The Punishment of a Sinner in The Scarlet Letter
Who should punish a sinner? Should it be religion, society, or the
individual? In Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter all three affect the main character
Hester Prynne. Religion punishes her with the Scarlet Letter, society
ostracizes her as punishment, and individually she was able to move on in life
but still returned to her haunting past where she died.
Religion plays a big part in the Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne wore the
Scarlet Letter to remind her of the mistake ahe made. Instaed of taking Pearl
away the people wanted her to wear the "A" for adultry. Hester brought up her
child forcing the the thought of the heavenily father. Hester's whole lifestyle
was altered. She obeyed everyone and for seven years was cursed by standing on
the scaffold. The people's beliefs strongly enforced the idea that Hester would
wear the Scarlet Letter, so she did. It constantly forced the tought of the sin
she had commited and would haunt her for good. "I have thought have death," said
she, - "have wished for it, - would even have prayed for it, were it fit that
such as I should pray for anything."
Society was an influence on the scarlet letter. People of the town
believed that Hester was a witch as well as sinner. Society ostracized her
because no one in the town had ever delt with any kind of sin as adultry so they
looked at her as a witch. The people in a way wanted to ruin her life because
people actually thought she was bad. One of the real canadites that wanted to
ruin Hester was Mistress Hibbins.
Through out the whole story Mistress Hibbins constantly gives Hester her
piece of mind.
"Thou thyself wilt see it, one time or another. They say, child, thou art of
the lineage of the Prince of the Air! Wilt thou ride with me, some fine night,
to see thy father."
Individually she was ostracized and critizied no matter where she went.
As time went on she helped the people proving there was a true side to Hester
Prynne. That led to the "A" no longer standing for adultry but for able.
Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” depicts the human mind through the struggle of distinguishing reality and imaginary. Poe utilizes the narrator/agonist to demonstrate how the suffering of one’s perceived acuteness of senses, in relation to anxiety, leads to an unwanted culmination. The narrator labels his own nervous behavior as “disease” that has “sharpened [his] senses” (691). Poe’s use of “disease,” indicates disorder and destruction, and also foreshadows the spread and consumption of the narrator’s fear. The confidence that results from the narrator’s justified senses proves to draw him further from his own morality. By example, he states, Moreover, his senses stem from his overarching obsession and hatred for the old man’s eye. This is demonstrated by his continued distinct characteristics he places on the eye—“eye of a vulture,” “pale blue eye,” “Evil Eye,” and “damned spot” (691-693). The collection of descriptions throughout his efforts to kill the old man shows the torment he suffers from his psychosis. The narrator’s statement, “it haunted me day and night,” displays his motivation for killing the old man. However, the significance of the narrator actually committing the murderous act demonstrates the definitive loss of his rationality and morality. Poe displays, that the dark side of the mind is a result of this los...
...nce. She could have stayed in a place where no one knew of her sin, but she had transformed into an independent woman who decided for herself what she did with her life. Hester’s sin proved to be a lot more life changing than she bargained for. Her whole life was turned upside down, from a new child, to social banishment. Hester couldn’t live how she once did, speak to those she once knew, or act the way she once did. However strenuous life was, Hester still prevailed in a society controlled by sin. Hawthorne states, “Such helpfulness was found in her- so much power to do and power to sympathize- that many people refused to interpret the scarlet ‘A’ by its original signification. They said that it meant ‘Able’; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (152).
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most recognized prose poets, short story authors, and literary composers of all time. His works contain trending themes such as love, time, death and the concept of “oneness.” Poe often expressed these themes according to events that he had experienced, and some of his themes intertwined with others. Take for instance, his love for beauty and perfection played a major role in his concept of oneness, or state of absolute fulfillment. However in his short story, The Tell-Tale Heart, Poe effectively explores the power of guilt, and leads his readers through a cynical plot to murder while enduring the struggle to silence a beating conscience by treading the lines of genius versus insanity, moral reasoning versus indifferent resolution, and meticulousness versus obsession.
We are all sinners. Although one may try hard not to sin, all humans eventually succumb at some time or another to sin. While people may not able to avoid the fate which awaits them, the power of free will allows people to decide how they will respond to sin. While some may respond with guilt and regret, others may react with a sense of redemption and a renewed sense of responsibility.
