Besides that, Ramatoulaye was really strong whenever the people around her looked at her strangely. She mentioned that “I survived. I overcame my shyness at going alone to cinemas; I would take a seat with less and less embarrassment as the months went by. People stared at the middle aged lady without a partner” (p. 51). She was not carried away by what others assumed on her but she stayed strong and managed to survive. While she was alone in the cinema, her co-wife, Binetou was happily accompanied by Modou to the night club with a costly garment (Mariama, 1981). Although Modou chose to be with his second wife, Ramatoulaye did not burst into anger or fight with Binetou but she illustrated a good moral behavior by being patient and strong. …show more content…
Based on Surah An Nisa verse 3 Allah commanded Muslim not to practice polygamy if he thinks he cannot be equal and fair to both wives. Based on the book So Long A Letter, it is obvious that Modou was not equal and fair towards Ramatoulaye. Modou tends to be unjust and abandoned his first wife. He bought a villa, a car and jewels to his second wife but he gave nothing to his first wife. He was so eager to take care of his first wife, Binetou until he financially and emotionally abused Ramatoulaye. Ramatoulaye was leaved with her twelve children without any sustenance or money from Modou. Clearly, Allah did not allowed this kind of polygamy as it is already mentioned that in order to practice polygamy, the man should distribute everything equally between his wives. Nonetheless, The Scarlet Letter includes the element of revenge whereas So Long A Letter describes on patience. Based on Islam perspectives, revenge is an evil behavior which destroy human relationship. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester’s husband, Chillingworth was impatient to take revenge on Dimmesdale. He even planned to kill Dimmesdale by giving him unnecessary herbs. Clearly, as a Muslim we should not take revenge on
The first theme expressed in The Scarlet Letter is that even well meaning deceptions and secrets can lead to destruction. Dimmesdale is a prime example of this; he meant well by concealing his secret relationship with Hester, however, keeping it bound up was deteriorating his health. Over the course of the book this fact is made to stand out by Dimmesdale’s changing appearance. Over the course of the novel Dimmesdale becomes more pale, and emaciated. Hester prevents herself from suffer the same fate. She is open about her sin but stays loyal to her lover by not telling who is the father of Pearl. Hester matures in the book; becomes a stronger character.
The Scarlet Letter was a novel that was written in the early 1850s by a renowned author, Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. Some people say that Hawthorne intended the book to portray God as a benevolent, forgiving, and loving god. Others, such as myself, believe that he had a different idea of who God was; The Scarlet Letter was written in a way that would portray God as an angry, vengeful, being that was slow to forgive. God put seven years of suffering upon Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, for a sin whom he committed with Hester Prynne. When he finally confessed and his life looked like it was about to get better, God abruptly ended his time on the earth. Hester Prynne was almost shunned by everyone, even the sunshine. Her daughter, Pearl, was constantly saying things to Hester that would cause her pain. Another man, whose life was damaged by the sin, was Dr. Roger Chillingworth. He was not part of the sin, but still suffered from it. His incredible knowledge of healing, a value to the entire town, was ruined by the quest for revenge upon Reverend Dimmesdale. All four of these lives were ruined, all because of one small sin committed by two people. A merciful, forgiving, benevolent god would never let that happen.
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.
Guilt and shame haunt all three of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, but how they each handle their sin will change their lives forever. Hester Prynne’s guilt is publicly exploited. She has to live with her shame for the rest of her life by wearing a scarlet letter on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, on the other hand, is just as guilty of adultery as Hester, but he allows his guilt to remain a secret. Instead of telling the people of his vile sin, the Reverend allows it to eat away at his rotting soul. The shame of what he has done slowly kills him. The last sinner in this guilty trio is Rodger Chillingworth. This evil man not only hides his true identity as Hester’s husband, but also mentally torments Arthur Dimmesdale. The vile physician offers his ‘help’ to the sickly Reverend, but he gives the exact opposite. Chillingworth inflicts daily, mental tortures upon Arthur Dimmesdale for seven long years, and he enjoys it. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all connected by their sins and shame, but what they do in regards to those sins is what sets them apart from each other.
scarlet letter shows the interactions of these characters and the reaction of these characters to Hester's sin. The unacknowledged sin that Hawthorne deals with in The Scarlet Letter is hypocrisy. All three main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, commit the sin of hypocrisy. Hawthorne shows that hypocrisy is indeed a sin by punishing the offenders in various ways including isolation, misery, and even death.
...ter.” (149). While Hester had to receive the penance of her actions and conquer it, Dimmesdale was still in hiding like the coward he presented himself as. He views Hester as the one that got the better end of the situation by saying “Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!” (167) Dimmesdale envies Hester’s letter because she has no need to hide form anyone and live in secret. Towards the end of his life, Dimmesdale, has enough strength to admit to his sinful actions and declares of God’s mercy.
