Although not commonly associated with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the devil is mentioned the classic American novel. Hawthorne describes Satan as a tall, black man who lives in the woods, interacting with humans and witches to corrupt their souls. Portrayals of Satan throughout history have given him many different associations, one of the most well-known displays of him being in Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, Inferno and Peter Cook’s comedic film, Bedazzled. In these two depictions, the devil is shown malicious yet tragic figure, although his reaction his punishments vary.
Satan, as in most pieces of literature and media, is depicted as a root of evil in the Inferno and Bedazzled. In Dante’s Inferno, the deepest circle of the Inferno is represented by the sin of treason, where Satan and three others are trapped in a frozen lake in the center of Hell below a large pit guarded by giants. Here Satan and the men are punished for all of eternity, “I never saw such spread of ocean canvas to the wind: but these were bat-like, plumeless, and the wind they bred, - They flapped unceasing - caused the glacier freeze Down which we traversed,” (Dante). Satan’s vicious betrayal of God leads to an eternity of punishment and suffering for him, reflecting how grave his violent sins were before he was cast into hell. Even in his punishment, Satan tortures others, gnawing on their backs for the rest of time. The Devil as George Spiggott in Bedazzled also demonstrates venomous behavior as he repeatedly tricks Stanley Moon into suffering through his non-specific wishes. Throughout the film, we see examples of George Spiggott terrorizing normal citizens with birds, bees, and parking tickets. Spiggott even demonstrates malicious behavior a...
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... (Cook). Spiggott interprets his punishment as a personal challenge from God, reacting to his sentence in a much more affronted manner than Dante’s Satan. Because Cook’s devil is not restricted, he is able to challenge God to a contest, rather than bear his punishment in silence like Dante’s devil.
The devil has taken on many forms in both legend and media throughout history. Whether it is a con-man in a suit, or a vicious minotaur-like monster, the devil has been a representation of human evil since his conception. Satan in both Dante’s Inferno and Peter Cook’s Bedazzled is seen as an evil figure forced into an eternity of punishment, yet sympathetic because of this. However, both representations of the devil differ in how much power Satan is allotted. As humanity continues to define true evil, it must decide for itself how much power it allows evil in this world.
Tom Walker’s devil is a dark-skinned man with red eyes, red sash, and an axe. Tom was a malicious, greedy person who dealt with the devil in order to gain some wealth. He and his wife would fight constantly day after day. Tom was not a wealthy person
Pearl is an example of the innocent result of sin. All the kids make fun of Pearl and they disclude her from everything. She never did anything wrong, but everyone treats her like she committed the sin also. Pearl acts out against the children that make fun of her and acts like a crazy child. She cannot control the sins that her parents committed.
A Faustian legend is a story in which a character trades something of great personal value to the devil in order to receive personal gain. Since this type of literature originated in the Fourth Century it has spread throughout the world. Two relatively recent versions of this legend are “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Vincent Benét. These stories show many similarities as well as a few differences. While both Benét and Irving present similar themes in setting of the tales and motivation in the Faustian character, they do differ in the nature of that character and their visual presentation of the Devil.
We see that good vs. evil has been a theme that is ubiquitous in many writings. The story "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a story about a man who lives an immoral life of greed. Walker lives in a wooded area, where it is solemn, and quiet area of New England. Walker runs into the devil and sees that the devil is cutting down someone else's timber.
being a witch. This is a very evil thing in the eyes of the Puritans.
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to expose the varying ways in which different people deal with lingering guilt from sins they have perpetrated. The contrasting characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale ideally exemplified the differences in thought and behavior people have for guilt. Although they were both guilty of committing the same crime, these two individuals differed in that one punished themselves with physical and mental torture and the other chose to continue on with their life, devoting it to those less fortunate than they.
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.
During this puritan time in the 1600s. Nathaniel Hawthorne who is an anti-transcendentalist speaks about sin. But not just any sin, secret sin in this novel “The Scarlet Letter.” Hawthorne expresses many themes and symbols in many strange and mysterious ways. Hawthorne is a very dark and devious man. The scarlet letter A that is embroidered on Hester’s bosom symbolizes adultery. Adultery is the sin that she has committed. Hester had a whole husband and made a baby with a man that wasn’t the husband. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Hester’s Cabin, Leeches, and Dimmesdale to contribute to the overall theme of Good Vs. Evil.
Moreover, Dante, the narrator of the Inferno, has succeeded in not only telling the frightening story of the Inferno, but also pointing out the importance of the relationship between human’s sins and God’s retribution, using the monsters as the symbols for each kind of sin and its punishment throughout the progress of the story, which teaches his readers to be well aware of their sins through the literature – a part of humanities; the disciplines that teach a man to be a human.
The concept of the word “devil” is used in two different ways by the authors of these two books. For the book written by Starkey, the concept of “devil” is based around the witch who does witchcraft and harms people as well as creates wrong perception of different things. On the other, for the book written by King, the concept of “devil” is centered on the four black boys who have been allegedly charged with raping a white girl. As it can be seen,
In Dante’s Inferno, Dante is taken on a journey through hell. On this journey, Dane sees the many different forms of sins, and each with its own unique contrapasso, or counter-suffering. Each of these punishments reflects the sin of a person, usually offering some ironic way of suffering as a sort of revenge for breaking God’s law. As Dante wrote this work and developed the contrapassos, he allows himself to play God, deciding who is in hell and why they are there. He uses this opportunity to strike at his foes, placing them in the bowels of hell, saying that they have nothing to look forward to but the agony of suffering and the separation from God.
Few characters in literature can spark such creativity and imagination in so many individuals as the biblical Satan, or the devil. Retellings of the great fall of Lucifer and his subsequent antics on Earth are subject of countless novels, plays, and books by some of the world’s greatest authors. The figure of the “fallen one” that utilizes deception, charm, and wit to achieve his self-serving goals has an allure that has drawn readers for centuries. It can be argued that among these lies Joyce Carrol Oates’s famous short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” The character of Arnold Friend in the story is representative of the devil through his appearance, speech, and the many religious allusions of the story.
...epictions of Satan as manipulative in his actions, anthropomorphic in his relationships, and adept in orchestrating evil, both works result in same final effect: they imbue the devil with a more frightening and pervasive form of power. Ultimately, these two characterizations of the devil reflect the importance of perspective and interpretation, which are critical as society continues to globalize and intercontinental relations fortify. Individuals and nations must learn to listen to one another and respect each other’s perspectives. After all everyone’s stance is unique; everyone’s opinion contributes to a greater whole.
The Divine Comedy is a poetic Italian masterpiece by Dante Alighieri composed of three parts which he called respectively: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso. As this edition’s translator, John Ciardi puts it, originally Dante simply entitled his works as The Comedy, however, in later years, it was renamed The Divine Comedy for the connections that the public saw it had with human behavior and morality (Ciardi, 2003). For the goals and purposes of this review, we will focus specifically on the portion of the book called The Inferno. At a time when religious and secular concerns were at their peak in fourteenth century Italy, a tone of conflict broke out between the church and the government. Beyond the commonalities of corruption
...s. This is quite different from the popular conception of Satan during the Renaissance that can be seen in Giotto di Bondone’s painting, “The Last Judgment.” Giotto gives Satan a very dominant role in Hell and portrays him as very violent and gruesome. Dante’s “Inferno” changes the way that people think of and view Satan. For example, painters William Blake and Nardo di Cione depict Satan as he appears in “Inferno.” Dante greatly influenced both the Renaissance understanding of Satan and also Christian theology in general.