"I am putting it into practise, as I do everything you say" (51).
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Picture of Dorian Gray #3: Chapter 4
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Picture of Dorian Gray #2: Chapter 3
"I can sympathize with everything, except suffering" (43).
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Picture of Dorian Gray #1: Chapter 1 and 2
"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" (21).
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A Pathway to Heaven
Daryl Thomas
AP English- Mr. George
13 January 2009
Scarlet Letter Essay
The Pathway to Heaven
Arthur Dimmesdale, a minister of the Puritan church, may be looked down upon for the adultery he committed, but his act of keeping it secret was worse: “They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:16). To be redeemed for a sin committed, the sin had to be shown to God and to man. At the top of the Puritanical hierarchy, Dimmesdale bore a false name to Boston: “The saint on earth!” (Hawthorne 131). Being a religious leader and an example to others as the quintessential Puritan, Dimmesdale did not want to bear the guilt and shame, but his pious heart yearned for Eternal Life. He looked to redeem his sin privately, aiming for that which was impossible. For this, his ever-loving God punished Dimmesdale in order to help him reach Heaven.
Dimmesdale felt guilty for betraying his congregation: "I, your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie!" (131). Many times, Dimmesdale equivocated about his wrongdoing, but the people only found him to be more holy. With such a great reputation, the minister could not accept losing the faith of his people because he wanted to continue doing God’s work. Guilt and shame were necessary components of Dimmesdale’s redemption: “the [purpose] of guilt and shame in a fellow-creature [was for] society [to] have grown corrupt enough to smile” (53). Though Dimmesdale felt internally guilty, he did not bear the shame of the sin to others, while Hester Prynne wandered about with the scarlet A on her chest. Though she had felt shame before because of bearing her sin publicly, her A changed from Adulterer to Able, and people sought her counsel and advice. She successfully redeemed herself for her sin: “Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!” (173). Dimmesdale himself said, “But still, methinks, it must needs be better for the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as this poor woman Hester is, than to cover it all up in his heart” (123), but his shame and guilt continued to burn, as his body began to deteriorate.
This young, energetic priest’s sin reduced him to “careworn and emaciated” (103). Something was really wrong with Dimmesdale, but his heart would not tell what it was. Pearl often wondered why Dimmesdale constantly held his hand over his heart, even describing him as “a strange, sad man” (205). Dimmesdale was constantly punishing himself for the sin he committed, using a scourge upon his body and fasting to the point where he had no energy to stand. As the minister nears his redemption, it is revealed that he had his own A seared upon his chest. The common Bostonian may have thought he was sick due to illness, but Dimmesdale was really holding a heavy secret that he could not bear. Luckily, Roger Chillingworth, a talented doctor, came to Dimmesdale’s doorstep. Dimmesdale hoped for Chillingworth to help his ailing body, but the doctor was Dimmesdale’s greatest punishment.
Roger Chillingworth was renowned in his line of work; he was an experienced practitioner of medicine, having knowledge of Native American remedies mixed with a European education. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale lived together and became close friends with their many educated discussions. Dimmesdale only knew Chillingworth for his occupation, but the physician was actually the husband of Hester. Chillingworth promised to “seek this man [that Hester cheated with], as [he] sought truth in books, as [he] sought gold in alchemy” (70). Once Chillingworth found out Dimmesdale was the man who sinned with Hester, the physician continued to keep the priest alive, in order for Dimmesdale to let the shame and guilt eat him up inside: “To sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffused opinion, that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, like many other personages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan’s emissary, in the guise of old Roger Chillingworth” (116). Chillingworth had devilish intentions, but the Black Man would now make a contract with Dimmesdale to further dim the physician’s heart.
As Mistress Hibbins relates, “When the Black Man sees one of his own servants, signed and sealed, so shy of owning to the bond as is Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, he hath a way of ordering matters so that the mark shall be disclosed in open daylight to the eyes of all the world!” (217). When Dimmesdale returned from speaking with Hester about running away, he seemed reinvigorated; there was actually life within the priest. Mistress Hibbins, a woman of witchcraft and evil, recognized that Dimmesdale went into the forest, and knew that he had found the Devil there. This became true when Dimmesdale began to feel evil impulses to blaspheme God’s name; however, his habitual goodness saved him from wrongdoing. A new punishment arose: an internal conflict between good and evil. Dimmesdale’s painful connection with the Devil was made tangible through Pearl.
