Crucible/Scarlet Letter Synthesis Essay

Nathaniel Burns-Sarno
Advanced Placement English/Mr. George
February 25, 2010
The Scarlet Letter/The Crucible Synthesis

Penance: Should It Be Private or Public?
Thomas Filler, an English Author, once said that “He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil”(brainyquote.com). What Filler means by this statement is that all mankind is inclined to sin, but it is how we treat our sins that defines our character. No decent person would take pride in their sins. In order for us to achieve morality, we must bear our sins. The question is, in what manner should we bear our sins? Is it a more successful method to deal with our sins privately, or proclaim our sins to those around us? Such is the dilemma faced by John Proctor and Abigail Williams, characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. All four of these characters commit the same sin of adultery in a Puritan society. However, each of these characters deals with their sin in their own way, and thus they all meet different ends. After reading The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, one is given the impression that it is more successful to bear your sins publicly, as the characters who reveal their sin at some point all achieve their respective goals. However, whether it is more successful to publicly bear your sins, or to deal with them privately, depends completely on your ultimate goal.
John Proctor, committed adultery by cheating on his wife with Abigail Williams. Throughout the play, it is made clear that Proctor and Abigail at one point were sexual partners. However, Proctor realizes his sin and ends his relationship with Abigail. Proctor starts off bearing his sin relatively privately, telling only his wife and acting as if the relationship between he and Abigail never existed. From the first mention of the relationship he had with Abigail, it is clear that Proctor regrets his sin and is left with a stain on his conscience. He is so intent on leaving his past behind him that he becomes angry with his wife when she reminds him of it: “I should have roared you down when first you told me your suspicion. But I wilted, and like a Christian, I confessed. Confessed!...Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not”(Miller 55). However, when Abigail accuses his wife of witchcraft in an attempt to get rid of her, Proctor is forced to confess his adultery to the court. This leads to Proctor being accused of witchcraft, for which he is to be hanged if he does not confess to crimes that he did not commit, and if he does not condemn innocent people. Proctor initially cooperates with the court in order to save his own life, but cannot bring himself to sign a testimony. It is then that Proctor realizes that instead of confessing his sin to his wife and the court, he should have confessed it to God: “I confess to God, and God has seen my name on this! It is enough!”(142). Due to his refusal to give the court a signed testimony, Proctor is sentenced to death and leaves the world with the knowledge that his conscience has been cleared. It was more successful for Proctor to bear his sin publicly, as it leads to him achieving his ultimate goal of clearing his conscience and achieving heaven. However, if he were to have had a different goal, it is unlikely that bearing his sin publicly would have been successful at all.
Hester Prynne committed adultery by cheating on her husband, Roger Chillingworth, with Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester did not choose to bear her sin publicly, but rather was forced to, as she became pregnant as a result of her relationship with Dimmesdale. For her crime, she was forced to wear a scarlet letter A, having to forever wear her shame upon her bosom. At first, the townspeople see the scarlet letter as a sign of disgrace, as it stands for Adulteress. However, after Hester showed beneficence and the power to sympathize, the townspeople no longer saw the scarlet letter as a symbol of Hester’s sin, but instead as a symbol of her ability and inner strength.
Hester’s ultimate goal to overcome the shame that the scarlet letter had brought her was quickly achieved, as she transformed the scarlet letter into a symbol of purity through her dedication. Due to the fact that Hester is force to publicly bear her sin because of her pregnancy, one cannot argue that publicly bearing her sin was more successful for her than it would have been to deal with her sin privately. The scarlet letter forces her to become a better person to compensate for the dishonor it caused her. However, had she not been pregnant in the first place, she would not have been forced to admit her sin. Thus, both the scarlet letter and Hester’s goal of overcoming the shame it has caused her would have never existed. In this case, it would have been wise for her to at least admit her sin to God, which she seemed willing to do.
