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Critical analysis of the scarlet letter
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Resolution of Sin in The Scarlet Letter
Hester Prynne is a young, beautiful woman who was sent to Boston by her husband who planned to join her but was persumed lost at sea. She looked to Arthur Dimmesdale for comfort and spiritual guidance. Their solace became passion and resulted in the sin of adultery and the birth of their daughter, Pearl. This sin had a huge impact on them and changed their lives forever. It is what the book The Scarlet Letter is all about and how different the characters dealt with it.
Hester Prynne has a strength of character. She is very honest so she openly acknowledges her sin. Hester stands on the scaffold, exposed to public humiliation, and wears a scarlet letter on her dress for the rest of her life as a sign of shame. Her beauty and warmth go away, buried under the burden of the elaborate scarlet letter on her bosom. Hester settles in a cottage at the edge of town, lives a somber life with her daughter, and earns a living with her needlework. She has to bear the contempt of the townspeople and she has nothing but her strength of spirit to sustain her.
Dimmesdale has not the strength of Hester, or her honesty, so he cannot stand alone to confess. He is a good minister and his effectiveness betrays his desire to confess. Sin and agony have enabled Dimmesdale to recognize and empathize with other sinners, but still his congregation loves him, and this tortures him even more! Dimmesdale struggles with his knowledge of his sin, his inability to disclose it to Puritan society, and his desire for penance. In an attempt to seek salvation he fasts until he faints and whips himself until he bleeds. These punishments are done in private and do not provide the cleansing Dimmesdale seeks and needs.
The life of public repentance, although bitter and difficult, helps Hester retain her good sanity while Dimmesdale seems to be losing his. His agonized suffering is the direct result of his inability to disclose his sin. Hester's ex-husband also tortures Dimmesdale very badly because of his jealousy. Dimmesdale becomes very ill as a result of his unconfessed sin.
The town is all out to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne some of the women are suggesting other punishments and the women are telling us about Hester and Dimmesdale. People say," said another, "that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation." (Page 49) Reverend Dimmesdale is seen as a godly man. A man who does not commit sin and in his own mind at this point he feels fine and does not have any guilt. Dimmesdale at this point in the novel is seen as godly and throughout the novel is seen as godly even at the end after the last scaffold scene. Consequently enough, Dimmesdale is trying to convince Hester to reveal the man who has sinned along with her , so the man can be relieved of his guilt, some what ironic because he is the man who has sinned along side with her. "What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin? Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee and the sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him--who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself--the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!" (Page 65) This is the first scaffold scene Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is not showing any signs of guilt at this point, he is still fairly the same and has not began to inflict punishment on himself or so it appears. Dimmesdale in the first scaffold scene seems fairly normal and has not begun to transform himself but by the next time we see him at the scaffold he is taken a turn for the worst.
In Raymond Carver’s story, “Cathedral,” the story tells of how a close outside relationship can threaten a marriage by provoking insecurities, aggravating communication barriers, and creating feelings of invasion of privacy. The husband in the story is given the gift of seeing the cathedral through a blind man’s eyes. Although the title suggests that the story is about a cathedral, it is really about two men who come together and share a vision and realize it is he who is blind.
In the book The Scarlet Letter, the character Reverend Dimmesdale, a very religious man, committed adultery, which was a sin in the Puritan community. Of course, this sin could not be committed alone. His partner was Hester Prynne. Hester was caught with the sinning only because she had a child named Pearl. Dimmesdale was broken down by Roger Chillinsworth, Hester Prynne’s real husband, and by his own self-guilt. Dimmesdale would later confess his sin and die on the scaffold. Dimmesdale was well known by the community and was looked up to by many religious people. But underneath his religious mask he is actually the worst sinner of them all. His sin was one of the greatest sins in a Puritan community. The sin would eat him alive from the inside out causing him to become weaker and weaker, until he could not stand it anymore. In a last show of strength he announces his sin to the world, but dies soon afterwards. In the beginning Dimmesdale is a weak, reserved man. Because of his sin his health regresses more and more as the book goes on, yet he tries to hide his sin beneath a religious mask. By the end of the book he comes forth and tells the truth, but because he had hidden the sin for so long he is unable to survive. Dimmesdale also adds suspense to the novel to keep the reader more interested in what Reverend Dimmesdale is hiding and his hidden secrets. Therefore Dimmesdale’s sin is the key focus of the book to keep the reader interested. Dimmesdale tries to cover up his sin by preaching to the town and becoming more committed to his preachings, but this only makes him feel guiltier. In the beginning of the story, Dimmesdale is described by these words; “His eloquence and religious fervor had already given earnest of high eminence in his profession.”(Hawthorne,44). This proves that the people of the town looked up to him because he acted very religious and he was the last person that anyone expected to sin. This is the reason that it was so hard for him to come out and tell the people the truth. Dimmesdale often tried to tell the people in a roundabout way when he said “…though he (Dimmesdale) were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.
