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Comparing Sin In Scarlet Letter And Lord Of The Flies

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The Nature of Sin in The Scarlet Letter and Lord of the Flies Both The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Lord of the Flies by William Golding are novels with underlying themes of humanity. In both novels, the main characters are pressured by society and respond in a way that reveals much about humans and their tendency to sin. In Lord of the Flies, the boys begin to lose their sense of civilization causing their innate savageness to be released. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester and Dimmesdale’s affair is viewed as a crime by society even though it wasn’t. Using these themes and symbols, Hawthorne and Golding explain human nature and the nature of good and evil.
A common theme between both novels is that sin is a natural human quality. In The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale is a Reverend meaning he is a role model for all the people in Boston. Despite his high status and responsibility to lead the community, Dimmesdale sins by having an affair with …show more content…

Sin that is evil is shown to overtake a person’s soul to the point where they have no awareness of their self. In The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth is so obsessed with vengeance that “Sometimes a light glimmered out of the physician’s eyes, burning blue and ominous” portraying that the spirit of vengeance over takes his soul (Hawthorne 193). In Lord of the Flies, the absence of order causes the Hunters, especially Jack, to be ruthless and be motivated by power. They all of a sudden forget about being rescued and have a desire to kill. During Simon’s death, “the chant lost its first superficial excitement and began to beat like a steady pulse” illustrating that they have become so vicious that they lose their awareness of their environment, and the killing becomes second nature for them. (Golding 218). None of the children are mindful of the change from civil to savage until the end when they start crying after seeing the naval

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Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the protagonists of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, stands as a highly conflicted character. The source of his divide stems from the consequences of private sins, and is prevalent within the first paragraphs of Chapter 12, “The Minister’s Vigil,” where the narration chronicles Dimmesdale’s surroundings as he dream walks through the town in a state of limbo. He is portrayed as a model citizen who lacks moral imperfections to the general public yet suffers privately from the juxtaposition of his sins to his position within the community. In this specific passage, Hawthorne uses somber diction and imagery to illustrate Dimmesdale’s strife, while portraying his internal conflict through the formation

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commits a mortal sin by having an affair with a married woman, Hester Prynne. As a man of the cloth in Puritan society, Dimmesdale is expected to be the embodiment of the town’s values. He becomes captive to a self-imposed guilt that manifests from affair and his fear that he won’t meet the town’s high expectations of him. In an attempt to mitigate this guilt, Dimmesdale acts “piously” and accepts Chillingworth’s torture, causing him to suffer privately, unlike Hester who repented in the eyes of the townspeople. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin to the townspeople, he is able to free himself from his guilt.

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In both “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, there is an overarching motif of sin and the effects that sin has on the characters and the prose itself. Throughout both pieces of literature, the effects of sin are a large driving force that both progress and enhance the plot. In order to attain a deeper insight of the role of sin in both pieces of literature, it is necessary for the reader to not only look at the sins of the characters, but also look at the background and context of both prose, the treatment of the characters due to their sins, and the overall character development throughout the story. While the focal point of this essay will be to compare and contrast the role of sin in both prose, it is necessary to first look at the backgrounds and

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Arthur Dimmesdale was the town minister in The Scarlet Letter, a story of a young woman who committed adultery and faced the consequences, such as wearing a scarlet “A” on her chest. Dimmesdale was a very interesting character because he was very religious but also committed a sin that haunted him everyday. He also happened to be the man who was involved in the young woman’s adultery. He was never convicted, however he still faced the consequences everyday. Dimmesdale was a man of God.

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Many characters from The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, changed throughout the progression of the novel, — including Chillingworth, Hester, and even Pearl herself. No character, however, has changed as much as Dimmesdale has. Towards the beginning of the novel, Dimmesdale tries to ignore his sinful actions. Near the middle of the book, the clergyman, with the ‘help’ of Chillingworth, is able to realize his wrongdoings, and starts obsessively thinking of those wrongdoings. Around the end of the novel, with the help of the forest’s freedom, is able to finally repent correctly for his sin.

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Dear May, Even though you have migrated to the United States, I am really glad that we still keep in touch. I have known you for 10 years and we have been best friends since young. I knew that I could always count on you for help and you will always support me in whatever I do. I want to let you know that I have been keeping in tabs about your life in England and I know that you just broke up with your boyfriend a few months ago.

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The book “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a complex novel that has underlying themes of sin and the responsibility for sin. The novel takes place in a Puritanical society, but two people, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, fornicate with each other, even though Hester is married to someone else. Only Hester is punished, so Dimmesdale keeps his guilt inside, not revealing it to anyone. Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, then proceeds to ruin Hester’s partner in crime, corrupting his soul and being the ultimate cause for his death. Hester, on the other hand, leads a relatively happy life after she had repented for her sin.

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Whether this hidden duality is shown or not, it is always present no matter who or what the subject may be. Duality is shown to not only be a large portion of current society, but it has a massive effect on a fictional, yet realistic community from 17th century Massachusetts Bay. All throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter characters and symbols representing duality have been present, taking shape in important characters such as Hester Prynne, Pearl, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale, as well as objects such as the rose bush, the scaffold, and the forest. One of these symbols is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the Puritan Priest of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dimmesdale is seen

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His novel The Scarlet Letter expresses this very idea by exposing the follies of mankind and the potentially detrimental effects of sin through Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth

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Penance vs. Penitence In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes of the hypocrisy of the Puritans in the 1600’s. He expresses the hardships of Hester Prynne and her adulterous lover, Authur Dimmesdale, who is also the town’s preacher. Because Reverend Dimmesdale is a very noble preacher, he has to persist with the guilt of his sin and continue to preach how one should live a holy and pure lifestyle.

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Because of the effects that Dimmesdale’s sin had on those living in his society, his sin is the greatest of all those presented in the novel, as illustrated by Hawthorne through Dimmesdale’s interactions with others. Because, unlike Hester, Dimmesdale hides his sin from the

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The Scarlet Letter Essay Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were two of the main sinners in The Scarlet Letter. Both characters kept their sins secrete throughout the story. These sins included adultery, revenge, and even murder. Out of the two sinners, Chillingworth was the worst, because he never felt guilt for the terrible things he was doing. Dimmesdale spent his entire life in guilt and remorse for the sins he had committed (“Who”).

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