“Ah, but,” interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, “let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.” (53-54.) This young woman is describing how Hester’s sin will always linger inside Hester so she cannot hide from her punishment, thus there is justice.
Justice is an anchor. It can be dropped to make the ship secure, but can easily be lifted so the ship can move in a different direction.
The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter take place during the Puritan time period, but in different towns. Both novels deal with the harsh religious views forced in Puritan societies. Also they both involve the where women are thought of and treat during the Puritan time period. The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible show how this women have sinned and now have to deal with their punishments.
The Scarlet Letter contains many different symbols throughout the novel. One major one is the
…show more content…
scarlet letter itself. In the beginning, the scarlet letter symbolizes shame and punishment, but later becomes a powerful symbol of identity for Hester. Originally the letter was intended to mark Hester as an adulterer, but the letter turns into a major part of Hester’s life. Additionally, the letter’s meaning calls into question the Puritan society’s ability to use symbols for reinforcement and justice. Many times a symbol becomes a focal point for critical analysis and debate. The Scarlet Letter has an omniscient point of view. For example, “She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate.” (208.) The narrator is describing Hester's ability to drop everything she is doing and run away to Europe with Dimmesdale and Pearl. The reader can notice that the narrator does not actually tell us what Hester is thinking, rather the narrator is describing what is happening. Most of things are revealed through actions and dialogue. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses high, harsh diction in The Scarlet Letter.
Some examples include “misanthropy” (201), “sagacious” (131), “concord” (131). These words are difficult by themselves, but put them together with other challenging words in long sentences, and the difficulty begins to rise and rise somewhat quickly. Along with the high diction there is many tricky ideas and thoughts throughout the novel about fate, community, and forgiveness.
Hawthorne's style and structure is pretty weird to most readers. One can tell that Hawthorne uses a lot of commas throughout his novel. For example, “Doomed by his own choice, therefore, as Mr. Dimmesdale so evidently was, to eat his unsavory morsel always at another's board and endure the lifelong chill which must be his lot who seeks to warm himself only at another's fireplace, it truly seemed that this sagacious, experienced, benevolent old physician, with his concord of paternal and reverential love for the young pastor, was the very man, of all mankind, to be constantly within reach of his voice.”
(131.) The tone of The Scarlet Letter is detached and complex. The narrator is detached since they do not show any feelings toward the Puritans. Over time though, we get the chance to see how the narrator sees some problems with the Puritan community. It's also extremely complex because of the writing style. The complexity also comes from the skepticism that the narrator uses. They discuss how the founders of Boston originally planned on a perfect town, but the very first sites that were built were the cemetery and the prison. The reader can tell that the narrator is trying to poke fun at the idealistic goals of the Puritan founders and that the narrator is suggesting that the founders did not complete their goals.
Author Arthur Miller, of The Crucible an excellent job of showing the cruelty of the witch trials. The movie based upon The Crucible, is almost an exact replica of the book. When showing many similarities, it also had some vast differences. These differences don't have much of an effect on the actually story. They are added for dramatic effect and to entice the viewer. Although there are many similarities there are some vast differences.
Symbolism plays a very important part in Scarlet Letter because it helps to identify characters and the main ideas of the story. It can help a reader to visualize and understand the meaning of the story better when there are symbols to help explain the meaning of something. Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale as symbols all throughout the book. They are the main characters of the story and they all overcome some difficulties in the end. They all have important roles in the book.
I have read the The Crucible, The Scarlet letter, and Of Mice and Men. In two of these stories, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, society was very much alike. They were based on a Puritan background. The Puritans had laws to live by. In the story Of Mice and Men, society showed racism and also that people took the law into their own hands.
