Scarlet Letter 6: page 127-144

Quote 1: "More than once, Mr. Dimmesdale had gone into the pulpit, with a purpose never to come down its steps until he should have spoken words like the above. More than once, he had cleared his throat, and drawn in the long, deep, and tremulous breath, which, when sent forth again, would come burdened with the black secret of his soul" (Hawthorne 131).

Explanation: In the chapter before, Dimmesdale makes it clear that he wants to tell others about his sin. In this quote above the narrator explains that he partially eludes to his sin. He calls himself a, "viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners" (131). And yet the community adores this, calling him a saint about saying that he is a sinner. It is clear that Dimmesdale has gained large amount of respect from the community, to such extent that he may nearly be the equivalent of God.

Question: Can this affect whether he tries to admit to his sin completely, and if he does how would it affect the community?

Quote 2: "It was his custom, too, as it has been that of many other pious Purtans, to fast, and - not, however, like them, in order to purify the body and render it the fitter medium of celestial illumination, but rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance" (132).

Explanation: Here, the author explains Dimmesdale's ritual of starving himself. He does this not out of common practice, but from his guilt. He is trying to find away to absolve himself of his sins. He is testing ways to find peace for himself as John Proctor tried to do for his regret. They both tried to find peace from polar oppisites in the beginning of their stories and both did not find the peace they desperately. But John Proctor found peace by looking the oppisite of where he thought he might find peace for himself (instead of lookinig outside for peace, he found it in himself, between him and God).

Question: Where could this inner peace be for Dimmesdale?

The Scarlet Letter 5: page 107-126

Quote 1: "They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime" - Roger Chillingworth (page 119).

Explanation: Roger is answering Dimmesdale's question about a weed. He responds with a peculiar answer eluding to the idea of someone keeping a secret. And it is abundantly clear to the reader that Dimmesdale was the man who had an affair with Hester. This quote affirms Roger Chillingworth's knowledge of this. This quote also seems to be sometype of mental game that Roger is playing with Dimmesdale. He is eluding to his knowledge of Dimmesdale's affair but does not affirm it to him, so Dimmesdale gets reminded of the affair and is punished mentally by Roger with guilt.

Question: Will Dimmesdale admit to his sin, will Chillingworth rat him out, or will anyone find out at all?

Quote 2: "True, there are such me... But, not to suggest more obvious reasons, it may be that they are kept silent by the very constitution of their nature. Or... they shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men; becasue, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by them" -Dimmesdale (120).

Explanation: Dimmesdale and Chillingworth go into a discussion on why that "man" would have kept a secret burdened in him. And Dimmesdale response was that they may keep secrets because that is the way they are or that maybe they keep it so that they can continue to do good. These reasons he gives reflects his own reasons for not admitting to his relationship with Hester. He believes that if he admitted that he would not have been able to do good because people would assume he was bad. But Chillingworth questions this and brings up the idea that maybe that "man" did not admit to it because he did not want to bear the consequences. So the reader is left with these two ideas that maybe Dimmesdale did not admit to his sin because he still wanted to help others, or he did not admit because he was afraid of being punished as Hester was.

Question: Which one of these things is the reason why he did not admit to sinning, and will they impede from admitting to his sin later, if he chooses to?

The Scarlet Letter 4: page 91-107

Quote 1: "Pearl, that wild and flight little elf, stole softly towards him, and taking his hand in the grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it; a tender, and withal so unobtrusive, that her mother, who was looking on, asked herself,-'Is that my Pearl?'"

Explanation: This quote shows the shock of Hester to see Pearl being gentle and tender. This makes it clear that Pearl usually is a very passionate person that has love, but just rarely shows it. This means that she is a good person but does not show it often, so others in turn view her as a bad person, as seen through Mr Dimmsdale, "the little baggage hath witchcraft in her" (106). Others will assume that she is bad and keep on thinking that she is the spawn of the devil's work.

Question: How can her lack of showing her love affect Hester and her later in the story?

Quote 2: "But here- if we this interview betwixt Mistress Hibbins and Hester Prynne to be authentic, and not a parable- was already an illustration of the young minister's arguement against sundering the relation of a fallen mother to the offspring of frailty. Even thus early the child saved her from Satan's snare" (107).

Explanation: In the quote above, the narrator gives us insight of how Hester Prynne's child has saved her from damnation, using the words, even thus early, suggesting that she may somehow be her salvation from damnation later in the story.

