewed as a good man that works hard for his family in 1690’s Salem but as the story progresses, there are intimations showing he may not be as much of a hero as he thinks he is. These hints indicate how he his significant to The Crucible as a whole.

The aching weights of guilt haunt the pride of many significant characters in Arthur Miller 's play “The Crucible”. Characters throughout that play change significantly as a result of the deaths of a bountiful of key figures. A correlation can also be made between the facts that a lot of the people that were feeling guilty in this play were the ones that were more sensible. Guilt comes within the hearts of many characters in the play and has a drastic impact on the entire Salem community, along with the occurrences in the time period of the play. Reverend John Hale, John Proctor, and Giles Corey were three characters that possessed this guilty conscience about what they had done.

This concealed sin is the center of his tormented conscience. The pressures on him from society are greater than those on Hester because he is a man in high standing, expected to represent the epitome of the Puritanical ideals. It is ironic that Dimmesdale, who is supposed to be absolutely pure and urges congregation to confess and openly repent their sins, is incapable of doing so himself. He knows the hypocrisy of his actions but cannot bring himself to admit his deed publicly. In resentment of this he punishes himself physically - he is "often observed to put his hand over his heart, with indicative of pain" (ch 9). Dimmesdale's resistance to be true to himself gradually destroys his well being as well as Hester's, and although he eventually declares the truth, his resistance ends him.