In 1860-1960 there was lynching in the United States. When the confederates (south) lost the civil war the slaves got freedom and got rights of human beings. This was just to say because segregation wasn 't over in the South and didn 't go away for over 100 years. Any black person in the South accused but not convicted of any crime of looking at a white woman, whistling at a white woman, touching a white woman, talking back to a white person, refusing to step into the gutter when a white person passed on the sidewalk, or in some way upsetting the local people was liable to be dragged from their house or jail cell by lots of people crowds, mutilated in a terrible
The Salem Witch Trials began in 1672 while the Red Scare started in the late 1940s through the early 1950s. The time difference between the two seems so immense, some could say the two events are not comparable. The Crucible was also not relatable to the 1940s in many ways. The way of life was simply different during the Salem Witch Trials, making it difficult to make the event relatable to the modern day, even with the similarities. Some scenes in The Crucible, such as the courthouse or hanging of the accused, seems nonsensical to the McCarthy Era. The different time periods also chose different types of people to accuse. In The Crucible, it shows the outsiders, like the poor and elderly, getting accused. On the contrary, the well-known were questioned about Communism. Between the roughly 2000 something years, very much had changed, making The Crucible inapplicable and the setting a weak
Men and women walk around in the same neutral colored clothing, hand in hand with the lord and their Puritan values. However, these seemingly ordinary Puritans are all similar in one form— sin. In archaic theme-based literature, similarities can be distinguished between two stories and their attributes. Within the works of The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, a plethora of correlative elements can be identified by the reader.
In both storylines, there are characters that parallel each other and allow the viewers to see the overarching themes that permeate both movies. In Good Night and Good Luck, the main antagonist, Joseph McCarthy, is a foil for The Crucible’s Abigail Williams. They play the same role in the plot development of the movies and serve as antagonists who cause nothing but trouble. Although they differ in some aspects of their character, much of their motives and methods are quite similar.
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
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” People tend to behave and deal with life differently according to the situation that they are in. In most cases when a person is in a very blissful and comfortable point of his or her life, they tend to act pleasant towards themselves and other people. This is why it is not fair-minded to judge people when they are in a contented part of their lives. It is during times of trial and suffering where the true soul of a person is revealed and judgment can be made. Readers can see the actions that are made by characters through times of hardship that reveal what they truly are in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Crucible by Arthur Millar.
Intolerance is synonymous with small-mindedness, parochialism, bias, discrimination, and inequality. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, intolerance is the main theme. In addition to The Crucible, the Holocaust is a prime example of a historical event where intolerance is present. The underlying theme in The Crucible that usually goes hand-in-hand with intolerance is hysteria. There is a cause and effect relationship between the two; when there is a high level of intolerance, the people involved usually end up contributing to the existence of hysteria. There are many similarities between the Holocaust and The Crucible, but the one that stands out the most is the prevalence of both hysteria and intolerance being woven into the culture.
“Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used by the author to represent abstract ideas or concepts.” Symbolism in literature is the depth and hidden meaning in any piece of work. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a powerful and evocative novel laced with symbolism. The most obvious is the symbol of the scarlet letter itself, representing Hester’s sin of adultery. Hawthorne’s other symbols are less obvious and are very often obscured in the novel.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, adultery is shown to be acceptable. Adultery is when one spouse cheats in a secluded fashion. After committing a severe sin, the adulteress or adulterer are punished and publicly humiliated. The characters in each book unquestionably display that infidelity is an approved act. Life is like a pen is an excellent analogy to prove such a bold statement. To understand the role of adultery being acceptable this essay aims to provide a discussion of being loyal, loving, and especially forgiving.
Symbolism plays an important role in the Scarlet Letter. The scarlet "A" is used to represent sin and anguish along with happiness. The "A" has different meanings to people other than what was originally intended. The scaffold is used as a place of repentance and judgment by God. Pearl is another major symbol used as a reminder of the scarlet letter.
Hester was very audacious. She chose not to hide her sin, but instead she confessed her sin before the town. Since her sin was brought before the public, she would then have to face punishment for her sin. The scarlet letter "A" was placed upon her chest for everyone to know of her sin. She then was brought to the town scaffold to be looked upon and judged by the town.
1- Discuss the role of historical references in The Crucicle, by Arthur Miller, and in Mother Courage and her children, by Bertolt Brecht.