Numerous moms and dads in this world have probably heard that sentence in a high, stimulating voice multiple times. Some of them get weak and buy a little dog, cat, hamster, or rabbit. I was one of those, I annoyed my parents with that wish for a long time. To be specific, I didn’t really ask for one certain pet, I only wanted to be the owner of a lovable creature. As you will hear in that story, my mom took advantage of my ambiguities. My parents were strictly against another since we already had a cat, and they knew I would get bored with a rabbit or a guinea pig after a while. They knew that they would be the ones who would have to go on walks with my dog or clean my rabbit’s cage. Indeed, I loved my cat and had a lot of fun with him. Now I don’t understand why I was so passionate about getting another pet.
“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language”.
Martin Buber
One Wednesday after school, while eating lunch with my mom, I was trying to convince her to buy me a pet for the millionth time that week: “Please mom, I will take care of it. Promise”, I told her. “I don’t even care what it is as long as it’s alive”. As I said that, my mom dropped her sandwich and looked at me with her big green eyes. My heart was running a marathon, because I thought I had finally convinced her. “I know something that you would like. I will go to a store and buy it for you”, she said in a poised voice”. I could not believe my ears. I was happy, excited, and enthusiastic. It was almost too good to be true.
When my mom came back from the store where she bought a pet for me, she opened her bag and took something out. It was a little cube. She gave it to me. “It’s yeast, darling”, she explained. “It’s a living thing that needs food, warmth, and moisture to thrive. You will have to feed it, so it can grow”. I immediately loved it. It was unique, a pet that nobody else has. At least I considered it a pet. That being said, I put my yeast in the most beautiful bowl I could find in the kitchen, a big green one with yellow dots. I added warm water and white sugar, and I kept doing that for the next few days. I felt like a mother to my yeast, a loving mother. Every Time I saw it growing, I felt delighted and happy. I tried everything to make my yeast comfortable. It even got a name: “Hefea”. I came up with that name, because it includes the German word for yeast, “Hefe”. Unfortunately, Hefea did not have the longest life. It died after one week. I woke up in the morning, and as every morning, I wanted to check how my yeast is feeling. As I looked into the big green bowl, I saw that Hefea’s body was partly dirty-blue. My mom told me that she is rotten which means that i should get rid of her. I did not understand what I did wrong. Wasn’t I caring enough? I measured the temperature in my house five times a day to make sure it is always between 100 and 110° Fahrenheit which is the perfect temperature for yeast in order to rise. I was really sad about the loss of my new pet; however, after a while, I got over it. I also got over the wish for another pet. Now, whenever I bake something with yeast, I think about that story with a smile on my face.
“A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: ‘There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired’” (Fitzgerald 81). One of Nick’s, the narrator of Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby’s several significant quotes describes how society mostly worked back in the Roaring Twenties. There are people who have achieved their dream, and the ones who are trying to get to their dream. Nick also states that there are people who work the hardest, and there are the ones who just work to provide for themself. The “American Dream” is a term we hear commonly thrown around and is a very prevalent theme in The Great Gatsby.
The definition basically means that through hard-work and dedication, anyone in the United States can achieve success and live a happy life; however, the meaning behind it can be expanded much further beyond its face value. Based on each character’s aimes and hopes, the novel shows that the American Dream is highly connected to love, expressed through Gatsby, achievement, status, and money, expressed through Daisy. Furthermore, in connection to earlier great American novels such as The Crucible, it illustrates a significant change in society’s general definition of the American Dream.
“The American dream. Those three short, simple words encompass the hopes and aspirations of all the peoples on earth. The words are not only short and simple. They are also fragile”.
Ross Perot
Expressed through the protagonist of Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is an ambiguous ideal that Jay Gastby has achieved in some way, while there are still values he wants to achieve. His dream connects wealth with love. Gastby does not achieve this, and while hopelessly trying he ends in a tragic destruction. Gatsby is so obsessed with this dream that he is oblivious to the consequences of his actions and how far he goes to achieve this. At the end of the novel, Nick points this out: “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (Fitzgerald 180). Gatsby lives an extravagant and large lifestyle full of glamor and wealth. Those things are nearly a mask to the true issues and goals that are sought out. Daisy’s love is what Gatsby needed to achieve his dream. Gatsby ends in a tragic, ironic and unpredictable way. Even though Gatsby was kind and generous and threw parties for everyone to enjoy, nobody would show up to his funeral. “After that I felt a certain shame for Gatsby-one gentleman to whom I telephoned implied that he got what he deserved”(Fitzgerald 169). That shows how loyal money is. In the end, Gatsby did not achieve the American Dream. He died with nothing but his money that was unfaithful and deceiving to him.
Different from Gatsby, Daisy’s dream is mainly a high status and money but also safety. She fell in love with Gatsby, but because he was not rich at that time, she chose to marry Tom, a man with old money. With that, she achieved her Avision of the American Dream, so she lives her best life. She claims that she loves both Gatsby and Tom, when really she loves the money. She seems very innocent when really she plays with men’s hearts in order to live the life of luxury. Her immorality and selfishness are very present throughout the novel and are face by Nick in the end: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and people and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” (Fitzgerald 179). Nick’s description of Tom and Daisy shows exactly how hollow the upper class is in the novel. After Daisy runs over and kills Myrtle, Daisy and Tom flee away back to their luxurious lifestyle, leaving Gatsby to take the blame for Daisy’s actions, resulting in Gatsby losing his life. Daisy achieved her immoral American Dream of being wealthy and having a high status.
