The presence of guilt has been felt by all human beings. As guilt grows in a
person’s life it eventually begins to have a deteriorating effect on the individual. In both
The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible more than one of the characters are experiencing
some form of guilt and the effects of the public’s opinion on their own personal sins.
Each character’s guilt originates from a different personal problem and with each
character’s guilt comes a different reaction. Miller and Hawthorne use the source of
guilt, the actions resulting from it and the eventual consequences to portray the
concept of a guilty conscience to the reader.
Each character’s guilt originates from a different source. Through different
characters, Hawthorne and Miller display guilt and it’s source to the reader. In both The
Scarlet Letter and The Crucible the use of relationships between a man and a woman are
used as a primary source of guilt. Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale and Hester, and Miller
uses Proctor and Elizabeth. The men in both cases are experiencing guilt involving
mistakes made sexually. Dimmesdale, who is a highly respected priest has a sinful
relationship with a married woman, and Proctor, a married man, falls for a young girl and
commits adultery. With Dimmesdale, his guilt stems from the concealment of his sin. He
watches Hester as she confesses and for seven years he agonizes over it, while he still
remains innocent in the eyes of all. However with Proctor, he confesses to his wife right
away. In an argument with his wife he says, “’ I should have roared you down when you
first told me of your suspicion. But I wilted, and like a Christian, I confessed!”’(55). The
guilt that Proctor feels comes, not from a secret that he is keeping, but from “’The
magistrate that sits in his heart”’(55), as Elizabeth puts it. With the women in these
relationships, their guilt has a less drastic origin. Elizabeth knows that she has not
committed any sin that can compare to her husband’s, but she admits that “’it needs a
cold wife to prompt lechery”’ (137). Even though John has committed the ultimate sin
against...
... middle of paper ...
...t that he was experiencing can be seen in two
different lights. It eventually brought him to confession in the court, and the tarnishing
of his good name. However, his confession was strictly to protect his wife, so his guilt
could be seen also as a final reconciliation between Proctor and Elizabeth. Guilt has the
capability of doing permanent damage to a person, and in both novels, the authors use
guilt as a very negative force in a person’s life.
In The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, guilt is portrayed in similar ways. Both
authors use the concept of guilt to imply the idea that guilt has the capabilities to
produce reactions in people that in most situations aren’t the same. The result of a
guilty conscience can be used as a positive or negative force in a person’s life and
through the characters in both novels, this idea is made apparent. The cause of guilt,
the reactions to the guilt, and the consequences resulting from the guilt are all used by
Hawthorne and Miller to show the contrasting ways of handling personal guilt in a
person’s life.
Death is a major theme through both Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. In the first text, mass hysteria rips through Salem after a group of girls danced in the woods and blame everything and anything on witchcraft. The girl who could be identified as the main trouble-maker is Abigail Williams. She kicked up all of the witch suspicions because she had an affair with John Proctor, the identifiable hero. The story climaxed with the death of characters that drew affection from the readers. In the second piece of literature, the main conflict happens to be that of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and had a child. There was a lot of public ridicule in this instance and many underlying plots within it. Again, the climax of the story could be argued to be the death of a beloved character. These two particular titles do in fact share a lot of common ideas and themes, while at the same having very
He is feared and respected throughout the town of Salem, but few know that he is guilty of adultery with the teenage servant Abigail Williams. As a result of this affair, Proctor is caught in guilt, which effects his self-perception.
There is one human emotion that can paralyse us, lead us to lie both to ourselves and others, to take action that we don't like, and to cripple any rational thought processes. It is self perpetuating if allowed to get out of control. Its side effects are either anger, aggressiveness or fear and reclusiveness. Its symptoms are irrational behaviour, lying, anguish, lack of self-esteem, and in extreme cases, thoughts of suicide. It is guilt. In The Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies, guilt is a reoccurring theme throughout the novel and is a major force in one’s life. Davies demonstrates this by having one character feeling guilt while another who does not.
