Similarities Between The Crucible And The Scarlet Letter

Thou shall not commit adultery. The seventh of the Ten Commandments is an integral part in both The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Though very different, John Proctor of The Crucible and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale of The Scarlet Letter are affected similarly through committing this sin. Dimmesdale, his town’s minister, and Proctor, a farmer rarely found at church, a pair of people never expected to be connected, are. Throughout both of their stories, both men have comparable experiences in the aftermath of their lechery and are even restored by the end of their journeys.
As his story starts out, Arthur Dimmesdale is just a simple minister unsuspected of any immoral activity and even looked up to. “His eloquence and religious fervor had already

Proctor, who in an effort to clear his wife’s name, confesses. “God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat” (221). Just as John did, Dimmesdale confesses. “The law we broke!--the sin here so awfully revealed!--let these alone be in thy thoughts” (239). Both men admit to their sin publicly and it helps them perform the last step of their purification and gives them the peace they need to move on. Dimmesdale states “had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost forever! Praised be his name! His will be done! Farewell” (239). This the last thing he says before his death. John has been convicted of witchcraft and rather than giving a false confession to save his life, he agrees to be hanged and his wife states, “He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him” (240). Through the experiences of Arthur Dimmesdale of The Scarlet Letter and John Proctor of The Crucible, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller illustrate how good can come out of sin. They also demonstrate how people can be connected by more than just a mutual sin and use the act of adultery to show similarities between unlike