Guilt Obsession In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

He knows what is right and wrong but one example has been haunting him in his life. Now in a Puritan society, sin had to have been confessed publicly and they must bear their shame. This however goes against what the Word actually says and this is what created Arthur Dimmesdale as a character. He most likely has already repented to God but his guilt will not leave until he confesses it to his congregation and it leads him to other “ways” of repentance. Being reminded of his guilt 24/7 causes his his health to deteriorate to the point of death, possibly alluding to the fact that the wages of sin are death.

After watching Myrtle get hit by a car, Wilson spirals into a depression fueled by madness, and although he eventually killed Gatsby out of revenge, George Wilson remains on of the more moral characters in Fitzgerald’s work. Wilson lived his life as a man of God, holding onto his values above all else, and when those morals failed him, he lost all sense of who he was. Those who hold a high standard of morals, such as George Wilson, often have more to lose, and as a result don’t handle tragedy well. Moral individuals in the lower classes have less to fall back on, and therefore more to lose. This can often lead to them not handling tragedy well, because they feel as though their morals have failed them.

Chillingworth and Dimmesdale formed a close relationship because Chillingworth believed that it was necessary for him to do so in order for him to try to cure Mr. Dimmesdale. Chillingworth began to show unkind qualities and became a thief of the riches that belonged to Mr. Dimmesdale. When Chillingworth asked Mr. Dimmesdale to reveal the wound and trouble in his soul in order for him to be healed, he lashed out at him and stormed off. Ultimately, Chillingworth had found Mr. Dimmesdale to be in a deep sleep

Elie would often fear the night because it reminded him of the horrible things he had seen throughout the day. The title Night implies that there was something that Elie had feared when the sun went down. If someone were to not understand what the Holocaust was, then they wouldn’t understand why he was afraid. It is important to keep on learning about the Holocaust because it was an awful event where millions of people were getting murdered because of their race and their beliefs. We can learn from this event that not all humans are humane and how one person can cause a horrible

On the other hand, John Proctor gets an offer to save himself by providing false confession to public. He struggles between his religious integrity and his reputation. This struggling shows his imperfection, but, by the end of the play, he feels shame for his fellow prisoners, who are brave to die for their integrities. He says, “For now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but enough to keep it from such dogs.”

Judgements are often made by people without considering past or current situations of others. By putting yourself in one’s shoes and experiencing their situation yourself, an opinion will change. Addiction is a horrible disease that took over Nic Sheff’s life, much to the dismay of his father. Through personal experience of years of anguish, depression, anger, and disappointment, the judgements of Sheff altered. The discomfort of thought and experience ultimately allowed Sheff to construct an enlightened

The story of the tortoise mentioned that as All of you fell “He fell and fell and fell until he began to fear he would never stop falling” (99). This is significant in noting that the good within Okonkwo felt as if his wrong doing would continue to make him fall. His act of suicide can be interpreted as him putting an end to the evil within

(190). Okonkwo gets so frustrated with the white man 's new religion and how it is bringing “untold abominations” that he does an unspeakable act of burning down a religious building. Burning down buildings

(White 339) All of these strange feelings contradicting each other inside him cause him to have a lot of problems growing and changing. He is unable to grow as a person for most of the story after due to his own inner struggles, but he does change his mind about and regret many things, like when he killed Gareth and Gaheris, “’You couldn't help it.' ' I could have helped it.' He was in his customary religious misery. '

He lives his life hiding the truth from others, while watching Hester struggle to come to terms with the truth. The height of the hypocrisy in the situation comes when Dimmesdale tells Hester, "Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him-yea, compel him, as it were-to add hypocrisy to sin (Hawthorne 58)?" Arthur says this when he wants Hester to reveal his name as the adulterer. He cannot bring it upon himself to confess and instead wants

In Heather James’ Fire, the first novel of the Elements of Power trilogy, she explains the consequences of isolating and secluding oneself: “Seclusion wasn't good for anyone; it made you forget how to protect yourself.”  Seclusion can range from being alienated by other people, to staying in solitude, to isolating oneself on purpose. While people often go into seclusion with a motive or a reason, they can end up with negative traits because of it. This theme of isolation is discussed and implied in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works of literature, especially The Scarlet Letter and “The Minister’s Black Veil.” In these works, Hawthorne elaborates on how different methods of isolation have their negative tolls on the different characters that experience