Proctor takes advantage of this opportunity when he shows gracious acts of selflessness during the trials. For example, when Abigail and her friends begin to act like they are being frozen and Marry starts to falter, it becomes clear that the only way John can prove Abigail is lying is to admit to adultery. “I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the boom of my good name --- you will believe me, Mr. Danforth! My wife is innocent…” John Proctor protests in his last attempt to prove that his wife and all the others accused are innocent. This is the turning point in the story for Proctor’s character development when finally puts others before himself. Throughout the book, Proctor has always stood up against authority to prove the innocence of himself and his wife; however this is the point where he sacrifices his good name for the truth. In the end, he preserves his pride and dignity by discarding his bad temper and providing the honest truth when he must either plead guilty and keep his life or be hung. Proctor’s declaration of his true innocence and assuming responsibility for his actions makes him symbolic of maintaining one’s personal integrity, which many in Salem fail to do. Proctor is a respectively good man who was taken to sin by his lust for
Shakespeare? Guilt is defined as the fact or state of having offended someone or something. Guilt may cause a person to have trouble sleeping and difficulty in relationships with others. The effects of guilt tie into Macbeth with the theme of night
His original belief that admitting his affair with Abigail will irreparably ruin his reputation compels him to remain silent, ultimately setting into motion the accusations that will destroy the community. The government of Salem falls victim to corruption and tyranny, fostering an environment of hysteria where friends accuse each other of participating in devil worship and witchcraft. In facing a decision to sign his name to a false statement in order to save his own life, Proctor realizes that his very existence will be worthless if he loses his soul in the process. In choosing death, John Proctor restores the goodness and decency that he lost, recovering the immeasurable value associated with his good name. Motivated by the moral compass that has directed his life except for one period of weakness, Proctor is able to shed his guilt ridden past and die
Guilt is powerful thing. A person’s whole life can be destroyed seconds after being exposed to the strength of guilt. Even though admitting a sin can seem more difficult than not, that confession can often make a world of difference in the long run. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne, and Reverend Dimmesdale, have two very different ways of dealing with guilt. These differences in action are what change the courses of their lives. The actions taken by one character are successful, though the actions of the other put his life in ruins. Hester confesses her sin in public, while Dimmesdale does not. This simple choice made causes a drastic change in each of their lives. When comparing the lives of Hester and Dimmesdale,
Moreover, he struggles with his moral standing on this issue because he is partly responsible for Abigail's vendetta against his wife. This guilt is best demonstrated when Proctor says at the end of the second act:
“Danforth:... You will sign your name or it is no confession, Mister! His breast heaving with agonized breathing, Proctor now lays down the paper and signs his name… Proctor has just finished signing when Danforth reaches for the paper. But Proctor snatches it up...His breast heaving, his eyes staring, Proctor tears the paper and crumbles it, and he is weeping in fury, but erect.” Not once in his time from that moment in the court, or jail, or at Gallows Hill did he confess to witchcraft, despite Reverend Hale’s attempts to persuade him otherwise. Proctor stood against the court, the girls, and some of the townsfolk, and although he was in the right, and his claims were accurate,...
John Proctor is, at first, willing to offer up a false confession that his life may be spared. Inevitably, John Proctor possesses that fateful attribute known to fall fatal to many human beings - pride. While he has, indeed, been ashamed of his many sins throughout his life, Proctor's soul still clings to his pride and his good name, however soiled it may have become. On the morning scheduled for his execution, Proctor wrestles with the realization that one more sin so heaped upon the rest in his life will make precious little difference in the end; "I cannot mount the gibbet like a saint. It is a fraud. I am not that man.... My honesty is broke... I am no good man. Nothing's spoiled by giving them this lie." (126) He attempts to calm his pride by telling himself that the other accused witches who will not give false testimony to save themselves from the gallows have every right to do so; they led lives free of blame. He, however, he tells himself, did no such thing; what right has he to hang among the righteous? "Let them that never lied die now to keep their souls. It is pretense for me, a vanity that will nor blind God nor keep my children out of the wind." (126) Thus the conviction first reached by John Proctor is to save his life rather than to throw it away in mock martyrdom.
The first, the importance of personal integrity, is brought to light through John Proctor, who finds himself facing personal conflict when making the decision of whether to lie and 'confess' to the court, saving his own life, or to tell the truth and be condemned by it. Upon first deciding to confess and live, Proctor acknowledges he has given his soul to the devil, but refuses to also tarnish his name by allowing his confession to be stuck to the door of the church.
John Proctor is both flawed and honorable. After having an affair with Abigail. His wife has been unable to forgive him for this, and their marriage is unhappy, John has the guilt from his past affair weighing down on his shoulders, he apologizes for the mistake but it is shown that the guilt is still there “I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!” this shows that the guilt is crushing him that he has been trying to apologized for his wrong doings but hasn’t been forgiven he needs his wife to forget about the pass and move on he will do anything to show his wife he is devoted to her. John Proctor knows what he will do knowing that now his wife is charged with witchcraft he must go to the court and prove to them that this is all a hoax and this his wife is not involved in witchcraft and that Abigail is making this all up. John makes a ...
...h, his wife, does not want to admit her husband’s deceit, proctor is accused of lying to the court. When Proctor confesses his sin of lechery he feels better and his internal guilt is freed. This is different to the end of the play where he signed the confession to witchcraft. He later rips it up as could not live with himself if he were to allow Abigail to get away with her lies, through confessing to something he did not do. In ripping up the confession he is also able to keep his good name which he says at the end is all he has left, his name, and he does not want to give it away.
“there is no evidence anywhere in any primary source documents that Proctor ever cheated on his wife with anyone.” (136) “But nowhere does he discuss that the affair has been fabricated.”
John Proctor's decision to betray his wife causes internal struggles and ultimately leads to his catastrophe at the end of the drama. Hamartia is the primary error of the tragic hero which provokes part of his misfortune. Proctor's serious mistake of adultery delivers problems with Abigail Williams and indirectly causes his jailing. Abigail is a grown young woman, and yet she is an orphan who mistakes John Proctor?s sex for true love. When Proctor tells Abigail that the relationship can no longer continue, the girl becomes angry and sorrowful (1098). In order to prove Abigail?s sinfulness and to discredit her in front of the court, Proctor proclaims that he had an affair with this evil child. The outraged court officials summon Elizabeth Proctor to find the truth. When asked about her husband, Elizabeth?s soul is twisted, for reporting the truth could destroy her husband?s reputation, but lying means breaking her solemn oath to God. Because she is selfless, Elizabeth chooses to lie and save her husband, but perhaps condemn herself to hell for such a sin. This scene indicates dramatic irony, for Proctor knows that which Elizabeth is not ...