Essay The Power of Secret Sin in The Scarlet Letter

The Power of Secret Sin in The Scarlet Letter One of the main themes in The Scarlet Letter is that of the secret. The plot of the book is centered on Hester Prynne’s secret sin of adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne draws striking parallelism between secrets held and the physical and mental states of those who hold them. The Scarlet Letter demonstrates that a secret or feeling kept within slowly engulfs and destroys the soul such as Dimmesdale’s sin of hypocrisy and Chillingworth’s sin of vengeance, while a secret made public, such as Prynne’s adultery, can allow a soul to recover and even strengthen. When a secret is hidden inside it can engulf and even destroy a person. Arthur Dimmesdale, a revered young minister in†¦show more content†¦The same platform or scaffold, black and weather-stained with the storm or sunshine of seven long years, and footworn, too, with the tread of many culprits who had since ascended it, remained standing beneath the balcony of the meeting-house. The minister went up the steps. This sounds like a quote or a paraphrase and it should be cited with the name of the author and the page number. Dimmesdale’s increasingly enervated physical condition is evident through his eyes, which show â€Å"a world of pain in their troubled and melancholy depths,† As years go by, the minister is inundated with guilt, to the point that he is physically deteriorating. All the while giving phenomenal sermons and regarded as a pillar of the community, internally, Dimmesdale could not feel worse. Dimmesdale’s pain was obviously the result of his concealed sins. The sins you commit and keep secret cause great anguish to the soul and eventually they begin to take over human life. In addition, a sin or secret that goes unacknowledged and unrevealed can cause a cycle of vengeance and further sin. Such an example of feelings kept secret ruining a life is the secret of Roger Chillingworth. He is the husband of Hester Prynne and is thought by the townsfolk to be dead at sea. He returns in hopes of surprising his wife and living a happy life together only to find his wifeShow MoreRelatedThe Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay879 Words   |  4 Pagesevil and sin so a jail was needed to keep evil people and influence away from society. Hawthorne’s beliefs are seen in The Scarlet Letter. The reoccurring theme of â€Å"the power of blackness† and the uneven balance of transcendental and puritan views are apparent throughout the novel. â€Å"The power of blackness† brings out the sin and the worst in all of us including the people we least expect to be evil. 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Lying of course was considered a tremendous sin in the eyes of the Puritans. Centered first on a sin committed by Hester Prynne and her secret lover before the story ever begins the novel details how sin affects the lives of the people involved. For Hester, the sin forces herRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter Essay1075 Words   |  5 PagesHawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is biblical in notion that there is sin in everyone, but it is up to God to judge. The theme of The Scarlet Letter is that revenge gets you nowhere and guilt is not the way. A determined woman refuses to speak out, but the secret is told and it costs two men their lives. Adam and Eve are guilty of sin and God punished them so perhaps that is the way it should stay. Hester Prynne’s scarlet ‘A’ has marked her foreverRead MoreGothic Elements Present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter1310 Words   |  5 PagesGothic is a method of literature with particular traits. 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In the 17th century, Puritan society arose in New England as one thatRead MoreAnalysis Of Hester Prynne In Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter1211 Words   |  5 PagesThe Scarlet Letter Essay In the scarlet letter the main character Hester Prynne committed the sin of adultery that in the puritan society was completely unacceptable and usually those that did were punished or even sentenced to death. Hester Prynne was condemned to wearing the letter â€Å"A† that was a symbol of her being an adulterer and had to stand on the scaffold in front of the town for 3 hours as her punishment. Hester’s sin is represented through her daughter pearl that is a physicalRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne1488 Words   |  6 PagesHawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the main character, Hester Prynne, is a true contemporary of the modern era, being cast into 17th century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts. 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The theme of sin and guilt is present throughout The Scarlet Letter in the charactersRead MoreTheme Of Guilt In The Scarlet Letter820 Words   |  4 Pagesnovel The Scarlet Letter was written in 1850. Throughout this novel, Hawthorne explores many different types of themes. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism of The Scarlet Letter, Pearl, and the Leech to contribute to t he overall theme of guilt. To begin with, Hawthorne uses the scarlet letter â€Å"A† to contribute to the theme of Guilt. The townspeople no longer see a beautiful woman Hester Prynne, the protagonist of this story, the same way before her sin. They see nothing

Homelessness And Poverty Homeless People - 1967 Words

Seeing homelessness develop is a process that the older generation can say they have been apart of. The young generation, on the other hand, cannot say they have seen the development of homelessness. People who are thirty years old or younger have grown up believing that homelessness was always part of the landscape. The younger generation has come to believe that there have always been homeless people sitting on park benches. When an individual is asked what they see most in a large city like Chicago or New York, ‘homeless people’ is a common response. According to the United States Census Bureau, 320.8 million individuals currently live in the United States of America. Imagine the proportion of individuals that do not own a car or even a house to live in. The National Law Center on Homelessness and poverty did studied to conclude that in America more than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year. Those concerned with the issue of homelessness are curious as to what events had to have happened that lead to the individuals living on the streets. The reasons are different for each and every person. Some of the more major issues that contribute to this are lack of affordable housing, declining welfare assistance, and most importantly, mental illness. Resolving the issue of homelessness is very possible with new ways of housing and treatment for the mentally ill. The relation between the homeless and the mental illness has risen, and the United States as a wholeShow MoreRelatedEssay on Solving Homelessness1416 Words   |  6 PagesSolving Homelessness Nationwide homelessness is a growing epidemic across the country. There are many ways an individual can become homeless, for the most part it is poverty. There are also different concentrations of homeless in different types of environments, such as urban or suburban areas. 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Decartes meditations Essay Example For Students

Decartes meditations Essay In Descartes Meditations he talks about many different things.Two things he talks about are his arguments on Dreams and what he calls the Evil Demon. Both of them have to do with deceiving the mind into believing in things that may be untrue. The dream argument has to do with that we never truly know if we are dreaming or we are awake. Since there is no way for a person to tell if they are dreaming or not, a person realistically can not tell if anything they have ever experienced or is experiencing is real or just a mere dream. We decide what is real what we can sense; the problem is that your brain can trick your senses. Your dreams can make you feel like you are doing something, seeing something, or feeling any other sense. Now this fits right in with the Evil Demon argument. In the Evil Demon argument you are being tricked by an outside source. This outside source can do absolutely anything, it can control all of your senses and you have no power at all to stop this being. So if the being can control your senses nothing you sense, or believe is there, actually is there. If either of these things is true have we truly ever done anything? What are we truly doing? Meanwhile I have written this entire paper have I really w ritten anything? For all I know is that I dreamed I writing this entire paper. Yes my senses tell me I typed this paper. I had to think of what to type and meanwhile I was typing the paper I was getting really bored, then my sense of hearing hears the theme song to the TV show The Simpsons. Was this fabulous TV show actually on, or was some superior being just playing with my mind? My feeling is that it really doesnt matter if it was real or I enjoyed the show and the half hour break I believed I had meanwhile I was watching it. Bibliography: