Summary Of ' The Scarlet Letter '

With a man just trying to make a living with his life, he finds himself involved with something he didn’t want to get involved with at all. He was struggling not to get involved with the trials and yet he still wanted to live his own life not being told what to do by other people while still being like by other people in the community. He didn’t want his name to be ruined by signing that confession. If he did his life would be ruined people would think of him as being evil when his name would be mentioned. He didn’t want

Seeing his chance, he is firmly set on this boys guilt, seeing his own son's guilt in the accused. But it does not stop there.

He was raised to listen, be respectful, be a great listener and more, which is all a part of being disciplined. Not only was he disciplined, but a great listener, and he felt guilty also, he never let go of these character traits throughout the book.

Mr. Farebrother didn’t do anything in regards to this injustice and even forgave Mr. Lydgate for casting the deciding vote against him. He is a good man who takes care and provides for not just his old mother but her sisters too. Mr. Vincy, who was the mayor of Middlemarch, described him as “good a little fellow as ever breathed, and the best preacher anywhere, and companionable too” (100). However, he was not “a model clergyman’, which he himself agreed on (113). He was involved in gambling and relied heavily on it to earn his income.

How else can the reverend live without revealing his identity? He has been doing it for seven years, and it must be hard for him, mentally and physically. Mentally, his whole body shuts down because he cannot take it anymore, even though he does not give in to confess yet. He has become emaciated because he has let the sin against himself churn

In “Salvation” (1940), Langston Hughes makes it clear that when he deceived everyone at Church by having them believe he was saved, it took a toll on his mental well-being. “I cried, in bed alone, and couldn’t stop. I buried my head under the quilts, but my aunt heard me” (Hughes, 1940, para. 15). It is not normal for a twelve year old to cry excessively and loudly. His extreme crying after the deception proves that when his words did not match his actions guilt ensued. Hughes mentions he primarily felt guilty for lying. “But I was really crying because I couldn’t bear to tell her that I lied, that I had deceived everybody in the church” (Hughes, 1940, para.

He perpetrates this act of sin and permits the guilt of his deed to haunt him every day of his life. He tries to justify the hiding of his sin by thinking of the damage it could do to his congregation. He believes that he needs to demonstrate a virtuous disposition for his church members. However, despite his attempts at justification, he still suffers tremendously for his sin. Instead of repenting his misdeed, he buries it deep inside of his heart, causing it to slowly deteriorate. In his heart “there was, and there had long been, the gnawing and poisonous tooth of bodily pain” caused by his remorse (Hawthorne 135). Rather than admitting his sin, he inflicts in private actions of self-harm including fasting and scourging himself. Hawthorne emphasizes the daily torture that concealed sin can cause through Dimmesdale’s internal

Another effect on Dimmesdale, seen as his guilt slowly wears him down, is how he compares his actions to those of Roger Chillingworth. This is clearly seen when Dimmesdale claims to Hester, "We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man 's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!” (Hawthorne 185). Even in the privacy of the forest, he did not want to accept the full reality of his actions. This is a step forward for him, however, because he chooses to actually say aloud that what he did was wrong, just not as wrong as Chillingworth’s terrorizing of him. Eventually, Dimmesdale is able to confess to the public his sin, and this is due to his longing to escape the torture Chillingworth has been putting him through. Dimmesdale is no longer affected by the guilt that his actions brought about, so Chillingworth has no reason to aggravate him anymore. Sadly for the reverend, the shame

should think him a good man because he was only obligated to confess his sin to God, but he

He develops a habit of putting his hand on his heart and turning pale. He is literally dying of guilt.

The defendant's Mens Rea throughout the play has been fairly obvious even going as far as to contemplate killing his uncle while he was praying “Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.” (3.3.74-76).

He struggles to get out his prayer, because he is unsure that he will be

This delivers such a wave of guilt that when he’s accused of murder he falls

Furthermore, the sin of adultery allows the theme of the nature of evil to emerge throughout the novel. The characters in the novel often associate the Black Man with different people. Generally speaking, the Black Man or the Devil, is the main expression of evil. This Black Man is associated with different characters including Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Mistress Hibbins, Pearl, and even Hester. Firstly, Pearl associates the Black Man to Dimmesdale. She asks, “And, mother, he has his hand over his heart! Is It because, when the minister wrote his name in the book, the Black Man set his mark in that place?” (Hawthorne 164). Pearl, for such a young age, notices how strange and suspicious Dimmesdale acts and senses the evil within him. Furthermore, instead of direct associations with the Black Man, Chillingworth goes through physical changes that can be compared to the characteristics of the Black Man. By the end of the novel, he has become an uglier, darker, and more crooked version of his former self from seven years back. His actions can also be compared to those of the Black Man, where his actions are meant to spread evil. “The fact that he is so intelligent also makes him all the more

There was no one nearby to help this young pastor. Some of the most serious false teaching