Comparitive Essay

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The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible both provide similarities about the characters within the Puritan community. Both books reveal similarities between Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter and John Proctor in The Crucible. Hester Prynne and John Proctor are not physically similar, but they are alike in some ways because their beliefs and emotions towards the Puritan law affect their reputation and determine the outcome of their future. Hester Prynne and John Proctor are not physically similar but both characters feel guilty for committing adultery, show integrity, they are courageous, and their deaths have left behind a legacy.
Because the Puritans believed it was wrong to commit adultery, Hester feels guilty. It is the Puritan law that makes Hester Prynne a sinner. This is why she carries the letter “A” on her bosom.
“In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and with a burning flush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbors. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A” (Hawthorne 50).
Although Hester accepts the Puritan’s punishment like putting her in jail and standing on the scaffold, she does not allow her emotions to show on the outside. Instead she keeps the guilt she feels inside in the same way John Proctor hides his guilt from the Puritan community.
Because John Proctor cheats on his wife Elizabeth Proctor with Abigail Williams, he feels guilty just like Hester. When Hale asks John to recite the Ten Commandments, John says all except for thou shall not com...

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...t had taken a long time for the truth to be revealed in the Scarlet Letter, Hester leaves behind a legacy of bravery for being a mother to the product of a sin and loving with a symbol that represents her sin. Although John Proctor refuses for his name to be put up in the Puritan community for the townspeople to see the crime he has committed, his death is evidence that he did truly care about the injustice in the Puritan society between the wealthy who are guilty of witchery but were not charged and the poor average people who were innocent but accused and prosecuted. Both Arthur Miller and Nathaniel Hawthorne show readers through Hester Prynne and John Proctor that these characters have made mistakes and had integrity to own up to the punishment from the Puritan community. Therefore both characters are significant in many ways to show readers how similar they are.

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