The American Dream changed drastically from being religious freedom, exemplified by the Puritans, to dying away, as shown in The Crucible, to filling the need for wealth and attention, which was illustrated by The Great Gatsby, and finally now it’s about freedom, in individual ways. In The Crucible, there wasn’t very much of an American Dream mentioned. During that time period, there was a lot of fear of the devil recruiting human followers, known as witches, to do his bidding. There was so much hysteria that no one even thought of an actual dream for themself, except for to expose the “witches” in the town of Salem. The Puritans dreamed for religious freedom as they didn’t have it back in England. In The Great Gatsby, we can see that wealth plays an important role at that time. Everyone’s dream is to have money. The American Dream has become materialistic, where people seek to do minimal work, and possess many things. The Roaring Twenties brought a drastic change. In the roaring twenties most people were measured by their wealth, it was seen as a way to power and freedom. Wealth basically represented everything one could be, who they are, what lifestyle they lived, and what social class they were in. At that time wealth was what defined one, it was one’s identity in life. Gatsby’s parties are almost unbelievably luxurious: guests marvel over his Rolls-Royce, his swimming pool, his beach, crates of fresh oranges and lemons, buffet tents in the gardens overflowing with a feast, and a live orchestra playing under the stars. The American Dream was defined by being wealthy and having a high status.
To summarize, The Great Gatsby represents the American Dream in the roaring twenties very well. It was highly connected to money and a class system in addition to love, at least for some individuals.The American dream changes depending on one’s background experiences and beliefs which is represented by characters like Gatsby and Daisy; however, almost everyone in the 1920’s had the pleasurable dream of becoming something of themselves, and making money as a result. To achieve that, Daisy and Tom had to leave their sense of morality and true love behind. Gatsby, despite his wealth, could not achieve his desire for love, leading him to a tragic end. Additionally, comparing The Great Gatsby with earlier American novels, we can see that the American dream is not what it used to be, very few have the same determination that those of previous generations had, and because of this the desperate need for power and fame take over what it truly means to be successful.
“The tragic hero prefers death to prudence. The comedian prefers playing tricks to winning. Only the villain really plays to win”.
Mason Cooley
You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. In Stephen Crane’s realistic novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Maggie, the protagonist, died young and as a prostitute. She was born into a pit of poverty since her birth and became a puppet of opulence. The tragedy of Maggie is inseparable from her living environment, behind their tragic fate lies a hidden chaotic social environment and twisted moral values. Although feeling sympathy for Maggie can be justified, she cannot be seen as the tragic hero of the novel, because none of her actions have ever been heroic, and she does not have the characteristics of a tragic hero.
Maggie was born into a really bad environment. Within the first few chapters, there had been a violent conflict happening with “howls and curses, groans and shrieks, confusingly in chorus as if a battle were raging. With all was the crash of splintering furniture” (Crane 17). This was a routine in the Johnson’s household: alcoholic and violent parents and an ignorant brother who paid no attention to Maggie. The community around her was not supportive and constantly mocking her, so it is predictable that she grew up with no childhood memories that would inspire her to be more than what she was. Therefore, unlike it can usually be noticed from the tragic hero of a novel, Maggie was a shy girl that didn’t take pride in anything. Tragic heros are usually excessively proud and come from noble families. Maggie is the opposite of such a person as she never had anything in her life to be proud of.
The fact that Maggie’s adaption to Pete led to her tragic downfall, her prostitution. To her, Pete was a new spectacle that would enable her to enter a completely new world of wealth. Everything he did amazed Maggie, from the way “her heart warmed as she reflected upon his condescension” (Crane 34) to the plays he took her to that sparked a thought that maybe all the glorious drama could perhaps be “acquired by a girl who lived in a tenement house and worked in a shirt factory” (Crane 40). She started to build up this hope of a miracle that would eventually come to save her from poverty, and that miracle in her mind was Pete. However, because of her blind naivety to reality, her dependency on Pete led to her downfall instead. Different from how it is usually known about tragic heros, Maggie did not make any specific mistake leading to her downfall that she could have avoided. Her adaptation to Pete was more like a result of the life she was born into, so there is no Hamartia, which is defined as the tragic error of a tragic hero, in the story. Moreover, there are many more characteristics for a tragic hero that cannot be seen in Maggie.
Every tragic hero experiences a moment of anagnorisis. It is the moment of realization of their downfall. In the case of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, there cannot be clearly seen such a moment. One time when Maggie was sitting in a bar with Pete, Nellie, “the woman of brilliance and audacity” entered, and Pete had only eyes for her. He ignored Maggie, who got really upset about it. As Nellie left, “Maggie was dazed. She could dimly perceive that something stupendous had happened” (Crane 27). We can see that Maggie noticed that Pete ignores her, and that she was much more in love with him than he is; nevertheless, Maggie did not consider her dependency on him as a mistake which led to the downfall that she probably would not have considered as a downfall either. Maggie had never learned how to love someone or how to be loved. Her mom Mary is clearly the villain of Crane’s novel as she was a violent alcoholic. Maggie’s whole life was a mistake, and she lived too deep down in society to get even more down. She did not know how to value and love.
Maggie had never had anything in her life to be proud of. A tragic hero usually has a lot of hubris, an excessive pride. In contrast, Maggie lived a really prideless life. As she met Pete and spent more time with him at noble places that were clearly not familiar to her, her self confidence increased. Although she started feeling more value in her life, this cannot be considered as pride. What might seem like she is proud of herself for having such a good relationship with Pete is hope. Maggie only hoped for a future. One time when Maggie and Pete sat in a hall drinking beer, we can see that hope for a better life: “She imagined a future, rose-tinted, because of its distance from all that she previously had experienced” (Crane 23). Maggie indeed felt positive and encouraging emotions towards Pete, but pride is a feeling that she could never have.
After their moment of anagnorisis, tragic heros typically die for the good, and their death can be seen as salvation from their guilt and shame. As Maggie did not have such a moment where she realized her downfall, her tragic death was only a predictable result of the life she was born into. She became “a girl of the painted cohorts of the city” (Crane 32), and one day, she died, probably because of murder. Maggie did not wait for her death or saw it as something necessary to get rid of any feelings.
While comparing Maggie’s life to the typical characteristics of a tragic hero which can be seen in many other novels, those cannot be exactly found in Crane’s realistic novel. Maggie did not really have one tragic downfall and therefore did not make a mistake that led to it (hamartia), or had a moment where she realized her downfall. In addition, she was not excessively proud of herself in any way, and her early death was only an unavoidable result of the situation she was born into. To summarize, Maggie has always been a Girl of The Streets living in the lowest level of society, without any hope for change. Even though her life was definitely tragic, she was not a hero.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
I Have a Dream, Too, or rather many dreams.