For many, our goal is to reach the American Dream: a good job, a home we can call our own, and wealth. However, there are others who only dream of it because they are stuck in a hole that restricts them from reaching it. Charles Bowden, author of “Blue”, takes readers on a journal across the desert to get a better understanding on why people from Mexico risk their lives to cross to the United States. He provides detailed images and descriptions of Mexicans that have lost their lives trying to cross the desert. Along with his friend Bill, they travel across the desert and encounter danger with snakes, the effects of extreme weather conditions, and experiences thirst, hunger, and fatigue.
Raymond Carver’s Cathedral is praised as one of the greatest short stories ever written. Aside from being technically sound and brilliant terms of the pacing and character development, the story itself elucidates a lot of interesting thematic elements. Before one can delve into the thematic elements, however, it is important to know a bit of the context. The story immediately frames itself from the perspective of the narrator, a nameless man whom we never know the true name of. He is married, and his wife at one time worked with a blind man, a man whom she developed a relationship with. This man would be coming to visit, and the narrator seems a bit uncomfortable with this. Immediately, we get an introduction to the theme of the story. One
That man who Hester loves so deeply, Mr. Dimmesdale also undergoes major changes due the sin he bears. In the beginning of the book we see this man’s weakness and unwillingness to confess sin even as he begs Hester the person he committed his sin with to come forth with her other parties name (p56). As The Scarlet Letter progresses we see Dimmesdale become weaker physically and his religious speeches become even stronger so that his congregation begins to revere him. For a large part of the novel Dimmesdale has been on a downward spiral in terms of mental and physical health thanks to a so-called friend who was issued to take care of Mr. Dimmesdale, then because of a talk with Hester he is revitalized and given the power to do something, which he could not for seven long years. At the end of the novel Dimmesdale is finally able to recognize his family in public and confess his sin before all releasing the sin he held so long hidden in his heart (p218, 219).
Victor knew he was a Native American that lived on the reservation. However, as he has grown up, it seems he has forgotten the tribal ties of the Native Americans. The people of that culture consider everyone in the tribe to be family and they are not ashamed of who they are and where they come from. Towards the end of the fictional narrative it is said, “Victor was ashamed of himself. Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community? The only real thing he shared with anybody was a bottle and broken dreams. He owed Thomas something, anything” (519). At the end of the story, Victor has finally realize that he is acting self absorbed. He realizes that this is not who he wants to be and he should not be ashamed to talk to Thomas Builds-a-Fire. Remembering his tribal ties, Victor gives half of his father 's ashes to Thomas. By doing that, Victor is thanking Thomas in his own way. Victor said, “listen, and handed Thomas the cardboard box which contained half of his father. “I want you to have this” (519). Individuals on the reservation thought Thomas was just a madman with weird stories. But in reality he was always true to his tribal identity and has even taught Victor how to get back to that. For example Thomas says, “I’m going to travel to Spokane Falls one last time and toss these ashes into the water. And your father will rise like a salmon, leap over the bridge, over me, and find his way
The unnamed narrator of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” poses as an unreliable narrator for his unaccepting nature towards blind people along with his ignorant perception of many realities in his life that Carver presents for the reader to take into question. The narrator holds prejudice against Robert, a blind man whom the narrator’s wife worked with ten years earlier and eventually befriends. Unperceptive to many of the actualities in his own life, the narrator paints an inaccurate picture of Robert that he will soon find to be far from the truth.
