The Crucible When one commits a sin, they must first forgive or accept themselves before they expect others to forgive or accept them. This is a concept that had to be accepted by the characters Hester and John. Hester Prynne, from The Scarlet Letter, committed adultery with the town’s minister and had a child. John Proctor, from The Crucible, also committed adultery with a woman, Abigail Williams, while his wife was pregnant. While the differences between John Proctor and Hester Prynne are countless, there are still several striking similarities between the two.
In The Scarlet Letter, the sin that has been committed is adultery where Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale conceive an illegitimate child, a daughter named Pearl. Throughout the story Hester is put on display and humiliated for her sin, while Dimmsdale is still thought to be the "almighty" minister. In similarity from The Crucible, sin is put on trial. The Crucible directly addresses the themes and ideas from Salem Witch Trials. The young girls and their leader Abigail are the core of sin and evil in the girls and the community.
“The Crucible” was written in 1953 and exposes the truths about the Salem Witchcraft trials, in Massachusetts. Ultimately, through their respective protagonists’ acts of aggression and violations of boundaries, authors Hawthorne, Soto, and Miller illustrate that the guilt derived from sin itself, especially if concealed from society, can cause emotional and mental torture, leading to everlasting internal punishment, and an increase in remorseful feelings. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne depicts the consequences of concealing transgression through Hester by showing the internal punishment she faces and overcomes. Hawthorne opens this novel with a depiction of Hester’s punishment where she publically shamed on a scaffold and has no hope of hiding or concealing her guilt and sin. The author introduces an image of guilt and shame through the description of Hester as she appears from the darkness of the prison to the dazzling light of the day.
Because she lived in such a God driven and puritan town, the judicial system of the settlement had decided for her to acknowledge her sin by embroidering a vibrant scarlet letter “A” onto her dress to symbolize adultery. She was often ostracized from the rest of the town since she was forced to wear the crimson “A” everywhere she went. As well as the letter to remind her of the wrong she had done, the affair had left her with a fatherless daughter named Pearl. Later in the novel we discover the father is the Reverend of the town, the admirable Arthur Dimmesdale. Through pain, remorse and agony the novel reveals that it is better to tell a harmless lie then to confess a hurtful truth.
The effects of sin in The Scarlet Letter are the sins that are represented through characters, events, and symbolism. Hester represents the effects of sin throughout the novel by showing the ways it can affect characters. When Hester is at the forest, she takes off the scarlet letter, and she “felt the freedom.” She has to wear the scarlet letter her whole life because of the crime she committed. This causes her to become depressed and sad, but if she did not wear the scarlet letter she would feel free. Also, when Pearl and Hester were at the governor’s hall, the governor thought Hester was not “of authority and influence” and had “stumbled and fallen amid the pitfalls of this world.” The
The Scarlet Letter has a variety of different characters that all have their own unique personalities. All of the characters Hawthorne uses depend and are connected to each other in a special way. The Scarlet Letter is centered around Hester Prynne. She is a beautiful, young woman who breaks the moral and social codes of her society by committing adultery. Because she refuses to reveal her lover’s identity, her punishment is to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest.
Matteson. The Minister’s Black Veil is being used to show another example of a man who is trying to hide and cover his sins. I am using The Woman Caught in Adultery biblical account to explain how Jesus faced the woman’s sins openly and how people should as well. The biblical account tells how people can be so quick to judge (much like the community in The Scarlet Letter), and how we shouldn’t be that way. The Scarlet Letter was meant to show the hypocrisy in Puritan society (and the people in the society) and how it causes so much pain and
John Procter and Abigail Williams’ sin was the same adulterous sin as Hester’s in The Scarlet Letter. Both sins of adultery, both in a puritan society, but the outcome of redemption turned out very different. In “The Crucible” the strive for redemption was more between John and Abigail, not John and the town, or Abigail and the town. John Procter, a married man, committed adultery with Abigail Williams, a young woman. Abigail Lusted for
Expository Essay In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the magistrates of the Boston colony penalize Hester Prynne by forcing her to wear a letter A on her breast, intending to isolate her from society and call attention to her sin. I feel that the letter did exactly what they anticipated. First of all, the letter did isolate her. It made Hester an outcast in almost every aspect and life for her was difficult. Second, she was looked down upon, and known to everyone as a sinner and nothing more.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne, the protagonist of the novel Hester Prynne finds herself making critical decisions. It is said that the choice’s one makes defines our character. The beautiful and spirited Hester Prynne is misled by temptation and commits adultery. The community condemns Hester by forcing her to wear a letter “A” for adulterer, and they publicly shame her. The Puritans frown upon Hester and Pearl, the product of Hester’s sin.