I have a dream that one day we will all be equal. There will be one day where everyone has the same rights. There will be one day where a woman has the chance to be a preacher. There will be one day on which every child has the same educational opportunities. No child will have to sweat in a crowded factory only to get as much money as it needs to survive. We will all drink from the same source of freedom, justice, and righteousness. This drink will give us power, it will create a big community.
I hope that one day women won’t be underestimated or considered objects, that they will be able to walk alone at night without fearing to be assaulted. No one, no woman or man, in our world should experience domestic violence. We will live in a world where everyone can live their life without being assaulted or beaten by their partner. The world of ablution and raping will lay way behind us on a lonley, non-existant island, and the waves surrounding it will be to high to get there.
I dream that one day racism will be eliminated, that Asian people won’t be bound to the idea of poor or knockoff, that black people won’t be killed in the middle of the streets because the police thought that they were a danger to society. I would like to see a day when nobody anywhere is harmed emotionally or physically by racism, violence, or drugs. I want to see a day when nobody comes running to me because somebody or something has hurt them and ruined their day. I will see that day. I will see that day where we all have planted a tree of peace, and its elegant branches will cover our houses, mine and yours.
I have so many dreams.
I believe that one day people won’t be abandoned by their own families and friends because of their sexuality or way of thinking.
I hope that one day men openly expressing their feelings won’t be considered weak.
I dream that one day everyone will be able to practice their own religion without being called terrorists or being obligated to go against their own beliefs.
I believe that every child in the world will be able to live their lives peacefully, not being victims of abuse by their own parents or other family members.
I hope that one day pollution will only be a memory from a distant past, that every animal will be safe and sound. We will not hold chickens in a cage smaller than the fridge we store its body in after killing it. We will give animals the life they deserve without killing and eating them.
I have a dream that one day all of my wishes will come true and I will be able to live my best life without regretting anything.
“Go back to your seats, please. Come one. You can giggle right after this class. It is not funny anymore. I want to start with a new lesson but if you guys don’t listen……Come one. Please. Please. Just for now, only for this class right now. Would you please try to focus for like twenty minutes? Please. How about you focus now for a few minutes, and I will let you out a few minutes earlier today.
The horrifying fact that my teacher stayed so friendly and begged us to be quiet makes my cup of shame overflowing today. She was only twenty-five years old, young and open-minded, with a lack of experiences and self-confidence, unfortunately. And we, my friends and I, we were some savage seventh graders who had everything one their mind but school. I wouldn’t describe me as a bully at this time, but having the control over a teacher made my body release more endorphins than it does on Christmas.
We just did not stop laughing and disrespecting our teacher. She was actually a really nice person who just tried to teach us the French Revolution. But we were stuck, stuck in our own ridiculous minds. I now feel embarrassed when I think about it. I now want to dig a deep hole, jump into it, and never come back.
After a while and myriad but unsuccessful tries to calm her herd of frisking students down, my history teacher gave up. She sweated out her last poor drop of confidence and submitted herself to her students. Her face turned beet-red, and she started crying. Most of us did not even notice that, because we were minding our own stupid businesses. As soon as we suddenly all noticed her sitting desperately in the corner of the classroom, holding her head with her hands, we had another, fresh reason to laugh. I remember me growling out of laughter, and I remember that one guy snorting: “Oh my God look at Mrs. Cooper, can someone film that please? Hahaha”.
After a while, my teacher was still crying, she ran out of the classroom and shut the door behind herself. We students did not care and did not worry about anything at all. We continued doing what we did before: showing ourselves from our worst side. After a little while, I was laying on the floor and giggled so hard, the door got opened again. My teacher came in, but there was someone else next to her: The principal. Having my hands on the ground, I looked up with tamed lips. My skin bristled, my nostrils were breathing out a heavy air of shame and guilt. The entire herd of disoriented students suddenly was quiet. The principal looked at our cold muzzles and then pointed at my history teacher. “I can’t believe you guys are students of my school”. My dewlap became sore, I could barely breathe. The principal got really mad at and held a speech about respect in front of us. After that, I felt guilty. I stood up on my two feet and left the classroom, full of shame. I went home and thought about that class. Why did I act like this? I felt so bad, but I knew that my teacher felt worse.
The next day, I was ready for my history class, and we were all ready to apologize and show ourselves from our best side, another teacher, not Mrs. Cooper, entered the room and started talking: “You look more polite than I thought”, the old man said. He told us that he was our new history teacher, and that we would jump right into our next topic. When one boy in my class asked him what happened to our old teacher he answered in a blaming voice: “Well, sometimes we are not at the right place at the right time. Not everyone is meant to be a farmer”. I realized that she probably left my school just because we were so disrespectful before. I can imagine how she must have felt. My action made her cry, leave the classroom, and then even the school. A group of seventh-graders hurt her heart with their muddy paws.
“Shame is a soul eating emotion”
Unknown
One year later, I still remembered that day of shame as it had happened the day before, one of my friends from another school told me about how strict and cold-blooded her history teacher was. Her teacher turned out to be Mrs. Cooper, my old history teacher that I made an object of scorn one year before. I figured out that she indeed switched her working place because of what we did to her. In fact, it turned out that she became really severe. I knew that we changed her whole personality as a teacher. The impact that we had on her was bigger than I thought. She lost all of her confidence and pride as a person. She became as cruel as we were on that day. I still feel guilty when I think about her. I am full of shame.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne focuses on Hester Prynne, who wears the scarlet letter on her breast, representing her sin. She had a child after committing adultery. Hester named her child Pearl. Some would say that Pearl was ruining Hester’s life, that she was affecting her so much, emotionally and socially, she couldn’t have been anything good for her mother. Others would say the opposite, Pearl is the only thing Hester has left, she couldn’t possibly be something bad for her mother, despite constantly reminding her of her sin. In fact, Pearl is both a blessing and a curse for her mother. Hester’s biggest and only treasure is Pearl. She is what keeps Hester going every day and keeps her from sinning, but Pearl also hurts her mother; she is a constant reminder of her sin, of how she has to live with that for the rest of her life, and it’s like Pearl knows that. The Puritans say Pearl is an imp, even Hester questions if her daughter is human, and Pearl’s behavior just gives the townspeople more reason to believe that.
