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Sin in The Scarlet Letter
Since the dawn of time people have read, studied and enjoyed books in
which the hero or heroes fall from grace. No matter who those heroes are-
the human race in The Bible,the demon prince Lestat in Anne Rice's "Vampire
Chronicles"or a certain Thane of Cawdor in "Macbeth"- sin plays a greatpart
in all of their downfalls and subsequent ressurections.And the three main
characters in Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter"-Dimmesdale, Chillingsworth,
and Hester Prynne- are no different.
All three characters are flung from the normal rolesthat society has
laid upon them- minister, housewife, doctor-into new roles- sinner, whore,
and vengance crazed sadist.These new roles are not necessarily apparent to
all in town.However, even though the townspeople do not know of thesinners,
God does. And in God's eyes, whose sin was greater?That, I cannot answer.
But in this mere mortal's opinion, the sin of Chillingsworth far outdid the
sin of Dimmesdale or Hester Prynne, for Chillingsworth's sin was one of
revengeand one of secrecy. He was not driven by an anger at his ownsin, but
by the sin of others. He used deception andmanipulation to make the life of
another miserable. He wasnot flung from society's view as if he were a
dirty secretlike Hester was; he was embraced by it. However, his sin
didtake it's toll. He was disfigured horribly and became atwisted man,
scarred by sin. He also was robbed of thepleasure of destroying Dimmesdale
which was his reason forliving. He died shortly after Dimmesdale.
Hester Prynne, however, was the complete opposite of Chillingworth in
that her sin gave her life, not destroyed it. She took her punishment and
embraced it, using it to rebuild herself not as a pathetic sinner, but as a
pseudo-saint. At first, the town shunned her as a sinner. However,after
they saw that she was good, and her sin was of love,the same town embraced
and loved her. Her sin drew her moredeeply into the society of Boston than
she ever was before.And when her time to die came, she did so with honor.
HesterPrynne - sinner and saint. However, Hester's sin was shared.
Whereas she was asinner on the outside and a saint on the inside,
ArthurDimmesdale is the reverse, both literally and figuratively.
the ultimate Puritan. Was the glory to God or to herself? She also relates here
For a very long time, she was in the deepest of pits. Except that, she had faith. Somehow, she found enough courage to attend a divorce support group that brought her face to face with Jesus who had always been with her, waiting in the wings for her to reach out to him to grab hold, to touch him. With the belief that Jesus would pull her up out of that pit and set her on solid ground (Psalm 40:2) her brokenness began to heal. She knew of his redemptive act on the cross, she knew of his healing power. With all hope lost, she clung to Jesus, believing for wholeness restored and found new life, as if to hear Jesus whisper these words, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in
experiences with revenge what his actions caused. It shows that getting revenge is never the
The Aztec people had a very polytheistic religion- worshiping over 128 different gods. Each one had its own appearance ranging from what looked to be a woman to an animal. The main gods that the Aztecs worshiped were Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc -Huitzilopochtli being the main god that they worshiped. He was supposedly the god that would make sure that the sun rose in the morning. Tlaloc was the god of new life and birth. The Aztecs held strong beliefs regarding human sacrifice. They felt that it was the best way that they could please their gods particularly their sun god- Huitzilopochtli. One thing that the Aztecs are well known for is the magnificent pyramids that they built ...
Throughout the Cold War, Korean War, and Vietnam War the main problem was communism. Although the United States and the Soviet Union were allies in World War Two, during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union were known as enemies. The Soviet leaders bragged to other nations that communism would “scrape apart” free-enterprise systems around the world. This attitude angered the capitalists which led into the fifty year Cold War. The United States tried creating many tactics and strategies to contain the “bleeding” of communism, but during the cold war, communism spread faster then it could be restrained. The United States used the Marshall Plan , the Trueman Doctrine, and the Berlin Airlift to help lead people to a capitalist form of government.
Sex is one of the most controversial and enticing subjects in today’s media. No wonder it has become a dominant marketing strategy, it appeals to a basic human interest in sex and uses it to persuade an audience. Sex, as a marketing tool, has become extremely pervasive in the United States today. An individual living in America will certainly be exposed to this marketing tool. Music industries, television commercials, magazines and other advertising media have given in to this marketing technique. The fact that companies use people’s natural interest in sex to sell their products is upsetting. The way advertisers use sex appeal to sell their products reflects poorly on and undermines our society’s morals.