Pearl was a reminder of the sin Hester and Dimmesdale committed: “an imp of evil, emblem and product of sin” (85). Dimmesdale was known to be unfavorable with children, but he faced constant torment when seeing Pearl, as the guilt and shame of his sin bore upon him: “[Pearl was] a messenger of anguish” (229). Her purpose was to keep Hester and Dimmesdale on the right path to redemption. In the forest, when they decided to runaway to Europe and find peace, Pearl began “gesticulating violently and throwing her small figure into the most extravagant contortions” (189) and even washed away Dimmesdale’s kiss. Dimmesdale could not get away from his sin that easily, for Pearl was the physical representation of his sin. Leaving his sin would be separating himself from Pearl. She was his daughter yet, and so he listened to her. Pearl would complete her role until Dimmesdale finally reached his redemption.
When the Election Sermon ended, Dimmesdale left the people in awe: “inspiration [never] breathed through mortal lips more evidently than it did through his” (222). This man was truly a divine being. As the procession carried on, Dimmesdale called to Hester and Pearl and went atop the scaffold standing with his family. On the night they had once before stood together, Dimmesdale had promised Pearl to do it in front of the people: “I shall indeed, stand with thy mother and thee, one other day” (139). Dimmesdale then revealed to the people his A, and thus revealed his sin to the public, completing his redemption. Aware of this, Dimmesdale kissed Pearl as her purpose was fulfilled and gave thanks to God for all his punishments that led him on the right path: “He hath proved his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red-heat! By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! Had any of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost forever!” (229). Dimmesdale then had his final breath and died, having found the Kingdom of Heaven.
Though everyone commits sin, God gives us the opportunity to be forgiven. If Dimmesdale had only opened up about his sin earlier, his physical and emotional torment may not have occurred. Dimmesdale is an example for all to “[be] true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!” (231). When we open ourselves up for others to judge, the shame we feel will help us remind ourselves to never commit such sin again: “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:34). With new knowledge from our mistakes, we may enter heaven.
Works Cited:
Church, Episcopal The Holy Bible. Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1903.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam Books,
1986.
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Monday, January 5, 2009
Scarlet Letter Final: p.221-235
"Thy power is not what it was! With God's help, I shall escape thee now!" (226)
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Sunday, January 4, 2009
Scarlet Letter Christmas Vacation
Ch. 15- Hester and Pearl
- Hester hates RC (159)
- Had the scarlet letter made her repent? (159) bottom
- Pearl- eelgrass “A” (161)
o Curious of mother’s letter and why D holds his chest
- Hester’s repentance- through Pearl, not through Providence (163)
Ch.16- A Forest Walk
- Hester wants to tell D that RC, her husband, saw them (164)
- Sunshine not coming upon Hester- dark vs. light, good vs. evil, truth vs. lies (165)
- Black Man and Hester- the scarlet letter is his mark (167)
- D comes along and Pearl continues to wonder why he holds his chest
- Pearl seems to be only one to connect Hester and D together
- *Forest= place of evil; it is unfavorable to the citizens
Ch.17- The Pastor and His Parishioner
- Hester and D meet- so long since seeing one another that they question existence
- D has found no peace (172)
- Hester putting blame for everything on RC (173)
- Hester sympathizes for D understanding the struggle he has been through, and confesses about RC (174-175)
- “dark transfiguration” overcame them (175)
- Hester loves D?