When Pearl was born, Hester had a new reason to live, to not give up on her life. She was a mother now, she had the responsibility to take care of her child. God had blessed her with Pearl and she had come with a great price: “But she named the infant ‘Pearl,’ as being of great price, –purchased with all she had,–her mother’s only treasure! How strange, indeed! Man had marked this woman’s sin by a scarlet letter, which had such potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were sinful like herself” (Hawthorne 80). Pearl saved Hester, after all Hester had been through no one could help her, no one could save her, not after her sin, not after the ignominy she had to go through, that she still went through. Pearl was her only treasure. She was born from sin, a sin that ruined Hester’s life, a sin that marked Hester for the rest of her days. Pearl was of great price because of that, the price Hester had to pay for her sin. She was rewarded with Pearl. Pearl kept Hester in God’s path, as a constant reminder of what she had done, Hester would avoid sinning again.
Hester wouldn’t sin anymore, but her daughter was like a being that came from hell, an imp in the Puritan’s society’s eyes. As a result of Hester’s sin, Pearl would always bring her pain, constantly pointing at the scarlet letter in Hester’s chest: “‘Mother,’ cried she, ‘I see you here. Look! Look!’ Hester looked, by way of humoring the child; and she saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it. Pearl pointed upward, also, at a similar picture in the head-piece; smiling at her mother, with the elfish intelligence that was so familiar an expression on her small physiognomy” (Hawthorne 95). Hester’s sin brought her so much pain, it was the only thing she was seen for, the only thing she was seen as. Hester’s sin represented her. The community used Hester as the embodiment of sin. Everyone pointed at her when she passed because of the letter that rested on her breast. It was as if she was just the background to her letter, her sin. Pearl would often point at it. She knew what it did to her mother, and she would still point it out, Pearl even decorated the letter with things she would find, like moss, weeds, and plants. She enjoyed tormenting Hester using the letter. Pearl cursed Hester as she was the product of her sin, she torments her about it, smiling when she sees her mother’s expression of pain, she brought Hester so much trouble and pain, with others and herself.
Pearl’s behavior and attitude brought trouble to Hester, but it also protected her. Pearl would defend her from others but she also would do so many things that affected Hester negatively. The Puritan children, if it weren’t for Pearl, they would have bullied Hester and bring her more ignominy than she already had: “‘Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!’ But Pearl, who was a dauntless child, after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush at the knot of her enemies, and put them all to flight” (Hawthorne 92). Pearl defended Hester from others, children or adults, she defended her mother with all she had. She protected her and made sure she was safe. Without Pearl, Hester would’ve probably suffered worse after the sin than she committed. In a way, Pearl was Hester’s savior. But even saviors have flaws that can affect others, and Pearl had many of them. An example could be when Hester was about to lose Pearl, the only thing Pearl had to do was answer correctly, she knew the answer to the Minister’s question and still she got it wrong on purpose:
Canst thou tell me, my child, who made thee?” Now Pearl knew well enough who made her; for Hester Prynne, the daughter of a pious home, very soon after her talk with the child about her Heavenly Father, had begun to inform her of those truths which the human spirit, at whatever stage of immaturity, imbibes with such eager interest… But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss. After putting her finger in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson’s question, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses, that grew by the prison-door. (Hawthorne 100)
Even if Pearl knew the answer to the question, even if she understood that her mother would get in trouble if she answered wrong, even if they would take her away from Hester, she still did whatever she wanted and answered as she saw fit. As much as Pearl helps her mother, she also gets her in trouble. She is too smart, some could even say she figured out who her father was at the age of three. Her attitude towards Dimmesdale could give away that he is the father, the other sinner. Pearl is affectionate towards him, like a daughter with her parent would be. It would bring trouble, to both Dimmesdale and Hester, if someone were to find out that the Minister was Pearl’s father, but she still does what she wants, not caring about the consequences.
No one is purely good or completely evil, and Pearl isn’t either, because, after all, Hester wouldn’t survive without her.
In conclusion, Pearl is both good and bad for her mother; she has helped Hester so much, but she has also brought her so much pain and trouble. She is an intelligent child who does whatever she pleases. Pearl is an important and vital part of Hester’s life, she has kept her from sinning, protects her, and gives her a reason to keep going, but to pay the price of that, Hester also has to deal with the pain her child brings her. Not everything is black and white, there are greys in between that can make a big difference. No one is purely good or completely evil, and Pearl isn’t either, because, after all, Hester wouldn’t survive without her. Even if she’s a result of a sin that brings Hester so much pain, even if she is an imp and likes to see others in pain, even if she brings her mother trouble, Hester still needs her.
Humans often confuse justice with vengeance, and Roger Chillingworth, the antagonist from the novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is one of them. Most call him a villain, but he was just a hurt man trying to seek for something to hold on to after his wife cheated on him. He set his goal on finding Hester’s lover and finish him off, after all, they had both suffered because of him. This unknown man, to all but Hester, was his wife’s lover; they had a child together, and he never dared to show his face, not until his final moments. Arthur Dimmesdale never admitted his sin publicly and let Hester suffer by herself, he never went through the ignominy she did. So it was Roger Chillingworth’s job to avenge himself and Hester, get justice for them both, but he confused justice for revenge. A fair justice would have been to confess his true identity as Hester’s husband and let fate do the rest; instead, he chose to keep his identity a secret and torture Dimmesdale until it was all that mattered to him and was consumed by his own punishments.