One of the main themes in The Scarlet Letter is that of the secret. The plot of the book is centered on Hester Prynne’s secret sin of adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne draws striking parallelism between secrets held and the physical and mental states of those who hold them. The Scarlet Letter demonstrates that a secret or feeling kept within slowly engulfs and destroys the soul such as Dimmesdale’s sin of hypocrisy and Chillingworth’s sin of vengeance, while a secret made public, such as Prynne’s adultery, can allow a soul to recover and even strengthen.
The way Hester and Dimmesdale approached their sins has a direct correlation with how they lived the rest of their lives. Hester confessed her sin because she had no choice she already had incriminating evidence in the form of a child and had to confess or be expelled from the community. In this sense, Hester had no choice but to confess or leave the community and she chose to confess. Although, we may not know why she made this choice, but we know she made it and she decided to stay with it and not leave the community in order to possibly confess her sins. Arthur Dimmesdale did not confess his sins for all the wrong reasons. He didn’t confess for mostly two reasons those being: his belief that man did not judge other men but only God can do that or that he will better serve his people with a sinful heart and not a sinful appearance. Arthur had to deal with all the pressures of a life of sin but also the pressure of his own conscience to confess those sins. The pressures on his body were worse than that of Hester who had confessed her sins. One of the main reasons that Arthur was in poor physical condition was that the wise Doctor Chillingworth had poisoned him, and kept poisoning him until he had confessed of his sins at the end of the book. This and the fact that his grief and guilt had led him to totally decimate his body both spiritually and physically he had just driven himself too far. Farther than any person should take this kind of self-mutilation. His social life also suffered as a result of this physical and mental torture because he had turned into a walking zombie and had not been very responsive to anything but his terrible torment. In this way, he was degrading himself and thought it necessary to do so for repentance. Although, he had not voiced his sin publicly he had preached about himself not being pure and being a sinner. In spite of this, the unknowing congregation worshiped him all the more for his self-proclamation of sinfulness without telling what his sin was.
her just the way she was. He encouraged her to be what she wanted to be,
Often times, magazines use images of youthful looking models to promote lingerie. In the case of the Victoria’s Secret advertisement the target audience are adolescence to middle aged women since the models in the commercial appear to be young in age. Beauty is seen as youth in this advertisement since all of the women in the photo appear to be young in age, with no signs of aging. Youthful looking women in advertisements are seen as vulnerable and show the weakness of women in a patriarc...
The alliance that had formed between two super powers, U.S and USSR during World War II was not strong enough to overcome the past decades of suspicion and unease between the two nations. Unwilling to compromise because of paranoia about their postwar national security created high tension atmosphere in U.S- Soviet Union’s relationship. This unstable partnership finally cracked due to the defeat of Nazi German: An unnatural alliance that was bound to fall apart after the defeat of the common enemy can be considered the origin of the Cold War.The Cold War had an enormous impact on the United States politically, socially, and economically including Red hunts, unconditionally fear of Communism and McCarthyism in the period 1940s-1950s, also shaped U.S.’s political agendas. This war ended as the reform programs introduced by Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, which unexpectedly led to the collapse of Soviet Union. The...
There is now strong evidence pointing towards the existence of dark matter in the universe, derived from a variety of precision measurements; it is now believed that the universe is made up of roughly 5% baryonic matter, 25% dark matter and 70% dark energy (Ade, et al., 2013). Evidence exists to suggest that the dark matter cannot be made up of normal baryonic matter (Weiss, 2006) (Raine & Thomas, 2001) and it is in the investigation of the non-baryonic components that cosmology turns to particle physics. The study of elementary particle physics can provide clues as to what this non-baryonic matter could be made up of, with current possibilities being: neutrinos with mass, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), axions and magnetic monopoles. These are all primeval and interact weakly with baryonic matter. I will now discuss each of these.
As you can see we have been temporarily blinded from the truth by fictional things that are easy to believe and that we want to believe. There are so many incorrect theories and ideas and most of them are just plain ridiculous. Astronomy can be a very complicated subject, but it is very necessary to understand what really happens in our galaxy and out in the huge frontier we call space.
In today’s world, advertising reaches and influences teens in both negative and positive ways. Teens are bombarded with ads through television, teen magazines, radio, and the internet. Advertisers know teen’s buying power and their willingness to spend their money. Many companies even hire teens to be “consultants” and trendspotters. They want to know what teens are thinking and their likes and dislikes. Some feel this is a good thing and that teens are letting companies know what they want. On the other hand, many believe all this advertising to teens has a negative impact on them. Ads show models with “perfect” bodies. “Every year, the average adolescent sees over 5,000 advertisements mentioning attractiveness” (Haugen). Some feel this leads to teens having low self-esteem, while others argue that it does not have an effect. These people believe teens have the power and control in the advertising world.