The Crucible Good Vs Evil Essay

An anonymous person once said “All conflict in literature is, in its simplest form, a struggle between good and evil.” What is meant by the quote is that in literature the conflict stems from the forces of good and evil. This is agreeable because in literature there is always a protagonist, which symbolizes good and an antagonist, which symbolizes evil. The quote holds true in the novels The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In both of these pieces of literature, the main characters, John Proctor and Hester Prynne, respectively, struggle against evil.

John Proctor, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible faced a major conflict that determined the fate of his wife, Elizabeth’s, life. He represents

After having committed adultery and had a child with an anonymous man, whom she refused to reveal, she was forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for the rest of her life. Hester’s main antagonist throughout the novel is the Puritan society around her which tries to keep her down at all times for her sinful act. Hester exhibits her characteristic bravery when she must be taken from the prison into the marketplace for humiliation, where she dons her scarlet letter. She had felt a sense of insecurity prior to exiting the prison, which is seen when she covers the letter with her child, but finally faces her fear when she displays the letter that she embroidered with her exceptional talent in sewing. She had turned her symbol of shame into a symbol of dignity, astonishing her enemies. Hester faces yet another antagonist with the novel when she is visited in prison by her husband who has recent arrived in the village and took on the identity of a man named Roger Chillingworth. Disappointed in Hester that she would betray him, he makes it certain to Hester that she will find who the anonymous man was and exact his revenge. His sinister demeanor causes her to fear that he will ruin her life. Hester Prynne’s conflict with her fellow villagers and her husband also serves as an example that helps support the truth of the