In the start of the novel, the first time Chillingworth appears is when Hester is being publicly shamed for her sin. Her husband was believed to be dead, she was carrying a baby in her arms, and while her lover would not reveal himself–and neither would she say his name–she saw the man that was supposedly dead, Roger Chillingworth, her ex-husband: “At his arrival in the market-place, and some time before she saw him, the stranger had bent his eyes on Hester Prynne” (Hawthorne 55). Having been gone for, at least, more than a year, Chillingworth comes back to his wife, just to find her holding the baby of another man in her arms. Said man remained unpunished for his crime however. This made Chillingworth not want to harm Hester or Pearl, at least not directly, but the man his wife had once been with. Hester, who was still unwilling to reveal her lover’s identity, promised to keep Chillingworth’s identity a secret, too. After making that promise she asks Chillingworth: “‘Art thou like the Black Man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?’ ‘Not thy soul,’ he answered, with another smile. ‘No, not thine!’” (Hawthorne 69). This is where Chillingworth’s revenge starts. He is keen on finding his ex-wife’s lover to torture him for what he did to him. Hester is scared that he will drag her and her already blackened soul with him, scared that she will have to suffer more for this sin. Chillingworth also states that this man’s life would be his, and only his, to deal with: “‘Recognize me not, by word, by sign, by look! Breathe not the secret, above all, to the man thou wottest of. Shouldst thou fail me in this, beware! His fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands. Beware!’” (Hawthorne 69). All that is of Hester’s lover will be his. No matter what it takes, Chillingworth will find this man and torture him until his last breath, and Hester, nor anyone else, can stop him. He will find him, and when he does all of his will be Chillingworth’s to destroy.
So to speak, justice does not exist, not to everyone and it is not a fair thing either, but if justice isn’t fair, then what is?
Skipping a few years after Hester’s ignominy, his story continues. Chillingworth still hasn’t found her ex-wife’s lover; nonetheless, is still motivated to discover the sinner. His suspicion rises towards an important figure in the Puritan society, the clergyman and minister: Arthur Dimmesdale. Chillingworth befriends him and promises him to heal him of his illness, as he was a physician. To find a cure for Dimmesdale, they must both live together under the same roof, that was his excuse. Here is when his revenge finally begins taking action. He tortures Dimmesdale psychologically, constantly asking him questions about his mysterious affliction and reminding him of what he, most probably, did: “‘Then why not reveal them here?’ asked Roger Chillingworth, glancing quietly aside at the minister. ‘Why should not the guilty ones sooner avail themselves of this unutterable solace?’” (Hawthorne 119). Questions like these, which Chillingworth constantly asked his patient, would make Dimmesdale feel guilty. His already all-consuming guilt, that was transforming Dimmesdale to nothing but a shell of a man, would grow more and more as time went, leaving him with no salvation. Dimmesdale’s body language to these questions, like how he would be “Griping hard at his breast, as if afflicted with an importunate throb of pain” gave away the guilt he felt as a sinner. Dimmesdale, a man that was so untrusting and cautious of everyone surrounding him, so much that he couldn’t see his biggest threat before his eyes: old Roger Chillingworth.
Compared to his kindness at the townspeople at his arrival his whole persona changed drastically. The old man’s once calm and relaxed face only showed his malice through his features. The person the townspeople believed was their savior, Chillingworth, sent from above to help them, started to look more and more corrupt. They believed he was taken by the Black Man, or that he was some reincarnation of evil that was living with their minister. The community speculated that Dimmesdale’s bad health was worsening because of Chillingworth, and they weren’t wrong. The more time they spent together, the more Chillingworth manipulated Dimmesdale: “So Roger Chillingworth–the man of skill, the kind and friendly physician–strove to go deep into his patient’s bosom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing every thing with a cautious touch, like a treasure-seeker in a dark cavern” (Hawthorne 111). He did just that, digging and digging for knowledge of his ex-wife’s lover, torturing the clergyman and putting him through an insufferable misery, all to find out the letter A on his bosom when the minister was sleeping. This was the last confirmation he needed to know if Arthur Dimmesdale was truly Hester’s lover.
What happened next to this morally grey character is that he became so obsessed with his vengeance that whatever was left of him had disappeared. He started to torment both Hester and Dimmesdale with his presence. He followed them wherever they’d go, listening to their conversations, the few they had, plotting against them. After the two lovers not interacting with each other for seven long years, they had finally talked, but an uninvited guest was listening to their conversation: “All the time that he gazed upward to the zenith, he was, nevertheless, perfectly aware that little Pearl was pointing her finger towards old Roger Chillingworth, who stood at no great distance from the scaffold” (Hawthorne 141). The physician was unsatisfied with his revenge. Dimmesdale’s bad state was not enough. He needed to do more, and to do more he needed to know more. Even if he lived with the minister, Dimmesdale wouldn’t trust Chillingworth anymore. He hated the physician, but he couldn’t seem to get rid of him. The man appeared to know all of their plans and conversations with each other, he knew of their plan to escape to Europe and took matters into his hands: “‘That this physician here–Chillingworth, he calls himself–is minded to try my cabinfare with you? Ay, ay, you must have known it; for he tells me he is of your party, and a close friend to the gentleman you spoke of’” (Hawthorne 215). After talking with Hester on the beach, the conversation they had was about Hester revealing his identity to Dimmesdale. Chillingworth became eager to know more, he questioned if Hester had truly broken her promise and revealed his secret to the minister. It’s not known if Roger Chillingworth had followed the family in the forest and listened to their plans, or perhaps he had heard from somebody else from the ship, but he was going with them to Europe either way. They couldn’t escape him, and no matter where they’d go, Chillingworth believed he would find them. This impacted Chillingworth, too. His malice and dissatisfaction of his revenge eventually took a toll on him, making him care only for the two people who had, in a way, betrayed him, until he had nothing left, not even himself, to rely on.
After Dimmesdale’s death, the old man had nothing left. He had no friends, or colleagues, or family to care for him. His desperate but ironic attempt to save Dimmesdale from dying was useless, the only thing that was left of Roger Chillingworth was an empty shell of the man he used to be. “All his strength and energy-all his vital and intellectual force-seemed at once to desert him; insomuch that he positively withered up, shrivelled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun” (Hawthorne 238). Vanished from everyone else, Chillingworth was left to die a year later after Dimmesdale, his revenge unfinished. The clergyman’s death took all that was left of Chillingworth with it, leaving him to rot and disappear a year later. Chillingworth’s character could be an example of what revenge does to one and how it’s linked to justice. What he thought was fair and just turned out to be just as harmful for him.
