William Lai

AP American Literature- Mr. George

February 24, 2009

Final Essay on Sin

Confession

            Confession is often times the most embarrassing and humiliating thing anybody can experience. It is the epitome of retribution, the ultimate payback; this constitutes the difficulty behind admitting to one’s mistakes or sins. It is said that it is a sinner's “duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement. There was a God who called upon men to tell their sins to earth as well as to heaven. Nothing that he could do would cleanse him till he had told his own sin” (Wilde 228). Therefore confession is vital for the washing away of sin. Confession can ultimately take place in many ways, whether it is confession to another person or self-punishment, as long as the sinner deals with the fact that they have sinned. Confession is a voluntary process that is based on one's choice to admit and recognize the fact that one has sinned and that is what God calls upon men to do.

            Looking to Oscar Wilde’s book, The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is abundantly clear that the redemption of sin lays in confession. In the book, the reader follows Dorian Gray for a period of twenty years observing Dorian live the ultimate life of pleasure and desire. Dorian lives this marvelous life of vanity and pleasure by using his everlasting beauty. By living this vain life of pleasure, his soul has become corrupt. This corruption is shown through the very portrait that allows him to sustain his beauty, making it the gateway to his soul: “the portrait Basil Hallward had painted of him […] was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin” (99-100). Wilde also makes it abundantly clear that this picture is absolutely hideous: “he saw in the dim light the hideous face on the canvas grinning at him. There was something in its expression that filled him with disgust and loathing” (161). Since the portrait is the gateway to his soul, the symbol of his sin, the reader can infer that Dorian must be an awful person with a treacherous past. Throughout his life, Dorian has sinned and fails to recognize or deal with the sin. By not dealing with any of his wrongdoings for most of his life, he lacks the knowledge or how to repent for them. When the effects of his sins finally catch up to him and he seeks a way to repent for his sins, he does not know how. With insufficient knowledge of how to deal with the situation, he chooses to not deal with his sins at all, and instead run away from them. An example of this can be seen when he tries to escape from dealing with murdering Basil.

          Dorian, instead of confessing to others decides to get rid of the body in an attempt to avoid his sin. Instead of getting rid of the body himself, he blackmails his former friend, Alan Campbell, to get rid of the body for him while Dorian tells Alan that he has saved his life. Alan responds, “Your life? Good heavens! What a life that is! You have gone from corruption to corruption, and now you have culminated in crime. In doing what I am going to do, what you force me to do, it is not of your life that I am thinking” (176). Campbell wonders what type of life is he really saving. Can Dorian’s life be saved at all?

Dorian's life is filled with corruption upon corruption, with murder and blackmail topping it all off. Dorian has only known a life where his every capricious desire is met, where every person succumbs to his will. He has lived a life of greed, vanity, and pride. He has never had to truly grapple with his sins, his vices, and his misdeeds. Multitudes of religions preach that life is a time meant to break away from our lives of sinful pleasure. For example, Buddhism says the meaning of life is to end suffering by eliminating one’s cravings and earthly desires. Christianity preaches that the meaning of life is to live as Jesus did, the savior of all humans, the ultimate representation of salvation. Most religions like Buddhism and Christianity preach of putting off worldly pleasures so that you may live life as God intends us, and we see Dorian has failed to do this; thus, it is impossible to save Dorian because he avoids his sin. Looking at The Crucible when characters confess their sins and grapple with them, they actually find redemption.

Oscar Wilde makes it clear that sinners must confess their sin to find redemption through the character Basil Hallward. Basil Hallward is the only moral character in The Picture of Dorian Gray. But like all the other characters, he too has sinned as well. In the book, Basil Hallward worships the portrait of Dorian Gray. Once he realized he was worshipping a false idol, he immediately confesses his sin and tries to find redemption for it. Basil even tries to help Dorian by having him confess to his sin and atone for it: “Pray, Dorian, pray [… the prayer that] was taught [to us] to say […] Lead us not into temptation. Forgive us our sins […] The prayer of your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be answered also” (162). Thus Oscar Wilde notes the importance of confession.

