Theme Of Conscience In The Scarlet Letter And The Crucible

In The Scarlet Letter Hypocrisy is evident everywhere. The characters of Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and the very society that the characters lived in, were steeped in hypocrisy. Hawthorne was not subtle in his portrayal of the terrible sin of hypocrisy; he made sure it was easy to see the sin at work , at the same time however, parallels can be drawn between the characters of The Scarlet Letter and of today’s society.

The literary works, The Scarlet Letter, a romantic work of an American writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Crucible, a play written by an American playwright, Arthur Miller both show two different narratives of the Salem Witch Trials. The Scarlet Letter is mainly on adultery, meanwhile, The Crucible is about witchcraft. Amongst these two literary works, there are several similarities and contrasts: setting, sin, reasons behind committing the misdemeanor, guilt, and loyalty of the Puritan people to their appointed officials. Although there are several similarities and comparisons, the greatest controversy is how the authors portray the female characters. Women get treated differently than men; it is the idea of women being inferior creatures and lesser human beings.

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.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne exhibits how three very unique characters are evidently brought together by the sins that they have perpetrated and how they manage to perform acts of atonement in the puritanical Boston society. Hester Prynne sins by committing the shocking transgression of adultery. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who as well engages in adultery with Hester, abandons her and their daugher because of his own cowardice and hypocrisy. Roger Chillingworth grows to become a maleficent being who tries to corrupt the very soul of Reverend Dimmesdale. Although Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale do sin greatly, it is Roger Chillingworth who sins to the most ferocious degree.

In the everyday live one repeatedly meets people who turn out to have a two-faced personality. In both The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, and The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, we get to know characters with split character traits. While The Crucible is a play and The Scarlet Letter a novel, both works have several points in common even though in the stories they tell they are so very different. Both of these literary works are set in the early days of the Massachusetts colony around the mid 1700’s. In this time period many citizens of both Salem in The Crucible and Boston in The Scarlet Letter were highly religious. So if anything happened that was not able to be solved with a believable explanation, the citizens believed

Judgment can be the the greatest plague of society. Judgment kripples acceptance, forward growth and blinds entire communities. Though in retrospect plagues are necessary, as is judgment. Without judgment humanity would be blind to people's character exposing them dangerous risks unstable people present. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne , Hester dealt with the judgment repercussions of adultery. Her sin caused society's judgment of her to rise and fall, in tandem producing negative and positive effects for Hester. Throughout the novel the Puritan community shifts their views of Hester. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, judgment that plagued Hester as a result of her sin evolved and shifted the communities views of her.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller both used their writings to comment on the state of the world at their current times. Miller’s Play The Crucible and Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter both share several similar concepts, despite the fact that they were written just over one hundred years apart. The Scarlet Letter is about a Puritan woman by the name of Hester Prynne, who has an illegitimate child (called Pearl) with the religious leader of the town, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The Crucible is a play featuring the Puritan town of Salem, which is suffering through a hysterical, supernatural paranoia started by a vengeful adulteress named Abigail Williams. The similarities between these two texts have been compared and explored by many before, and three such explorations are investigated over the course of this paper.

Both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible revolve around the puritan culture of 17th century America. Written against the backdrop of the self-perplexed puritan culture, emotions of pain and pleasure are similarly highlighted amongst themes of religion, reputation and injustice in both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible.

Ever since the beginning, in the regards to the biblical belief system, sin has plagued the world. Ever since the woman named Eve took the apple, sin has said existed. Sin has become a ruling factor in certain communities, at the time of the Romans, some sin was considered punishable by death. In the years of the 1500s, a group emerged calling themselves the Puritans. They based their everyday lives around the avoidance of sin. So when one committed a sin he/she was punished. Death, torture, beatings, and public shaming. Shame, it's to have painful feelings of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. The e of shame is seen many times throughout the texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both tell stories of men plagued by their sin of adultery and what they do to deal with the guilt they have brought upon themselves. The two go through trials and tribulations, but in the end seem to come to terms with their sin and consequences. But also realize how they've grown from the experience.

Mr. Dimmesdale is an almost perfect example of the contrast between public and private truth in The Scarlet Letter. The young clergyman is often seen as saint by the public. Many of his sermons throughout the book bring dozens to Christ in the small town. The people of the town even began to say,“The saint on earth! Alas, if he discern such sinfulness in his own white soul, what horrid spectacle would he behold in thine or mine!”(Hawthorne 246). In private though, Mr. Dimmesdale is actually being eaten alive by the guilt that his sin with Hester gave him. Mr. Dimmesdale’s adulterous act caused

Through out the course of history, those who were considered sinners were often out casted from the society. This is much the case with Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. After a public trial, Hester is considered a sinner due to her birthing of a so called “devil child”. Hester is convicted to the life long bearing of a scarlet letter on her chest. The Scarlet Letter that Hester Prynne wears symbolizes the change in perception of sin through out the novel. Due to the revelations of the governor Winthrop and the reverend Dimmesdale, the way sin is perceived changes from one of shame to the idea that every one is a sinner in their own right.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a man who was both plagued and absorbed by the legacy of the Puritans in New England. He was related to John Hathorne, a Puritan judge during the infamous Salem Witch trials of 1692. In The Scarlet Letter, his fictional account of mid-17th century Boston presents an opportunity to examine different themes commonly associated with Puritans. Particularly the nature of sin, personal identity and the repression of natural urges are themes that appear repeatedly through the novel. While his account of this time period may not be completely historically accurate, it is indicative of the persistent thematic influence of Puritan culture on American and New England society.

In the stories of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the antagonist characters display parallel story lines through their searches for the enemy. Roger Chillingworth, the former husband of Hester Prynne and the antagonist of The Scarlet Letter, works against his wife in order to find her untold second lover. Frankenstein is a contrasting story in which an unnamed monster is the antagonist towards his human creator, Dr. Frankenstein. Yet despite quite different story lines, the two characters possess traits that exibit parallels between them. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth displays the startling passionate characteristics of an unwavering drive to seek out his foe, madness as his focus on his search takes over his entire being, and terrible anguish when his task is unexpectedly over, all of which are reflected in the daemon created at the hand of Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley 's novel Frankenstein.

"The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent!" This quote from Jean Baptiste Racin summarizes The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in one sentence. The novel's main focus is on three main characters and how the sins they commit affect their lives in the strict Puritan town of Boston around the year 1642. Hawthorne was very knowledgeable of his Puritan ancestry and shows it by incorporating some important thoughts and traditions into this story about sin and confession. Throughout the novel, the physical, social, mental and emotional changes that result from sin in the lives of the characters are never positive and the outcome of their spiritual