Roger Chillingworth, a misunderstood character, was so deep in his revenge that he ended up destroying both Dimmesdale and himself. His story can be interpreted as what happens when justice is confused with vengeance, one is fair and the other is pure evil and pay-back. Humans confuse these two things because it is thought that it’s only fair to get back at someone who hurt them in any way, an eye per eye situation. So to speak, justice does not exist, not to everyone and it is not a fair thing either, but if justice isn’t fair, then what is? The answer is nothing, because to do what’s just people must hurt others in the way, and since justice comes with fairness then it is not fair either, so what’s left is what is seen as revenge. Is it really a bad thing to give the same to someone who harmed you? Justice is not fair a lot of the time, but if it is not fair then it’s called revenge. This is what happened to Chillingworth, doing what he thought was just destroying himself, too. He had nothing else after Dimmesdale died, because the revenge he had planned for Arthur was the only thing he had left when the minister was alive. He was left to die with nothing but himself, not even his incomplete revenge.
Morals, the line that is thought to divide wrong and right, what’s respectable and what’s inconsiderate, a line that, without, we couldn’t live as a society. But it’s also the thing that makes most look at the world in black and white. Looking back at the past and what humans are capable of, we definitely need morals. We are born with a sense of them and learn their significance as we grow up, but why are they important? A simple answer to that question would be that we would live in chaos without them, a complete catastrophe which can only lead to millions of deaths. Our morals and other human emotions, like empathy, keep that from happening. But morals are a double edged sword, that, like everything else, taken to an extent turns into a harmful thing, the Puritans are a good example of this. They had good intentions, but they took them to a point that, it would seem, only the perfect mold of a person was worthy of living. One mistake was all it took to get someone killed, and maybe not even a mistake but a lie that nobody could go up against; for defending themselves against the court or keeping quiet had the same fate. Society has far progressed since then, but is it really any better when having an opinion different from others, an opinion that could be considered polemical, can ruin someone? In the end, what’s better: a society oppressed by the government and people in power where no one can make a mistake or defend themselves; or one with so much ‘individualism’ that oppresses those who are seen as controversial to the majority just because of stigma?
As complex as morality is, people seem to think they understand it. The truth is they didn’t and they still don’t. A few hundred years ago America’s society had a government that judged others for the smallest mistake. Some books like The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible are proof that, no matter innocent or guilty, someone could meet their end any day. No one could go against the court and be seen as innocent: “But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between” (Miller 87). No matter the argument or proof John Proctor had, the court would not budge. They would not listen to him. No evidence can prove his innocence since it was considered going against the court, and as Danforth said “No uncorrupted man shall fear this court” (Miller 91). They believed that no one should be scared of them if they were truly innocent, but they didn’t realize the fear they inflicted in the townspeople. Everyone was afraid of the court because once they were accused there was no way out of it, except for lying and admitting to their supposed crime. These examples are from the play written by Arthur Miller The Crucible. It is based on a true story that happened in 1692 in the Salem witch trials. Miller tells the story of how a seemingly innocent girl blames others for witchcraft and how these people were affected by being accused of a crime that was not theirs. Abbey, the antagonist of this story, craved power and when she got it she abused that position for as long as she could, bringing doom to the townspeople. No matter what the accused would say against her, she remained in power and was believed to be innocent in the eyes of the court. Because no one would question the accuser in court, no one would speak up and dismantle the truth. Proctor tries to prove his innocence by doubting Abbey, and, therefore, the court: “Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem— vengeance is walking Salem” (Miller 73). From the moment he and his wife were declared witches Proctor tried to prove the court wrong, but he would not lie, he wouldn’t admit a lie for the court and shame his name, he refused to confess to witchcraft when he did not commit it. This brought him to his honorable death, where he ended up forgiving himself for a crime he truly committed, adultery.
The way adultery was seen, and its punishment, because of religious morals brings The Scarlet Letter. A novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that talks about a woman, Hester, and her sin, adultery. Hester’s character was wrongly judged. Her husband was believed to be dead, but society still punished her for finding a new lover. Nobody knew of Chillingworth’s true identity. The person believed to be an ex-captured physician was Hester’s ex-husband. Hester was forced to wear a letter ‘A’ on her bosom and suffer her ignominy because of it. Is it wrong that she found love after a loveless marriage? Nobody seemed to consider how unhappy she was with Prynne, or Chillingworth, the only thing they thought was right was to bring her sin to the light and shame her for the rest of her life: “’But she,-the naughty baggage,-little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown! Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or such like heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!’” (Hawthorne 46). This was one of the few opinions people had on Hester not being executed. Nobody cared about her suffering, they cared about her punishment, and how the court was being too merciful with her. Hester never covered the letter, she wore it out for everyone to see it, to see her guilt and sin.
These two books are an example of the Puritan society and how terrible it could be. It was full of judgemental people who only cared about religion, and while a lot of them shaped America to what it is today, they used religion as an excuse to punish in the name of God whoever they wanted.
An example of how Puritans shaped America would be how the idea of a ‘salvation’ that they had has stuck through Americans after all these years: “The researchers found that the Americans –but not the Canadians– solved more anagrams with salvation on the mind. They worked harder” (Huston). Thinking that there is something out there to save us and give us redemption, while motivating others to follow the same rules, is simply ridiculous. If someone took the time to think about it, religion is just something that keeps humans going, that gives them a reason, but it’s not necessarily true. Thinking that out in the whole universe exists a being beyond human comprehension that is watching over a society, that is, looking at the bigger picture, less than a grain of sand, is foolish. While people can believe in this, to use it as an excuse to be immoral and think it’s right is something only a human being could do. Belief in God and religion–while at first it was supposed to be something good that helped guide people to the consequently ‘right path’– became the opposite of what it was intended to be. People used, and still use, religion as an excuse to hate, kill, harm others, and a political tool for control. An outdated book thousands of years old has brought spite in society one-too-many times.
