One of the themes in “The Minister's Black Veil”, readers is likely to recognize the reaction of the townspeople to change, especially when a change is associated with their religion or religious figures. This is clearly not an accepting community and it is worth thinking critically about the way the whole community comes together to shun him. The veil makes the Reverend look dark and gloomy and instantly, even before one day is through the people in town are witnessing supernatural events. It seems there is something to be said about the group mentality of Puritans and their quick tendencies toward superstition. Elizabeth is the only exception
He isn’t viewed as a very uplifting person throughout the town of Salem. Parris believed he was the best at what he does. In Act I Parris is standing over his daughter Betty’s bed. The reader seems to think that Parris is feeling uneasy because of his daughter’s condition although it is because of how he will look to the town. “There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit.
Dimmesdale is part of the group of ministers sitting in judgment over Hester when she emerges from prison. But he exhorts her to reveal the name of the man who was her lover. He suggests that it might be better for that man, too, if he were revealed. The Reverend Dimmesdale represents a weak man who sins but fails to accept public condemnation for his sin. His hypocrisy, however, eats away at him until his health fails.
Many, including Proctor do not support Parris in his leadership, “we vote by name in this society, not by acerage. This limits the people of Salem’s freedom, creating tension, and decreasing the willingness of the people to conform. Parris, being a minister relishes in the power given to him in this theocracy. Due to his high status as a minister in a strict Puritanical society, he holds a lot of power. He frequently emphasises the importance of conforming “There is either obedience or the church will burn like hell is burning!” This line shows how Parris believes himself to be conforming to God’s rules by constantly reiterating the harsh consequence of hell if they do not obey.
In August, 1832, my master attended a Methodist camp-meeting… I indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to emancipate his slaves… I was disappointed… It neither made him to be humane to his slaves, nor to emancipate them. If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before. Prior to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty. Pg. 53 Clearly we have an example of extreme
His language proves him to be insecure, angry, rebellious and skeptical of the world around him. When Holden swore for the first time in the book and said “crap”(1) on the first page, I am sure many of you instantly felt an affinity with him, or thought ‘what a guy’. -Holden imagines himself as a hero but he does so by getting words wrong. When listening to Robert Burn’s Comin’ Thro’ The Rye Holden mishears a part of the poem that says “Gin a body meet a body/ comin’ through the rye” and instead thinks that it says “Gin a body catch a body/ comin’ through the rye”. Around this mistake and misinterpretation he creates a fantasy in which he imagines himself saving the children of the world by catching them before they fall off the cliff that is the transition from childhood to adulthood.
If ‘Othello’ was a racist play then Othello would have been portayed very differently, more violent and rude, however he is shown as being much more respectful and calmer than the other men around him as illustrated in the quote, ‘approved good masters’. He then continues on to admit that he has indeed planned to marry Brabantio’s daughter, ‘it is most true; true that I have married her’. It was a stereotype in those days that black people were very sly and lied a lot, however the stereotype seemed to have been very wrongful in this case because Othello very bravely admitted to his actions and also says that that is the only ‘offense’ that he has commited, ‘The very head and front of my offending hath this extent, no more.’ A Shakespearian audience would normally expect a black man to be portayed as a very uneducated, sly and devilish character however these qualities are shown in Brabantio instead of Othello. Othello then talks about how he is a fighter, nothing more,
Moreso, if the Christian bible is so heavily influenced by white man, what interest does the God it portrays have in black women? In The Color Purple, Celie's original intended audience is a white, male God who does not listen to her prayers, and her letters remain anonymous. Celie explains that she stopped writing to God because he gave her 'a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a
Leading on from the previous point, Lee also conveys that the fact that the community is so succinct can lead to suspicions and creation of rumours among people if you don’t abide by the unspoken rules that they live by. This is portrayed when Scout, in a narrative paragraph, says “in the house lived a malevolent phantom,”. The unnerving presence of the Radley’s seem to affect everyone. This is accentuated when Calpurnia, uncharacteristically, speaks about Mr Radley by murmuring “There goes the meanest man that God ever blew breath into”; this is surprising because “Calpurnia rarely commented on the ways of white people” and shows that everyone is silently judging the Radley’s for not being social. This is again shown in the descriptions of the Radley house.
Hayden goes into detailed explanations of examples of the father’s devoted love. His love is not shown through hugs and kisses, but through caring little things that bring happiness to the speaker’s day. This happiness can be seen by the regret the speaker shows when he says things such as, “No one ever thanked him” (5). The father’s devotion is seen when the speaker states that he had “with cracked hands that ached / from labor in the weekday weather made / banked fires blaze” (3-5). The father, regardless of his own cares, makes the effort on those winter Sundays to try to make things a little easier for the speaker.