            In The Crucible, the protagonist, John Proctor, also is looking for redemption for sinning. He soon encounters a problem: where does redemption come from? He believed that redemption came from others, so he first sought forgiveness from his wife. Instead of finding forgiveness, he is met with a coldness “that could freeze beer” (Miller 20). Receiving this unexpected response he is shocked: “I should have roared you down when first you told me your suspicion. But I wilted, and, like a Christian, I confessed! Some dream I had must have mistaken you for God that day” (55). But he is not deterred after he failed to find reconciliation from his wife, and he again tries to seek it from others, with hopes that he might find it through the community.
            John Proctor admits to the community that he committed adultery, coming clean with his sin, but once again it bares the opposite effect he hopes for. He is thrown in jail, accused of witchcraft, and is still burdened with inner turmoil. This unexpected response frustrates him: “I say –say –God is dead!” (119). He nearly gives up his search for redemption and nearly admits to Judge Danforth’s accusation of witchcraft, but he finally finds redemption.
            John Proctor finds redemption through a revelation instigated from Rebecca Nurse’s shock in his agreeing of committing witchcraft:  “Why it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself?” (140). This sparks the idea that instead of seeking peace from his peers, he should seek absolution from God. When he confesses to God, he finds peace: “There’s your first marvel […] for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor” (144). And while Proctor goes to his death, the author makes it clear that through his confession he has been forgiven through Elizabeth: “He have his goodness now” (145).

Similarly, Dimmesdale, the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter, also faces the daunting task of finding redemption after committing adultery. But he takes a different approach instead, seeking reconciliation from God rather than from the public. He tried to repent for his sin by abusing himself both mentally and physically. He mentally punished himself through his silence because “he loved the truth, and loathed the lie” (Hawthorne 131), yet the community loved him as a saint. Thus, he loathed his miserable self, for he was the lie that he hated so much. This self-hate drove him to physically punish himself with a whip. These acts of self-retribution did not satisfy him though, because he still felt inner conflict over his sin, which manifested itself as the letter A on his chest.

Dimmesdale finds peace at the end of The Scarlet Letter when he mounts the scaffold with Hester and Pearl confessing his sin to the entire community: “People of New England! Ye, that have loved me! –ye, that have deemed me holy! –behold me here, the one sinner of the world!” (228). After this, he pulls off his shirt to reveal “what has seared his inmost heart!” (228), finalizing his confession. Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, shows that the community had forgiven Dimmesdale through Pearl, as she “kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies” (229). Then Dimmesdale says, “The law we broke! –the sin here so awfully revealed! –let these alone be in thy thoughts! […] He is merciful! He hath proved his mercy most of all, in my afflictions” (229), justifying that one must seek forgiveness from God through confession. Ergo, Dimmesdale confessed his sin to finally find redemption.

Dimmesdale shares a similar characteristic to Dorian, that he too has a symbol of his sin. For Dorian, his sin is manifested in his portrait, and for Dimmesdale his sin is manifested as the letter A on his chest. Both Dorian and Dimmesdale try to hide the symbols of their sins from the public; Dimmesdale hides his under his shirt and Dorian hides his under lock and key on the roof of his house. Although both share similar circumstances, Dorian never finds reconciliation while Dimmesdale does. The reason being Dorian, unlike Dimmesdale, hides his sin, in order to escape its punishment, trying to live a pleasurable, carefree life. Dimmesdale, on the other hand, hides his sin as a means to protect the community and as a way to punish himself and ultimately confesses his sin and shows his sin. Dimmesdale’s confession of his sin played a crucial role in his salvation, justifying the need to admit his sin and atone for it. Both John Proctor and Dimmesdale sought redemption for their sins through confession, either publicly to the community or privately to God. By confessing their sin, they found peace to the turmoil that had stricken them comparably to Dorian who instead never confesses and never finds peace.

            Another character that is similar to Dorian is Chillingsworth in The Scarlet Letter. Chillingsworth’s sin. like Dorian Gray’s sin, is manifested in his appearance. The more Chillingworth sins, the uglier he becomes: “what a change had come over his features, –how his dark complexion seemed to have grown duskier, and his figure more misshapen, –since the days when she familiarly known him” (Hawthorne 102). Thus, it is clear that Chillingworth has committed a horrid sin like Dorian. And like Dorian, Chillingworth does not confess his sin or try to repent it, resulting in his death. Once again, the necessity of confession and the atonement of sin are shown through Dorian and Chillingworth.

It is a sinner’s duty to confess their sin and atone for it. Looking at all the characters from The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, the necessity of confession is blatantly obvious. Every character sinned in the three stories in some way, but all those that confessed their sin found redemption. Those that did not confess did not have to deal with repercussions of their sins in the mortal life, but instead had to deal with their sins in the eternal life. God calls us to admit to our wrongdoings and to atone for them, for “the Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard ‘delay,’ but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).