He was in great conflict with the ideas of the white men and the missionaries. Okonkwo saw that their beliefs had not only changed the daily life of the Ibo, but it also changed the people themselves: “He mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women” (Achebe 183). The author uses strong diction to compare the men before and after colonization. This quote also portrays Okonkwo’s opinion towards the cultural collision. He values strength and masculinity immensely because of his fear of appearing weak like his father Unoka. When he describes that the men of Umuofia changed to be soft like women, this shows how much he dishonors the Western ideas and how it has taken over the village. He made an attempt to get rid of the Western influence by urging the tribe to fight like men, but they refuse to. He was determined and still attempted to furthermore encourage the people of Umuofia to revolt against the new culture. He realizes that his attempts to return the village back to the way it was before were futile. He knew that Christianity was tearing his people apart, but knew he was incapable of making change to help his people. Okonkwo then starts to feel hopeless and abandoned by his clan, which causes him to commit suicide by hanging himself: “Obierika… turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: ‘That man was one of the greatest men
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 main character of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, is forced to wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ on her chest for committing the act of adultery while married. Since the novel takes place in a Puritan society, adultery is strictly against their rules. As a woman, Prynne is even more frowned upon and punished. The Puritans’ opinion on Hester can be seen in Chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter. “The scene was not without a mixture of awe, such as must always invest the spectacle of guilt and shame in a
Okonkwo is “a man of action, a man of war” (7) and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman due to the fact that he had “shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars” (5). Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a “wealthy farmer” (5) and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw isn’t that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure which stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness….It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.” Okonkwo’s father was a lazy, carefree man whom had a reputation of being “poor and his wife and children had just barely enough to eat... they swore never to lend him any more money because he never paid back.” (5) Unoka had never taught Okonkwo what was right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo had to interpret how to be a “good man”. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a “good man” was someone who was the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father did was weak and unnecessary.
The letter ‘A’ that she wore on her bosom plastered Hester’s scandal all over the community. Pearl, the daughter of the sinner’s, was being parented by Hester, which constantly reminded her of the sin everyday. The community looked down upon Hester and Pearl, but instead of letting it get to them, Hester accepted the consequences therefore she tried to move on. Although the family dealt with a lot of criticism from fellow Puritans, they did not let those thoughts get into their heads. Hester was a popular seamstress in her time, even though she was unable to make wedding veils because of the sin she committed. “Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or suchlike heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!” (Hawthorne 49). The sin made Hester determined because she came to self-realization and broke free.
The Scarlet Letter illustrates that the illumination of self-deception gapes open after one like the very jaws of hell. This is apparent through all the main characters of the novel. Although Hawthorne's work has several imperfect people as the main characters, including Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, the worst sinner is Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth commits the greater sin because of his failure to forgive; he has an insatiable appetite for revenge; he receives extreme pleasure in torturing Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne, however, has committed sins of almost the same magnitude.
Hester always lived her life as fully as possible. She wouldn't let anyone torment her and stop her from getting her work done. In chapter thirteen fellow community members would say the following words to strangers: " Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge? It is our Hester, -the town's own Hester, who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!" That shows that she still made a good name for herself because of her faith and the hope she had in herself.
Human nature is a conglomerate perception which is the dominant liable expressed in the short story of “A Tell-Tale Heart”. Directly related, Edgar Allan Poe displays the ramifications of guilt and how it can consume oneself, as well as disclosing the nature of human defense mechanisms, all the while continuing on with displaying the labyrinth of passion and fears of humans which make a blind appearance throughout the story. A guilty conscience of one’s self is a pertinent facet of human nature that Edgar Allan Poe continually stresses throughout the story. The emotion that causes a person to choose right from wrong, good over bad is guilt, which consequently is one of the most ethically moral and methodically powerful emotion known to human nature. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe displays the narrator to be rather complacent and pompous, however, the narrator establishes what one could define as apprehension and remorse after committing murder of an innocent man. It is to believe that the narrator will never confess but as his heightened senses blur the lines between real and ...
“The Tell-Tale Heart,” is an emotional description of a furious narrator who had heard a man’s persistent heartbeat, still beating, after he had killed him. It is a horror story told from a first-person point of view. This story is famous for showing that a short story can produce such an effect on the reader. Poe always believed that any great literature must create a union of effect on the reader. It has to tell truth and suggest emotions. “The Tell-Tale Heart” re...
The Tale Tell Heart” is a short story in which Edgar Allen Poe, the author, illustrates the madness and complexity of an individual. The unnamed narrator, who is Poe’s main character, is sharing his story of him murdering an old man on the sole reason of his dislike for his filmy blue eye, which reminds him of a vulture. He meticulously plans the murder of this old man, and attempts to cover up the act through his twister persona. In the "Tell-Tale Heart", Poe uses satire, imagery, and symbolism to portray how startlingly perverted the mind of the narrator is and how guilt always prevails.
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