Dimmesdale’s adultery causes him to experience a great amount of suffering, both physical and psychological. Dimmesdale, the most beloved and devout pastor in the town, is truly devoted to God, and the fact that he has sinned against God torments him to the point that he wishes for someone to see him as a sinner. He hopes suffering on earth would limit his suffering in the afterlife. Unfortunately, Dimmesdale is not courageous enough to directly admit to his adultery. When Dimmesdale attempts to admit his sinfulness, his congregation begins to consider him even more pure than they had before: “He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile…Would not the people start up in their seats, by a simultaneous impulse, and tear him down out of the pulpit, which he defiled? Not so, indeed! They heard it all, and did but reverence him more"(Hawthorne 131). Dimmesdale’s desire for earthly punishment is so great that he begins scourging himself with a whip and starving himself. Little does Dimmesdale know that there is a person who sees him as a sinner and seeks to punish him. That person is Roger Chillingworth, who serves as Dimmesdale’s physician. Chillingworth, who is secretly Hester Prynne’s husband, takes the job of Dimmesdale’s physician as a way to get closer to him and ensure that Dimmesdale suffers for his adultery. Chillingworth accomplishes this by constantly goading Dimmesdale into discussions about whether it is right for one to publicly bear their sins. Dimmesdale responds by stating that the only way that a sinner must admit their sins to is God: “There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type of emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human a human heart”(119). Dimmesdale states this so confidently that he seems to believe it. However, that is unlikely, as even though Dimmesdale has continuously admitted his sin to God, he still desires to admit his sin to the public. Dimmesdale’s desire to publicly confess his sin stems from the fact that he preaches morals to the public that he himself does not live up to, and he want his congregation to know of his hypocrisy. Dimmesdale’s goal is to free himself from the suffering that his sin caused him and to get to heaven, a goal which he accomplishes when he finally summons courage to proclaim his sin to the public. Dimmesdale may have died after his confession, but he left the world free of suffering. For Dimmesdale, it was more successful to publicly bear his sin. However, if Dimmesdale’s goal had been different, publicly bearing his sin would not have helped him.
Out of the four characters, Abigail Williams is the most unique. Not only is she the only character to never bear her sin publicly, but she is also the only character to meet an indisputably unfavorable end. Abigail is the source of seduction that caused Proctor to cheat on his wife. Although Proctor eventually comes to his senses and looks to sever all ties that he had with Abigail, Abigail is not as willing to let go of their past relationship. Abigail develops an obsession with Proctor and deeply desires to be his wife. This desire causes her to develop feelings of hatred and jealousy toward Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife. It is because of these feelings that Abigail devised a plan to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor. In order to have a chance of getting Proctor all to herself, Abigail accused Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft. This accusation led to a mass hysteria within the town, as people began accusing others of witchcraft with no evidence. As a result, over one dozen innocent people were sentenced to death. The wildfire of innocent people dying was sparked by Abigail’s uncontrollable lust for Proctor. However, not once in the play does Abigail show any remorse for what she has done. Unlike Proctor, Dimmesdale, and Hester, Abigail lacks a conscience.
Abigail, being the niece of Reverend Parris, knows that the town would never suspect her of wrongdoing, and is thus able to keep her plans a secret. She also attempts to force Proctor into keeping their relationship a secret through the use of blackmail: “What will you tell? You will confess to fornication? In the court?”(Miller 152). Abigail knows the severity of the sin she has committed, but simply does not care about it. The only reason that she keeps her sin a secret is to avoid the consequences she would have to face if the town knew that she was an adulteress. Abigail does not bear her sin at all. She lives it. It is for that reason that I do not consider her to be connected to Proctor, Dimmesdale, or Hester, who all dealt with their sins in their own ways. The fate of Abigail does not have anything to do with the fact that she does not publicly admit her sin, but with the fact that she does not even acknowledge her own sin. Her end is not a result of the way that she bears her sin, but rather a result of her sexual inclinations. It only makes sense that Abigail becomes a prostitute, as it is the one occupation for which she already gained years of experience through her lustful and deceitful behavior.
It may seem that the characters who publicly bear their sins meet better ends, but that is not necessarily true. The only reason that admitting to their sins publicly helped them was because the situation called for it. It is merely a coincidence that in order to achieve their goals they had to make their sins public knowledge. Had Hester, Dimmesdale, or Proctor lived in a different time period or area, bearing their sin publicly may not have helped them achieve their respective goals. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Proctor can only legitimately be used to argue that publicly bearing sins is more successful than dealing with sins privately for one living in a Puritan society. However, for someone who does not live in a puritan society, whether they should publicly bear their sins or deal with them privately depends on their situation and ultimate goal.

















Works Cited
<”brainyquote” www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_fuller_3.html> February 22, 2010
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. United States: Viking Penguin Inc, 1953
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York, New York: Bantam Dell, 2003