Moving on to three hundred years later, today’s society is not any better, and as individualist as it may seem, it’s not. Yes, we are more open minded and have more liberty to express ourselves, but what about deeds that are looked at as controversial? Just because something is polemical doesn’t mean it’s necessarily wrong. People criticize others for simply having different points of view than the majority. There’s a better definition of what’s wrong and what’s right, but for what is truly wrong no one moves a finger to change it. More people do something about opinions on the internet than about, for example, poverty. Morality is taken to an extent that it can hurt the other person. Society hides almost pushing someone towards committing suicide as holding them ‘accountable.’ Why not first hold accountable oneself before pushing it on others?
Thinking that there is something out there to save us and give us redemption is simply ridiculous.
The definition we have of good makes no exceptions. Today one can’t like somebody else’s art because of what the artist did in their life– an example could be Pablo Picasso’s art, famous for a reason, but someone can’t like the paintings without getting opinions about how they support abuse because Picasso used to abuse his wife– liking the products of others doesn’t mean agreeing with the actions they once took. On the internet, someone can hate on anyone else because of an old post they made when they were ten years old that, at the time, wasn’t considered ‘wrong’. It’s like we all should have the same opinions as the majority on everything or else who knows what they can do. It’s as David D. Hall said in “Peace, Love and Puritanism”: “In our society, liberty has become deeply problematic: more a matter of entitlement than of obligation to the whole” (Hall). The liberty which is granted to us now has become a problem, something being seen as bad could end a reputation in a matter of minutes. Taking morals to this extent is immoral and harmful, too, and humans can’t keep hiding it as ‘correcting’ someone else for having a different opinion. It is as Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his essay “Self-Reliance”: “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members” (Emerson). Society has always been, and will always be, immoral, just by seeing the way it works today and how it worked back then. The way the system works is to suppress others, whether the intention of it matters or not. The true minority is not taken into consideration when building society because humans don’t care for the people who are considered wrong, or bad, and don’t want to look at the situations more deeply than just the superficial. Nobody asked how someone repressed would be in the system, because repressed and controversial people are not supposed to exist in the small-minded person’s world who built this society: “Human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not supposed to exist! … They believe that a social system that has come out of some mathematical brain is going to organize all humanity at once and make it just and sinless in an instant, quicker than any living process!…The living soul demands life; the soul won’t obey the rules of mechanics” (Dostoyevsky 263). Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote this in his book Crime and Punishment This line, taken out of the book’s context, speaks for itself. The system that was created is a fraud. Humans are animals after all, and our instincts can be harmful to everyone around us. There’s always somebody who’s not going to be willing to follow our governments, and no sort of punishment can mend that part of the human brain and soul. No amount of punishment can make this world a just one, there have been many examples of it throughout history when humans have tried and there will continue to be more. Despite the time the book was written, the 19th century, it still applies to today, human behavior will never change, it remains the same and no quantity of rules can fix that.
Morality is a double edged sword because of all of this. Without it we commit atrocities that in the future are looked down upon as tragedies, but with too much of it our right to speak our minds slowly disappears. This is because of stigmas people have engraved in their minds and refuse to look at the other side of things. The boring world everyone looks at is in black and white colored glasses. Not a lot of people consider the many shades in between these two colors. By the time society becomes ideal and truly moral, the sun would have consumed the Earth and humanity would be, hopefully, dead. Because, after all, who are we to decide what’s wrong and right?
Pearl is a child who torments Hester everyday. She is an extremely intelligent child, and it is rumored that she is possessed by a demon. She can be seen like a demon to some eyes, but she has an angelic side on her. Is like she was born for the only purpose to help her mother. Pearl is described by the narrator to be a masterpiece created by God, an excellent piece of art. Pearl is too intelligent for a three years old kid, making even her own mother question her existence, yet by finally accepting her as a human and not possessed by a demon. Pearl is truly an angel, and Hester’s only treasure. Pearl even saves her mother from being involved with the devil, and gives Hester a purpose to keep living and enduring all the torment that she receives.
Hester treasures her only daughter like a true mother. All human beings when they are going through a difficult situation tend to cling to something, someone, or an idea. it can be religion, a loveable one, or something so special that makes that individual feel at ease. The only thing that Hester could cling onto is her daughter. From the moment that Pearl was born, she was Hester ‘s everything. A glimmer of hope in Hester’s life that had become amiss.“She named the infant ‘Pearl’, as being of great price-purchased with all she had-her mothers’ only treasure!” (Hawthrone 62). Hester had no purpose, but her Pearl gave her that. Her daughter was the motivation that she needed to keep her strength, the endurance for her tortuous daily life. Treasuring the little girl as her only light source from this whole dark valley, protecting it with her life. Pearl also takes care of Hester, she loves her mother like any child.
Hester is, in fact, the only person in Pearl’s life whom Pearl knows and trusts intimately because the two of them live in relative isolation from the rest of the community. Though Pearl is rather impish and not particularly obedient, she will not hesitate to save her mother. the child even has saved her mother from the devil claws, “Even thus early had the child saved her from satan’s,” (Hawthrone 77). The narrator notes that it seems Pearl has saved her mother from Satan’s temptations because when Mistress Hibbins invites Hester to a witches’ gathering she refuses. She refuses since she has to take care of her beloved daughter. If Pearl was not in Hester’s life it would be most likely she could not contain the temptation. Pearl is the only purpose to life for Hester, she has set herself the goal to dedicate her life to taking care of her daughter.
Pearl is the only thing that matters in Hester’s life. When Hester takes Pearl with her to Governor Bellingham’s to discuss the women’s custody of her child, she is adamant about keeping her daughter. After the little girl puts her mother in a bad situation with her response to Reverend Wilson’s question, Hester is forced to argue with everything she’s got: “‘God gave me the child!’ cried she. ‘He gave her, in requital of all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!’” (Hawthorne 64). Hester is desperate and begs the governor to keep Pearl. Her treasure is the only thing that the sinful woman cares about. She argues that God gave her this child as compensation for the fact that everything else in her life had been taken away from her because of her adultery and the punishment that she was given. With Pearl representing everything that Hester cares about, it is inevitable that she comes to be her happiness and joy. Making Hester and readers see the child as an Angel.
