The Scarlet Letter, Ethan Frome and The Crucible
In the literary works The Crucible by Arthur Miller, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton there are many parallel characters. In all of these works the main characters are driven by love, hate and vengeance. Although initially victims themselves Abigail Williams, Zeena Pierce, and Robert Chillingworth become victimizers due to their manipulative and vengeful natures, which ultimately leads to their downfalls. Zeena, Chillingworth and Abigail are originally victims after being deceived by their spouses and lovers. In The Crucible Abigail engages in an affair with John Proctor while his sick wife recovers from childbirth. Although John did not intentionally mislead Abigail, she assumes that “a promise was made” to her during their affair (Miller 59). Because John is merely frustrated with his wife’s coldness, his affair with Abigail meant little more to him than sexual satisfaction and attention. However, Abigail forms an emotional attachment to John and thinks more of their relationship than he does. Because Abigail misinterprets John’s intentions, she is left feeling as though John had not fulfilled his promises to her. Unlike Abigail, Zeena and Chillingworth are betrayed by their adulterou . . .
Because of their selfish intentions to hurt others in order to achieve their goals Zeena, Chillingworth and Abigail, not only displayed how truly evil they were, but their actions resulted in their own downfalls as well. Because she has no remorse for taking the lives of so many people, she demonstrates how evil she truly is. After being victimized Zeena, Ethan, and Chillingworth decided to punish those that they felt had done them an injustice. After Dimmesdale confessed his sin, Chillingworth no longer had any reason to live and died soon after, showing that his evil actions ultimately caused his downfall as well. Abigail was by far the most manipulative and evil of the three characters. After giving Ethan companionship and hopes for a bright future in a new town, she quickly takes them away when she exaggerates her “illnesses” and chooses to remain in Starkfield. Although Zeena, Chillingworth and Abigail were victims themselves, their actions were driven by hate unlike the love driven actions of their victims. Despite Zeena, Chillingworth, and Abigail’s attempts to punish those who had wronged them, their quest for revenge eventually leads to their demise. This decision shows her selfish and manipulative natures, and explains Ethan’s attitude towards her. Because Chillingworth “made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge” his strength and vitality left when Dimmesdale died. When Chillingworth arrives at his home in Boston he finds his wife with an illegitimate child. Ethan and Zeena married out of convenience rather than love, but her health soon deteriorated because she had spent her time nursing Ethan’s mother. Instead of killing Dimmesdale in order to avenge his destroyed marriage, Chillingworth chooses to make him suffer. She begins to think that John was “singing secret hallelujahs” that his wife would die because she thought that John returned her infatuation.
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Acceptance Essays
