"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Essay by 10171988College, UndergraduateA, May 2006

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Living under a strict society where the system and all of its components were based on God, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Judge Danforth from Arthur Miller's The Crucible were bound to suffer from the Puritan values which they believed in during the Puritan era. After thoroughly analyzing both Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller's The Crucible, it is evident that Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Judge Danforth were notably victimized by the Puritan ethics of body politic and the statute of God as the law. Even though Dimmesdale and Danforth held different powers in their society, their positions were threatened or destroyed by the ethic of body politic, and they were ultimately subjected to the impending doom of self oppression under the statute of God is law. Even though the modern days are far from the Puritan era, debris of certain Puritan ethics are still scattered everywhere.

Although both Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Judge Danforth feared that their high status of ranking in their society would shatter into pieces like a fragile glass, Dimmesdale, however, after years of introspection finally confessed the sin he committed, therefore, ruining his reputation, whereas Danforth refused to admit his mistakes even if others' lives depended upon him. Dimmesdale committed lechery with Hester Prynne, a married woman. After Pearl, their daughter was born, Hester was put on the scaffold where she was publicly humiliated by the townspeople while Dimmesdale, watched Hester suffer as she took all of the blame for their shared sin. After seven years, Pearl and Dimmesdale met at last and yet still, he had not confessed. " 'But wilt thou promise,' asked Pearl, 'to take my hand, and Mothers hand, tomorrow noontide?' 'Not then, Pearl,' said the minister, 'but another time.'" (Hawthorne 150) Pearl seemed...