- “that old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin” (176)
- landscape and nature (176)
- D worried RC will snitch, so Hester says they should runaway to Europe and start anew (178-179)
Ch.18- A Flood of Sunshine
- Dark forest -> Hester’s moral compass (180)
- “the breach which guilt has once made into the human soul is never […] repaired” (181)
- D agrees with the plan and everything seems to become renewed:
o Enjoyment on their faces- “Do I feel joy again?” (182)
o Hester threw down her hair and threw off scarlet letter, got back her beauty
· Pearl was bred from evil, maybe that’s why the forest/nature found a liking for her (185)
· Dark vs. light first time sunshine shone on them when she took off letter
Ch. 19- The Child at the Brook-Side
- Hester and D acting like couples playfully bickering about who gave Pearl’s features (186)
- Pearl unites them (186)
- FIRST EX.: Hester feels a remoteness from Pearl (187)
· D explains the brook is “the boundary between two worlds” (187)
- Pearl “spazzes” when she sees no scarlet letter (189)
- Hester puts it back on an all the sadness is back (190)
- “Pearl would show no favor to the clergyman” (191)
- Pearl washes off D’s kiss, OUCH (191)
- This brook symbolized a story of sadness that will never find any joy, all of them were reflected in the brook (192)
Ch.20- The Minister in a Maze
- Hester knew people from the Spanish Main to take the family away to Europe (193)
- D plans to end career on good note with Election Sermon (193)
- D had an “unaccustomed physical energy” (194)
- D changes:
o “I am not the man for whom you take me” (195)
o “refrain from uttering certain blasphemous suggestions” (196)
o “unanswerable argument against the immortality of the human soul” (196)
o “germ of evil” (197)
o “wicked words to a know of little Puritan children” (198)
o “heaven-defying oaths” (198)
o “That self was gone. Another man had returned out of the forest” (200)
- D thinks he has made a contract with Devil and Mistress Hibbins agrees (199)
- “the infectious poison of that sin had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system” (199)
- D doesn’t want anymore meds from RC (201)
- “the physician knew then, that, in the minister’s regard, he was no longer a trusted friend, but his bitterest enemy” (201)
- new internal conflict for D: his routine good habits vs. his sudden evil impulses
Ch.21- The New England Holiday
· “Hester was actually dead, in respect to any claim of sympathy, and had departed out of the world, with which she still seemed to mingle” (203)
· Hester anticipates to rid of her “A”, she waits for the “wine of life” (204)
· “Will the minister be there? […] What a strange, sad man is he!” (205)
· the Bostonians were formerly Englishmen, and tried to bring home their former culture under the restriction of Puritanism, therefore the gloomy mood (206-207)
· “We have yet to learn again the forgotten art of gayety” (208)
· RC shows up looking elegant (209)
· Everyone avoids Hester: “It was a forcible type of the moral solitude in which the scarlet letter enveloped its fated wearer” (210)
· RC IS COMING ON THE TRIP, TOO!!! (210)
Ch.22- The Procession
· “It was an age when what we call talent had far less consideration than now, but the massive materials which produce stability and dignity of character a great deal more” (212) something like iceberg principle
· D had never shown such energy, but seemed as if he was away in his thoughts (213-214)
· “Men of uncommon intellect, who have grown morbid, posses this occasional power of mighty effort, into which they throw the life of many days, and then are lifeless for as many more” (214)
· SECOND EX.:”[D] seemed so remote from her own sphere”
· this rejuvenated D is unrecognized by Pearl (215)
· Mistress Hibbins- she knows they went into the forest, and says that D is a servant of the Black Man (217) and that the Black Man will reveal the mark on his chest to the world (217)
· She also says Pearl = “lineage of the Prince of the Air” (217)
· Election Sermon is given- D sounds majestic, yet there is suffering heard in his voice (218)
· The scaffold- “her whole orb of life […] was connected with this spot, as with the one point it gave it unity”, family stood there
· RC will take D onto the ship himself, without Hester and Pearl having to. Yikes.
· Everyone is looking at Hester and her “A” and form a circle around her, it seems as if the time has come for everyone to realize there is a mark also on D. The next chapter is called “The Revelation”.
Other Notes
- Odyssey and power of Gods- there is a greater power controlling them
- Dimmesdale has lost his understanding of God being final judge as he used to, unlike John Proctor.
- He thinks he can get away from his sin.
- Everyone is leaving Hester’s “sphere”, she feels a remoteness even from Pearl and D
- Dark vs. light
- The Forest = Evil
- Pearl’s purpose is to unite them by their sin and is their reminder
- RC is looking to ruin their plans
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