Josh Kirkpatrick The Puritan Way: Oppressive Laws Followed to the Tee. Why? Hester Prynne is the epitome of what citizens of The Scarlet Letter’s Puritan society wanted to avoid by following laws, even if they are oppressive and restricting of free will. Rather than being sentenced to death she was sentenced to a dead life; she lost everything except for her personal values and Pearl (which was a curse in itself). Puritan society came down hard on lawbreakers and held to strict traditions set on the interpretations of the bible by the Magistrates.
Even the people from Shakespeare’s days held their own believes. They believed that their lives were completely controlled by fate, or influenced so strongly that they had very little control of the path their lives took. In William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Macbeth, the concept of free will is non- existent through the witches’ control. The fate controlling witches were introduced by thunder and lightning in the very first scene. This sets the tone of evil and darkness within the play.
Those who wanted to be separate from Salem Town, and those who did not. Samuel Parris was the minister of the group that did want to be separate. He helped divide the groups even more by his sermons. He called the group that did not want to separate, evil and bad, and the group that did, good and righteous. The puritans were scared of things that were different, “when champagne was developed in the
The pope can only remit sins or guilt by announcing that GOD has actually remitted the guilt. Luther saw as the major problem with the religious practices of his day the fact that Christians were buying pardons for their guilt and sins rather than seeking the penalties they deserved. He was afraid that the more pardons the Christians purchased the freer of penalty they would become and possibly commit more sins
“Yet one cannot call it virtue to kill one's citizens, betray one's friends, to be without faith, without mercy, without religion; these modes can enable one to acquire an empire, but not glory.”(Machiavelli 35) “ God our Father hasmade all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing.” (Luther 13) This quote truly shows how strongly Luther felt about faith and the connection to God with no middle man. He thought that the fact that the Catholic Church said you had to confess to a priest so they could talk to God for you was wrong and takes away from your faith. Machiavelli sees virtu as the traits necessary for a prince to acquire to be able to succesfully run a state. “ And above all a prince should contrive to give himself the fame of a great man and of an excellent talent in every action of his.” (Machiavelli 89) In Chapter XVIII “ Of Cruelty and Mercy, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved Than Feared, or the Contrary” Machiavelli lists in his writing traits to be a succesfull Prince. He expresses how it is better to be feared rather than loved and to recognize the people around you and in
He feels like he’s failed because he cannot prove that the condemned are innocent. The only thing he could do to help them is to convince them to sin. He tries to convince Proctor and the others to lie and say that they’ve seen and talked with the devil himself in order to save their lives. In the end he couldn’t force Proctor to lie which hurt Hale deeply. The day of the hanging of Proctor had come and Hale tries one last time.
He keeps secrets from the entire community, yet is consumed with rage when Hester tells him the truth about Roger Chillingworth being her husband. How can he be angry with her for hiding something from him when he is hiding a secret from everyone he knows? Another example of hypocrisy in the novel is Puritan society as a whole. At the beginning of the novel, we learn that the first building built was the prison. The Puritans were supposed to be a religious group of people who were very tolerant, forgiving, and who always strived to please the Lord.
Comparative Paragraph In his quest of liberating India from British rule, Mohandas K. Gandhi modeled his teachings and actions of non-violence primarily after those of Jesus Christ. Jesus challenged His followers by opposing the ‘eye for an eye’ attitude presented in the Old Testament and replacing it with a new principle of non-retaliation; “You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Offer the wicked man no resistance. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also…” (Matthew 5:38-39) When arrested at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus showed no resistance to the unjust act and demanded his disciple Peter to not retaliate after already cutting off a soldier’s ear. Jesus warned Peter, "Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) Likewise, Gandhi upheld this attitude of non-violent resistance in his teachings.
Belonging is the human need for wellbeing, acceptance and social security. One belongs to a group, a family, a unit, and one can also be isolated from groups and rejected from communities. The Crucible explores the destruction of a community by mass hysteria which was caused by members of the community accusing one another of practicing witchcraft and devil worship. As Salem was a Puritan society, to act against God is frowned upon and cannot go unpunished. I wrote this play because it relates to the McCarthyism period which was happening during that time as others are constantly accused of being communist without actual official evidence.
Although Job is described by Satan as “You will find no one like him on earth, a man of blameless and upright life, who fears God and sets his face against wrongdoing.” (p.511), he is still reluctant to believe that Job will remain sinless “in the face of disaster”, and suggests they eradicate his material possessions, including his children, to test his faith. Through a great amount of self control and confidence in God, Job remains calm and sin-free. Satan then manipulates God into allowing another set of tests in which Job himself is physically harmed by ragingly painful sores, but once again Job maintained strong and faithful, without cursing once. The book then centers on Job’s interpretation of God’s actions. He curses the day of his birth as well as the night of his conception, stating “Why is life given to those who find it so bitter?” (p.512).