Question: What might Pearl save Hester from and how will she save her?

Scarlet Letter 2 Page 72-96

Quote 1: "As her motive for continuing a resident of New England- was a half a truth- half a delusion. Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the daily torture of her shame would at length purge her soul" (Hawthorne).

Explanation: Here the author makes it clear that Hester is trying to tell herself that the reason she is staying in New England because this is where she sinned, so this is where she will redeem herself. The underlying reason she stays because she fears what might happen during her final judgement with God if she does not stay near her husband . From this it can be interpreted that she is a God fearing person. She fears for her own life, not for others, so she has some morals that reflect more inward then outward.

Question: How will this affect how she may act in later dilemmas that affect her?

Quote 2: "'Art thou my child, in very truth?' asked Hester. Nor did she put the question altogether idly, but for the moment" -Hester

Explanation: Here we see that she grapples with inner conflict about her affair and she shows her turmoil by questioning whether Pearl really is her child. This questioning shows that she believes that her child in essence is a symbol of this evil act, so she has some resentment for the child but still cares for it out of maternal instinct.

Question: How does her viewing of her child as an emblem of her sin effect how she will treat her child and how she loves her child?

The Scarlet Letter 2: page 56-72

Quote 1: "The infant [...] pierced the air with its wailings and screams; she strove to hush it, mechanically, but seemed scarcely to sympathize with its trouble." -Hester Prynne (page 64)

Explanation: This quote is explaining the way Hester Prynne chooses to handle her child as it cries while she stands at the town square. She handles the baby "mechanically" which is not what most mothers usually do when their babies wail. And it is clearly stated that she dealt with her baby with scarce sympathy to its trouble. This means that she only cares about the child's well being, but not of her motherly love but for some half hearted reason. This half hearted reason for caring for her baby maybe out of result of not actually loving her child because it was a product of her affair. This is a sign that maybe that she might have resentment about the person she had an affair with because the child is a symbol of the husband that has left her to bear the ridicule of the entire village.

Question: How might her resentment for the babies father affect the reason she keeps his name secret?

Quote 2: "I seek no vengeance, plot no evil against thee [...] the man lives who has wronged us both [...] Sooner or latter he musts needs be mine!" -Roger Chillingworth (page 70)

Explanation: Here Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, makes it abundantly clear that he does not blame Hester for cheating on him. Instead he blames the man she slept with, whom he seeks to get revenge. This revenge will most likely be sought during the book and Hester will most likely get in the middle of it as she must choose to protect the baby's father or allow Roger to find his revenge.

Question: Why would Roger blame the baby's father as the one who started the affair though he states that Hester and himself are equally to blame?

Scarlet Letter 1: 45-56

Quote 1: "Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans,  he might have seen in this beautiful woman [...] an object to remind him of the image of divine maternity" (Hawthorne 53).

Explanation: The quote above is part of the narration that explains the main character, Hester Prynne. The author draws a parallel between her and the "divine maternity" (a.k.a. Mary mother of Jesus). With this parallel we can take the assumption that maybe she felt as Mary had felt when Mary had had the virgin birth and people had taken her as an adulterous. Something else that can be taken from this is that maybe, Hester has some type of role in God's plan as Mary had. And a questionable parallel that could be drawn is that maybe Hester might be a pure person as Mary was and that Hester, except for her sin of adultery.

Question: Why would the author compare an adulterous woman to a pure woman like Mary?

Quote 2: "They were stern enough to look upon her death, had that been the sentence, without murmur at its severity, but had none of the heartlessness of another social state which would find only a theme for jest in an exhibition like the present" (53).

Explanation: Here the author explains the crowds sternness. The author create an image of a line plot, plotting the villagers as people that were in the middle of two types of people, those who found hangings barbaric and those who found them as entertainment. So the author creates an image of the villagers being stern people that followed their religion strictly. This means that those who visibly break the rules of the religion will be shown no remorse and undergo harsh punishment, as Hester Prynne must undergo.

Question: What is the value of knowing how stern the village is about punishment, and how will this play a part later in the story?

crucible assignment 3

Morals are rules that help guide people to conduct their lives appropriately, yet sometimes morals lead to internal conflict that have lethal consequences. Internal conflicts are usually afflictions that can only heal after the person learns to live with their mistakes and move forward.  “The Crucible” depicts this struggle by portraying the morality of John Proctor and his internal struggle to find redemption for his misdeeds. He desperately searches for a way to find peace after committing adultery because “these people had no ritual for the washing away of sins” (Miller 20). At first, he searches for forgiveness externally, from his wife and from the village. But by the end of the play he finds that the answer to his turmoil does not lie with others but within himself and God.