Even though Pearl showed signs to not be a normal child, she is definitely not evil. Even when the presence of Pearl is a constant reminder of Hester’s sin, she treasures her child. Pearl gave a purpose to Hester and a meaning to her life. The girl is her mother’s only occupation, she is the cause of Hester’s moods to be both good and bad. Also, she keeps this sinful woman focused on doing good for her daughter’s sake. Pearl has a positive impact on Hester’s life, bringing her joy and keeping her from collapsing under the weight of her sin, even though at times her childish ways can hurt her mother. Pearl is an Angel dispatched by the Lord to show mercy to a woman crying for help.
Chillingworth, the villain in the book of Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was more human than devil. The author did a good job with his description of Chillingworth as an evil character. It is true that he was a perverse man, but he had his reason to become mad. From his perspective, he returned after disappearing for one year, and what he last was expecting was his wife to be pregnant by another man. This drove him insane, with a desire for revenge. He did not become a villain out of nowhere, there are reasons for it, just be in his place. Being cheated on is not a pleasant feeling, and he drowned himself looking for revenge, it became his only life purpose. He had the opportunity to fulfill his goal and he took it, and he did not want a quick one, no, he wanted one that could satisfy him. He wanted his justice in his own way. Justice for his broken heart. Even if he had to fall in the depths of hell, or even though it was consuming him, he would do the impossible to fulfill it. Chillingworth tortured his wife and lover, even though he could have revealed his identity and fulfilled his aspirations quickly, he refused to do it because he wanted to have a perfect revenge.
Chillingworth’s first objective was not to make Hester life a hell because she was already living in one with her Letter, instead he wanted to make an inferno to her lover. Hester was abused, discriminated against, and hated by the whole town, just because of the scarlet letter. So it was not necessary to make more of a hell of her life; however, Chillingworth took a long time to find the lover, but when he did, and found out it was Dimmesdale, his friend, he jumped and danced with excitement; “But with what a wild look of wonder, joy, and horror! With what a ghastly rapture, as it were, too mighty to be expressed only by the eye and features, and therefore bursting forth through the whole ugliness of his figure, and making itself even riotously manifest by the extravagant gestures with which he threw up his arms towards the ceiling, and stamped his foot upon the floor!” (Hawthorne 92). Chillingworth could have exposed Dimmesdale’s secret, but if he did that, he would not have gotten the pleasure out of screwing with Dimmesdale’s mind. Chillingworth seems to take more of a psychological approach to mess with Dimmesdale’s mind. This approach was his type of revenge and it was effective. Dimmesdale was torturing himself physically and mentaly because of guilt, and Chillingworth got joy from seeing this. It is true that Cillingworth did something wicked, but he is not to blame. It is part of human nature to take advantage of someone who did something terrible to him. For example, people would respond if someone pushed him, either by returning the push or saying something about it. It is a natural instinct. Roger Chillingworth was with the Native Americans for a year and the only reason he wanted to go to Boston was to find his wife. Then he was heartbroken after knowing her loveable one cheated on him with another guy. Surging to a new purpose, to find his own justice and vengeance.
Hawthorne gives the reader an example of the thought process behind vengeance of Chillingworth and what he thought was justice. Chillingworth wants the adulterer to be punished for their sins, he will not let even the heaven to deal with Dimmesdale with their own method of retribution. He is the judge, and he is going to punish Dimmesdale in the way that he thinks is fair. He imagined his revenge every single day until he planned the perfect vengeance; “which led him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy” (Hawthorne 131). Roger Chillingworth is the manager of his vengeance, and he wants to find retribution for his hollow soul. A love that was not correspondent. A beautiful slower that was taken from his hands, and he wants to torture the guilty. The author makes Chillingworth the embodiment of obsession of vengeance. He was obsessed more and more until his soul was on fire. Fueled by his own obsession, corrupting his heart into a dark and cold one. He seeks justice so much that drives him mad. He is a man that lost everything and he clung in anything he could, and it was vengeance. Letting evil corrupt his soul.
Roger calls himself an evil being to Hester, he doesn’t care anymore if he loses his humanity. He could even sign a pact with the devil to accomplish his vengeance even if he needs to sell his soul. He blames her for this transformation “‘And what am I now?’ demanded he, looking into her face, and permitting the whole evil within him to be written on his features. ‘I have already told thee what I am! A fiend! Who made me so?’ (Hawthorne 116). He was once a happy man, but now is inexistent. The Devil was only seen in his eyes and he did not care about it anymore. His soul turned black. His being consumed by his own obsesion, and he is letting it. Chillingworth’s purpose is his revenge and it seemed that he would use any means necessary, but then, he did not. When he could stop Hester and to confess the truth he did not. He did anything to make Chillingworth do his speech and die miserably. Hester went to him saying that she wants to stop her lover’s hell, insinuating that she will tell the truth to him, he knew and it looked like he did not care. Dimmsdale died happy, feeling relief of telling the truth, while Chillingworth died with agony because he did not have his perfect revenge. He became unhappy thanks to Hester, and died unhappy. He deserved better but he did not. He died lonely and in pain.
Roger Chillingworth was a despicable man, but he had good reasons for being one. The author made him the incarnation of obsession and that obsession led him to desperation. A path of fire that darken his soul. He was a villain with reasons, he wanted to feel his lost joy from the man who took it from him. He was a human even though he considered himself as a devil being. A man looking for his own justice. Willing to cross the path through hell to accomplish his obsessions. Even if it will cost his soul. Chillingworth did what almost anyone would do. It is true that he was wicked, but Hester made the man that was in the story. He was happy before he knew about the betrayal of her wife. He was destroyed, and he was desperately looking for a new purpose-revenge.
