Men are nothing more than children. They still squabble and misbehave, and must be punished accordingly for their safety as well as the safety of others. Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and John Proctor from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible were guilty of adultery, or extramarital sex, among other crimes. Proctor was accused of witchcraft which could involve anywhere from controlling spirits to communing with the devil. Punishments for such crimes included flogging or whipping. Dimmesdale committed adultery and hid his guilt through lies. Proctor and Dimmesdale each suffered for their crime, but nothing compared to what they should have received. Proctor was chastised through separation from his family and ultimately death. Dimmesdale inflicted his punishment upon himself through whippings, vigils, fasts, blinding lights, etc. Dimmesdale’s punishments, while effective and warranted, were not performed by one appointed to do so in view of the public and God. Proctor and Dimmesdale were ultimately punished with death, but not even death was a proper punishment for their heinous crimes.
Before Dimmesdale’s untimely death in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale committed the sins of adultery and lying. In order to keep his sins a secret, Dimmesdale spoke nothing of his involvement in the affair until it tore him apart from the inside out.When Dimmesdale tried to confess his sin to his congregation, they saw the confession as if it were part of his sermon. “He had spoken the very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood”. (Hawthorne 171) Instead of correcting their assumption, Dimmesdale went along with it, once more hiding his sinfulness. When Dimmesdale finally confessed his sin openly...
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...oth scope and number. They died in the end, but did not receive the proper punishment beforehand to cleanse their souls for entrance to heaven.
Works Cited
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Enriched Classic ed. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Print.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Student ed. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2005. Print.
Phelps, Brian. "Crime and Punishment in the Massachusetts Colonies." Crime and Punishment in the Massachusetts Colonies. PhelpsTek, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2013. .
John Proctor and Arthur Dimmesdale are exceptionally similar characters despite the fact that each was written about in very different eras. Both characters lived in the same time period, however, The Scarlet Letter was written in the late 1800’s, and The Crucible was written in the 1950’s. One cannot look at the qualities of Proctor and Dimmesdale without discussing each author and the time period in which each story was written. Despite minor differences, Proctor and Dimmesdale are very similar characters.
John Proctor was a main character in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” He was a farmer in Salem, Massachusetts in the 1600’s. He was put to death when he would not admit to practicing witchcraft. Minister Dimmesdale was a main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.” He fathered a child out of wedlock in a sinful relationship, and fell to his death when he couldn’t take the guilt any longer. John Proctor and Minister Dimmesdale had several things in common, but also had several differences.
In the story of the Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale possesses more guilt and fear than any other character portrayed in this fascinating book by Nathaniel Hawthorne. There are many examples that make this theory evident: by him putting off his confession about his act of passion, it results in a woman being punished and set apart from the rest of civilization, all while dealing with his moral obligations as a pastor and finally comparing him to the other major male character within the story. Even with his abundant knowledge of what is right and wrong, Dimmesdale attempts to rationalize his mistakes and reason to himself throughout the story that what he is doing is best for everyone. Is this only a sign of fear or hypocrisy due to a lack of integrity?
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter and John Proctor from The Crucible seem like they have nothing in common. Not only are they from different novels, but they also are regarded differently in their societies, have different perspectives on their shared Puritan faith, and the societies that they live in differ in their perception of sin. Despite these differences, however, when you further analyze these characters, you will find that they both share one fatal similarity; ultimately, their committing of the sin of adultery leads to their deaths.
Proctor exemplifies an ordinary second class Puritan of Miller’s adaptation of the bloodthirsty town of Salem, Massachusetts. Miller fabricates the character of Proctor to appear wholesome and scrupulous, however, acts of sacrilege in the form of adultery tarnish the character’s reputation, thus bringing to light the scepticism of an exclusively Puritan society. Proctor embodies the qualities revered by the Puritans; diligence, integrity, and frugality. Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor, is an advocate of John’s morality, describing her husband as “a good and righteous man. He is never as drunk as some are, nor wastin’ his time at the shovelboard but always at his work” pg. 100. Miller skilfully constructs a well-rounded character epitomising the ideal Puritanical figure, however, man’s tendency to be fallible resulted in a fatal flaw in the character of John Proctor. This flaw, also being a sin, is his lust and infidelity. Miller demonstrates the influence of cultural relativism through Proctor’s incapacity to absolve his own sins, despite his wife’s forgiveness, “I do not judge you. The magistrate that lives in your heart judges you.” pg. 55. This ‘magistrate’ is denoted by Miller to symbolise Proctor’s conscious, which was moulded and cultivated by the Puritans of Salem. The
In further developing Dimmesdale's character, Hawthorne portrays him as a hypocrite. His outward demeanor deceives the villagers, appearing as a completely holy man. However, before the action of the novel begins, he stumbles into sin, by committing adultery with Hester Pryn...
Smiles, Samuel. "The Scarlet Letter." The Critical Temper. Ed. Martin Tucker. New York City: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1962. 266.
People living in Boston, Massachusetts looked up to and respected Dimmesdale because he was a minister. One of his sins was his inability to publicly acknowledge that he committed adultery with Hester and that he is the father of Pearl, Hester’s daughter. However, adultery was not his biggest sin. His biggest sin is hypocrisy. In chapter ten, he speaks of the concealment of his sins, he says, “It may be that they are kept silent by the very constistution of their nature. Or-can we not suppose it-guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God’s glory and man’s welfare…no evil of the past be redeemed by better service (pg. 137).” While trying to conceal his sins, they take over his conscience and literally confess themselves during his acts of madness.
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1850; New York: Bantam Books, 2003.
Often when looking at American history, people tend to lump all the characters and actors involved as similar. This is especially the case in regards to Early American Colonial history. Because the Puritan communities that grew rapidly after John Winthrop’s arrival in 1630 often overshadow the earlier colony at Plymouth, many are lead to assume that all settlers acted in similar ways with regard to land use, religion, and law. By analyzing the writings of William Bradford and John Winthrop, one begins to see differing pictures of colonization in New England.
The Crucible was a rather strong book, it had battles both internal and external, there were also betrayals and vendettas… but a few stuck strong to their morals of what was wrong, and what was right. After the girl’s acts were, undoubtedly, in the eyes of the law, seen as entirely real, people who would not otherwise have been accused of witchcraft were now eligible to be under Satan’s spell. One John Proctor, saw himself above the nonsense, that witches could not exist in Salem, his wife, his children nor him; But, when Mary Warren said to the court that he used his spirit to drag her into court to testify against the girls, the judges deemed her word more truthful than his. After actively and repeatedly denying the claims, he was sentenced to death, for only a witch could lie in the face of god.
Lathrop, G. P., ed. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel." The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Binghamton, New York: Vail-Ballou, 1962. 439-40. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Scarlet Letter." Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales. Ed. James McIntosh. New York: Norton, 1987.
Gerber, John C. "Form and Content in The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter: A Norton Critical Edition. Eds. Seymour Gross, Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1988.