We contend that this startling and unpleasant introduction is the writer’s way, of letting the reader know; we are to hate and despise this character. As Chillingworth comes into town and sees his wife being punished for the crime of adultery, by having to wear a scarlet A for the rest of her life. He asks a bystander in the crowed why this woman was being punished. He is told, and his immediate reaction is that the man should also be punished. Hester is then taken back to prison where she was being held,
The scarlet letter which stands for the ignominious Puritan punishment for Adultery is skilfully used by Hawthorne to denounce their rigidity. It is used as if it were a magical mirror, it magnifies the protagonists’ stances on the Puritans’ creed and judgement and has a deep impact on the characters’ development and how Hawthorne has lead them on different paths. First and foremost, the scarlet letter, as the symbol of the Puritan rigid conception of life, enables the narrator to depict the Puritans’ punishment as overreacting to a so-called sinful behaviour. As far as Hester Prynne is concerned, the scarlet letter, which first symbolises her sin, enables her to become, in the end, the embodiment of virtue and freedom of thought and to lie in sharp contrast with the Puritans. On the contrary, imprisoned in the Puritan way of thinking, the scarlet letter leads Arthur Dimmesdale to his fall.
Prospero using a tempest to shipwreck is previous offenders and plotting to sabotage them, and Medea plotting to kill Jason’s new female interest and her kids to avenge her husband’s mistreatment, are both using unjust acts to retaliate their offenders. Their actions, though enacted through anger, are a clear violation of basic moral reasoning, and are a driving theme between both works. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Euripides’ Medea the dearth of morality manifested in both main characters, is a prevalent theme similarly expressed through the author’s use of a sympathetic figure and the characters illusion of justice they strive for, yet is differentiated greatly by Medea and Prospero’s concluding acts upon their schemes for vengeance. Medea’s foremost introduction is the details of her husband, Jason’s, betrayal, “but now their love is all turned to hate …For Jason hath betrayed his own children and my mistress dear for the love of a royal bride” (17). A moral breach in marriage is the perfect beginning to a sympathetic figure, as Medea, “lies fasting, yielding her body to her grief, wasting away in tears” (17), Euripides keenly draws upon her devastation and grief towards
Revenge is often seen as a person’s way to “get even” after he or she has suffered, in attempt to harm the wrongdoer in retaliation. The only purpose of revenge is to gain satisfaction in seeing the wrongdoer suffer. Through ethical, religious and legal perspectives, revenge is not ever justified. The act upon taking revenge is unethical. For instance in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the feud between the Montagues and Capulets caused pain and suffering towards the innocent characters such as Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Tybalt.
In Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, he focuses on the conflicting views of society and nature in the Puritan society and uses contrast, symbolism, and imagery to convey his beliefs. From the beginning of the novel, color was used symbolically, representing everything from life to death; punishment to freedom. The color red was used throughout the novel, most notably as the scarlet letter. A letter “A” was forced upon Hester’s chest by the Puritan society as punishment for her sin of adultery in the beginning of the novel, with gold lining surrounding a vibrant, red cloth. It felt to Hester as though the red cloth emanated a “burning heat; and as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red-hot iron” (30).
She also makes an allusion to Ecclesiastes in the Bible, “Adieu, Adieu, all’s vanity,” (L 36) which is saying that the all things of the world are temporary. These two allusions to the bible also show that Bradstreet was Puritan. Anne Bradstreet also uses inverted syntax in the poem “Upon the Burning of our House”. She does so in order to prove God’s way with the world, and how temporary he makes it. In the poem, Bradstreet writes, “I, starting up, the light did spy/ And to my God my heart did cry,” (L 7-8) in order to show the disorganization of her life as the fire consumed her house.
Puritanical Beliefs Princeton defines Puritanism as “strictness and austerity in conduct and religion”. This is a understatement, when referring to the Puritan people of the 16th and 17th century. Based on the idealism of Anglican Christianity and the beliefs of a man by the name of Roger Calvin, Puritanistic incorporation of fundamental values based on the bible makes it seem quite like an extremist-like sect. Puritan life requires unwavering devotion and unfaltering faith - a difficult ambition to achieve in mid-1600 English society. Oppression by the Anglican Church was overwhelming, not to mention prevalent sinful behavior that plagued the continent – contradicting core puritan beliefs.
Believers practicing loving God with all their mind would be a witness to this world and even a way of reaching out in compassion and gentleness we have left behind by burying our arguments in our Bibles and not engaging the questions raised by the lost. Understanding where Evangelicals have fallen intellectually will help foster obedience to Christ’s command to love God with all of our mind. The major arguments held by critics Richard Hofstadter, George M. Marsden, and Alister McGrath, declare modern Evangelicalism anti-intellectual. Some of the main reasons for this are the average Evangelicals fear of defending their faith, the separation of the spiritual and secular, and the slothfulness Evangelicals have to
Hardy confronts organized religion because of the lack of compassion toward less remarkable people and places humanism as a more pure notion to live by. Hardy's negative treatment of religion in Tess of the D'Urbervilles stems from his belief that if a higher power exists, it corrupts mankind whereas humanism proves to be the perfect substitute. The injustice of giving an innocent, bastard child an improper burial and abolishing their only chance of salvation after earthly life is Hardy's main comment on how the depraved religious system in phase the second infects a man of repute, causing him to change his morals for the worse. The Vicar finds himself rejecting innocent Tess Durbeyfield's request of giving her child a proper, Christian burial, admitting "I would willingly do so... But I must not," (Hardy 97) indicating how a man of the God and the church was turning away from justice in order to assimilate into an elitist, apathetic society.
I wanted to have you all to myself. Seen as a sin by people in Victorian society this is why they condemned Wilde. Nevertheless, this may not be homosexuality and just may be his dedication towards his friend. Also, Dorian was going to marry Sibyl and there have been suggestions that he has had sexual relationships with other women. Murder - Lord Henry's influence.