In the two works of literature The Scarlet Letter and No Exit, the relationships between the main characters can be used to question morality, and understand justice. The relationships in both works follow the same principals and trends, despite the time periods they were written in.
In the play No Exit, by Jean Sartre, the author attempts to describe his vision of what Hell is, a subject that many have pondered, but none really know. Sartre was under the impression that Hell had nothing to do with the fire and brimstone, as many people before him believed. He instead voiced his thoughts through the characters of No Exit. “Obviously there aren’t any physical torments…and yet we’re in hell. And no one else will come here. We’ll stay in this room together, the three of us, forever and ever…in short there’s someone absent here, the official torturer…each of us shall act as the torturer of the two others.” (No Exit, p. 22) The three main characters in this play, Inez, Garcin, and Estelle create the hell they were banished to, but not by using the “racks and red-hot pincers” of the past, but by hurting each other in a disturbed form of a “love triangle”, where the love really doesn’t exist.
In this complicated triangle Inez is attracted to Estelle, who is in turn needs a man such as Garcin to desire and notice her. Thus Garcin can hurt Inez by pretending to desire Estelle, or hurt Estelle by not caring. Garcin however, will never be at rest until Inez recognizes that he is not a coward. Thus, the triangle is complete, and the three create hell for each other. Even when they realize the problem, they can do nothing to save each other. “They’ve laid their snare damned cunningly…Alone none of us can save himself or herself; we’re linked together inextricably.”(No Exit p. 38) On top of this, none of the three are very truthful with each other, and any relationship between them is strained at best. This is Sartre’s vision of hell.
Very similar to Sartre’s hell, are the relationships between the characters in The Scarlet Letter. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter the priest of a Puritan settlement, Arthur Dimmesdale commits adultery with a young woman by the name of Hester Prynne. When Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingsworth returns from overseas to find his wife with a newborn baby, and a brilliant scarlet letter across her chest, both constant reminders of her sin, he vows to find her partner and extract his revenge upon him.
The Scarlet Letter is full of many psychological and moral aspects, and most of them relate very well to things that are going on right now in the world. They all go hand in hand meaning that the aspects that were explained in The Scarlet Letter, can also be explained in the same way as they can be explained now. Although times were very different in the times where The Scarlet Letter took place, they are all relevant for what people have to say about certain things in today's world. The moral aspects of the Scarlet Letter are almost the same as moral aspects of today.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.
“To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,--it is impalpable,--it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself, in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist.” (Hawthorne 115) Throughout the hostile novel The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne used contrasting settings to represent opposed ideas that were central to the meaning of the work. Some have argued that when it came to the theme that secrets have a destructive effect on the secret-keeper and truth, by contrast, was natural, a character evaluation would best advocate these differences. However, two settings, Dimmesdale’s house and the secrets that lie within, and the scaffold representing the truth, better embody the adverse ideas posed by the point at issue.
is exemplified in No Exit. It is a portrayal that life in Hell is just
Sandeen, Ernest. "The Scarlet Letter as a Love Story." The Scarlet Letter. 3rd ed. Eds. Seymour Gross, Sculley Bradley, Richard Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: Norton, 1988. 350-361.
In the Inferno we follow the journey of Dante as he wanders off the path of moral truth and into Hell. The Virgin Mary and Santa Lucia ask Beatrice, Dante’s deceased love, to send some help. Thus, Virgil comes to the rescue and essentially guides Dante through Hell and back to the mortal world from which he came. However, things begin to seem kind of odd. When reading the Inferno one may begin to question the way Dante describes Hell and the things that occur within, or even the things we have always believed about Hell. Despite the way it is described and well known in western civilization, Hell is not at all how we expect it to be because of Dante's use of irony throughout this poetic masterpiece.
Dante Alighieri presents a vivid and awakening view of the depths of Hell in the first book of his Divine Comedy, the Inferno. The reader is allowed to contemplate the state of his own soul as Dante "visits" and views the state of the souls of those eternally assigned to Hell's hallows. While any one of the cantos written in Inferno will offer an excellent description of the suffering and justice of hell, Canto V offers a poignant view of the assignment of punishment based on the committed sin. Through this close reading, we will examine three distinct areas of Dante's hell: the geography and punishment the sinner is restricted to, the character of the sinner, and the "fairness" or justice of the punishment in relation to the sin. Dante's Inferno is an ordered and descriptive journey that allows the reader the chance to see his own shortcomings in the sinners presented in the text.
The author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, expressed ideas of love, passion, shame, and punishment throughout his 1800s based novel. Due to the fact that this novel was based in a Puritan time period, it brought many mental and sometimes physical difficulties for the main character, Hester Prynne. The Puritans solely believed in God and all of his rules. With that said, the author decided to illustrate the drama of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale’s adultery in order to describe the change in Hester’s attitude. Because of the many events, adversities and struggles, Hester had a complete change in attitude from shame and embarrassment to love, proudness and satisfaction.
“The Tell-Tale Heart is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest fictional short stories. It is known for its repulsive and insane homicide; a very wild and thrilling tale. Likewise, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s well-known novel, The Scarlet Letter, is famous for its directness on sexual conflict. Both writings possess similarities with regards to modified characters, connected symbolism, and significant midpoints. Due to these comparisons, it is quite certain that Hawthorne found inspiration in writing The Scarlet Letter after reading “The Tell Tale-Heart”.
Reid, Bethany. "Narrative of the Captivity and Redemption of Roger Prynne: Rereading The Scarlet Letter." Studies in the Novel 33.3 (Fall 2001): 247-267. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 158. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 3 Feb. 2012.
In conceiving the punishments of Hell, Dante employs mythical material and elements of popular faith; they are enormously imaginative, but each single one of them is based on strict and precise reflection, on the rank and degree of the sin in question, on a thorough knowledge of rational systems of ethics; and each one, as a concrete realization of the idea of divine order, is calculated to provoke rational thought concerning the nature of this sin, that is, the way in which it deviates from the divine order. (111)
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The divisions of Hell are likewise split into levels corresponding to sin. Each of the levels and the divisions within levels 7,8, and 9 have an analogous historical or mythological figure used to illustrate and exemplify the sin.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, there are many moral and social themes develped throughout the novel. Each theme is very important to the overall effect of the novel. In essence, The Scarlet Letter is a story of sin, punishment and the importance of truth. One theme which plays a big role in The Scarlet Letter is that of sin and its effects. Throughout the novel there were many sins committed by various characters. The effects of these sins are different in each character and every character was punished in a unique way. Two characters were perfect examples of this theme in the novel. Hester Prynne and The Reverend Dimmesdale best demonstrated the theme of the effects of sin.
The historical context, psychological exploration of the characters, and realistic dialogue make this fictional novel more realistic. The symbolic representation of the scarlet letter, Pearl, and the settings along with the morals taught by the stories of the characters make the novel more insightful, symbolic, and allegorical. These aspects of The Scarlet Letter make the novel a brilliant combination of the literary devices of Realism, symbolism, and allegory, and fill the novel with profundity, suspense, romance, and tragedy.