The Scarlet Letter vs The Crusible

             When the topic of a Puritanical society is brought up, most people think of a rigorous, conservative, highly devout society. While this may have usually been the case, this was not always so. The Puritan society was also known not to act out of brotherly, "Christian love", but to cruelly lash out on those who sinned or were deemed unfit for society. Two works of literature that display both aspects of this society very accurately are The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The Scarlet Letter displays a society that treats two people very differently who commit the sin of adultery together. The woman, Hester Prynne, admits her sin, is forced to always wear a scarlet letter "A" on her bosom, and is ostracized from society. The man, Reverend Dimmesdale, who hides his sin from the world, is almost worshipped by the townspeople, but is filled with the dishonor of his action. Hawthorne illustrates how insensitive a Puritan society can be to those who admit their sinful actions.
             The Crucible is a play that reveals the story of the famous witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts. In the story, Abigail Williams, the orphaned niece of the town¹s minister, Reverend Parris, is the main person who accuses people of sending their spirits on her and the other girls. What starts as children dancing in the woods leads to the accusation and execution of many innocent people for witchcraft. The two works of literature, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter have very similar qualities, including setting, difference, and general aspects of the characters, while there are also specific parallels between characters, such as Abigail and Hester, and Parris and Dimmesdale.
             The settings in both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible are similar in many ways. The Scarlet Letter takes place around the 1640s, as The Crucible occurs in 1692. The time period is very important in both pieces, because it is a time o...

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The Scarlet Letter vs The Crusible. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 12:18, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/54092.html