Hester Prynne, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, the Scarlet Letter, faces a crucible. She commits adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale and becomes pregnant with a daughter, Pearl. She is isolated from the community and the general public except for when she must stand upon the scaffold for three hours as part of her punishment for her sin. She must also wear a scarlet letter “A” for adultery on her breast. The town looks at her differently because of her sin but Hester stays true to her personality. Hester fairs her life by honoring her punishment and her mistakes, as well as taking care of Pearl and teaching her to be kind.
Through these events, Hester Prynne’s image is transformed throughout the course of the story. As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “.she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accept her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127). She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an African novel which happened in 19th Century. Achebe narrates the story mainly about Okonkwo’s whole life in one of the nine villages called Umuofia in Nigeria and the clashes as well as influences to the village from colonization of Europeans. The clashes include reactions and misconception after the first arrival of white people and the effect which missionaries bring about to the village from many aspects such as belief, family and culture. Beyond that, there are large amount of description of the background and details of the villagers’ daily lives are provided to readers for acquainting with Ibo culture. As a consequence, the changes which white people bring about to the village are vivid and unimaginable compared with their previous peaceful life. The conflicts generate from violence and misunderstanding between the Europeans and villagers with addition of colonial process among villages which lead to replacement of Christian domination rather than the Ibo culture.
During a period of Romanticism and a strong appreciation for literature, William Blake proved to the literary world that “Imagination is a doorway to the infinite.” Blake was more than just your average poet; he was a creator of beauty. His work came alive through the words and illustrations he hand made and published. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are Blake’s two symphonies of words that convey the juxtaposing ideas of human nature. “The Poison Tree” is the perfect representation of the experience aspect of Blake’s work due to the way it pulls the reader to ”disillusionment with human nature and society.” It leaves the reader in awe of the capability of humans and causes us to reflect on our own decadent actions in correlation to one of the seven deadly sins; the wrath of human beings.
Without realizing it, she has created a struggle between a friend in whom she can confide but cannot love like a husband and a husband whom she can love as such, but in whom she cannot confide. The saddest part of the story, and the part which finally shows the consequences of the wife 's ineptitude, is the final scene. Upon awakening from a stoned slumber, she finds her blindman, her confidant, sharing a close conversation with her husband, her greatest desire, as they draw a picture of a Cathedral together. Her makes her jealousy evident when she exclaims, “What are you doing? Tell me, I want to know...What 's going on?” like a child shouting to be heard (Carver 193). Her desperate tone stems form the fact that she must observe her heart 's greatest desire occur before her eyes, but from the side lines. She so desperately desires to become a part of the relationship forming between her husband and the blind man, but she cannot. Once again she falls behind, this time spiritually as her husband experiences a revelation, while she remains in the dark. The husband realizes the importance letting people “in” ones life at the blind man 's words, “Put some people in there now. What 's a Cathedral without people,” but the wife does not (193). Obsessed with becoming a part of their conversation, she completely overlooks the relevance of the
Things Fall Apart. Such an intriguing title, because everything will eventually fall apart. Chinua Achebe's choice of a title may lead some to confusion, because throughout his book many things fall apart, from Okonkwo's personal life achievements and emotions to the town of Umuofia as its people split, and perhaps the biggest thing to fall apart, the very culture of the Igbo people. One could focus on any one of these topics and trace the complexity of it's fall from previous glory to the eventual ruin at the end of Achebe's novel. Studying the overall book provides a much more interesting conclusion, however, than simply tracking the different ways people or the town change, as instead it is possible to gain insight into Achebe's goals in writing this complex, tragic story. Achebe uses the details of Okonkwo's personal life falling apart and of the town of Umuofia's struggles to maintain it's traditions as metaphors for the falling apart of Igbo culture as it was known before the Europeans came.
...e on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart" (Achebe, 176). The village of Umuofia held to backward laws and values that "destroy innocent children" (Achebe, 146). The tribe's innocence had to die in order for those who survived to mature. Although Umuofia's peak of innocence may have been when Ikemefuna was handed over to the village, but its maturity would come through the death of Ikemefuna, the tribe's innocence, at the hands of those the tribe called "father." Things Fall Apart clearly illustrates the faults of the African system and way of life through "the series of catastrophes which end with his [Okonkwo's and Umuofia's] death" (Carroll).