Each character of The Scarlet Letter had a different end result. Roger Chillingworth who was unable to forgive Arthur Dimmesdale for committing adultery with his wife, Hester Prynne, and then resulting in his his death. However, Arthur Dimmesdale did forgive Roger Chillingworth for the torture, and then could die peacefully on the scaffold with Pearl and Hester. Also, Pearl Prynne was able to forgive Arthur Dimmesdale because he finally went with her and her mother, in result of this Pearl was no longer a devil child, but now a young lady. Finally, Hester Prynne was not able to forgive herself for her sin of adultery and the guilt of Arthur Dimmesdale’s torture. With this she could never live peacefully in her new land, so she decided to move back to her homeland and returned the scarlet letter to her boosm. Hester also becomes an idol to many town’s women and helps them with their struggles. Each character had the ability to forgive or to not forgive, each ending with a different end
In the novel the scarlet letter, it says, that roger Chillingworth wants to find who left Hester Prynne and pearl on the scaffold alone and take revenge on the person who left them alone, which was Mr. Dimmesdale. Roger Chillingworth tortures Mr. Dimmesdale by being a physician and playing with his heart. In the novel the scarlet letter, it states, “He now dug into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching to gold….” However, there are people who do not want to do revenge because revenge will make them feel wrong because revenge is not a good thing to do and they will say that they will have revenge when they least expect it. In the article Why Revenge Is Bad and Good, it states, “Like hate, revenge is something that takes toll on the person who feels wronged, as well as the [person’s] enemy.” Revenge is not good for people's mind because it makes people bad.
Hester and Dimmesdale both bear a scarlet letter but the way they handle it is different. Hester’s scarlet letter is a piece of clothing, the “SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom” (Hawthorn 51). Dimmesdale on the other hand, has a scarlet letter carved in his chest. This is revealed when Dimmesdale was giving his revelation, in which “he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed!” (Hawthorn 232). Since the Scarlet Letter on Hester is visible to the public, she was criticized and looked down on. “This women has brought same upon us all, and ought to die” (Hawthorn 49) is said by a female in the market place talking about Hester. She becomes a stronger person through living this hard life. Dimmesdale instead has to live “a life of cowardly and selfish meanness, that added tenfold disgrace and ignominy to his original crime” (Loring 185). He becomes weaker and weaker by time, “neither growing wiser nor stronger, but, day after day, paler and paler, more and more abject” (Loring 186). Their courage is also weak.
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.
In the Antebellum 19th century, the approach to the human body, from a religious standpoint, would vary among different congregations. Some African Americans factions preserved traditions of Conjure, which practiced the manifestation of body healing or harming through spiritual treatment (Goff & Harvey, 2004, p. 84). While others used religion as an instrument to justify outrageous acts of controlling and/or harming other individual’s bodies such as with slavery and the relocation of Native American tribes (Goff & Harvey, 2004, pp. 145, 243). Dissimilarly, Mormonism practiced polygamy out of fear being controlled, while the Oneida Perfectionists viewed monogamy as unholy thus practiced a complex form of polygamy (Goff & Harvey, 2004, pp. 214-215). Historically, religion has frequently put an emphasis the human body, though the way in
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale falls in love with Hester Prynne and commits adultery. Although Hester is punished for her sin and is forced to wear the ‘A’ on her bosom for the rest of her life, Dimmesdale conceals his sin to the public because he is fearful of ruining his saintly image by voicing his secret. Throughout the novel, Dimmesdale is responsible for two sins, one of his adultery with Hester and the other of his pusillanimous failure to confess. Resulting from Hester’s adultery, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s former husband, dedicates himself to seek revenge on Hester’s adulterous partner. In this way, the reader perceives Chillingworth as evil when in reality he goes to extreme depths to demonstrate his love for Hester. Although both Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale love Hester Prynne and are concerned about what the community will think of them, Dimmesdale’s love for Hester is insincere and devious because he is a hypocrite, a coward, and values Puritanical expectations of him above the people he cares most about.
Ramatoulaye realizes that she was obeying and depending on her husband and following the societal norms and urges all the other women to unite and be independent of a man that doesn't appreciate a woman. Also, Ramatoulaye makes a choice to be a single woman that will do anything for her children and doesn't want to be with a man like Daouda who might be rich, but has a wife already.
“So Long a Letter” is a continuous account of a Senegalese woman, Ramatoulaye, about her life being a wife through the nature of Islam. Ramatoulaye was not a traditional woman as in she had obtain an education. An education set her apart from society; however, she was still subject to other obstacles that other Muslim women faced. One part of Muslim culture that affected her greatly was polygamy. Polygamy is the act of being married to more than one person. When Ramatoulaye experienced polygamy personally, it became the turning point in her life. Her experience led her through serious of life obstacles that she was not capable of handling at that point in her life. The main point of “So Long a Letter” is to examine and show Ramatoulaye’s life as she transgresses through the life of being a wife, a mother, a victim of polygamy, a widow and finally a great example of how life challenges
(Bâ, 2008, p. 38). This speech reveals that both wife and husband have the obligation of supporting the polygamy. Modou’s obligation is to God as he intentionally wanted Modou to marry again while according to Tamsir, Ramatoulaye’s obligation is to allow the marriage to occur and accept the situation as it is her duty to support her husband’s decisions. Furthermore, Mawdo also married again. His and Nabou’s marriage is to some extent similar to Modou’s.