He first seeks redemption from his wife by admitting to her that he had had an affair with Abigail Williams. Instead of finding her warm forgiveness, he finds a cold “justice that could freeze beer” (55). This cold “justice” is not the forgiveness that he sought, but a distancing in his relationships with his wife that only adds to his internal conflict because instead of finding forgiveness, he finds distrust. This dilemma leads to another predicament: the chance to expose Abigail of lying about witnessing witchcraft. However he must choose to either admit his misdeed to the village which would hurt his good standing, or not tell the village, resulting in the death of dozens of people. After what had happened with his last confession to his wife, he was questioning whether it was worth admitting to the village: “I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it” (54). But being driven by his morality to save his wife and neighbors and his search to redeem himself, he finds the will to tell the village of his offense.

He goes to the courts where he tries to find redemption by admitting to the court that he had “known her” (110). But his admittance yet again backfires and instead of finding peace from his internal turmoil he finds a cell where he is to wait until he can mount the gibbet. This only worsens his turmoil because instead of finding repentance and an end to his turmoil, he finds hate and betrayal. He believes that he is the reason for dozens of arrests and many deaths because he is a bad person that does not follow the morals of Salem, while in all actuality he is the person that epitomizes these morals the most. He fails to realize this, thus he is thrown deeper into conflict with himself. Being stuck in jail allows him to find the peace that he so desperately seeks.

Right before his hanging, Proctor begins to piece together that the answer to his inner turmoil does not lie with Elizabeth or the village but from himself. He recalls this idea from his conversation with Elizabeth before his hanging. While they talk he seeks her forgiveness as a way to end his inner conflict, and she responds: “John, it come to naught that I should forgive you, if you’ll not forgive yourself” (136). But he does not begin to become aware of this until his false admittance to accusations of witch craft and Rebecca Nurse’s shock to his admittance. This sparks the notion about whether he should be seeking redemption from an external source like the village people: “You came to save my soul, did you not? Here! I have confessed myself; it is enough!” (142). He finally realizes that the forgiveness he seeks does not come from anybody but himself and God after Hale says, “Man, you will hang! You cannot!” (144). John responds, “I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can […] I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor” (144). He has finally realizes that he must forgive himself to find redemption and he does leading to the end of his internal conflict, as Elizabeth notes: “He have his goodness now” (145).

Throughout the play the author encompasses the story around John’s search for his redemption. John’s morality arouses inner conflict in him that forces him to search for forgiveness after committing adultery. And since no one knew how to wash away sins, John sought this forgiveness from other sinners like his wife and the village. But when he finally begins to look inward for the key to his inner conflict he finds redemption before his tragic yet respectable death, after enduring months of internal conflict. Thus “The Crucible” is a play depicting the rise of John Proctor from his inner turmoil to inner peace.

 

Thanksgiving Homework 3 (Elizabeth to John)

Dear John,

I miss you so much. It has been two years past since that day you found goodness and God. The house seems half empty without you. The boys are well, yet I fear that the lack of your presence hurts them greatly. And the child that I carried before your death has grown older and stronger. I only wish you could see our child. I often think of how I will answer the child's questions about you. Shall tell stories of your goodness and your failure to see it, or should I talk about how you made one mistake and paid for it with your life. I know for sure that I will only have good things to mention about you to our child. And though your presence is missed by your family, the absence of your presence is missed by the village as well.

The lost of your presence has had a profound effect on the village. The village has gone up in an uproar. The village is greatly divided by those who defy the courts and those who support it. The division has grown to such an extent that they decided to eject Mr. Parris from office. He left the village and has not been heard from since. Reverend Hale still drops by from time to time, and we pray for the well being of you and all those afflicted by the trials. His hate for the theocracy still grows to this day, though the theocracy has begun to fall apart.

I fear to mention this but I know I must. I have met another man. He is a gentleman. He often times reminds me of you. I hope to not make the mistake of counting myself so plain, so poorly made, that no honest love will come to me. I hope this time to keep a warm house. And though I am moving on, know that I will always keep you in my heart and pray for you.

Love,
Elizabeth