The Red Mark in The Scarlet Letter
Who can honestly say that they do not bear a red mark of their own? Some of ours have a deeper tint of crimson than others. However, many of us love to hide our scarlet letter under our clothing just like Dimmesdale. Instead, we take pleasure in finding and criticizing other people's letter. Sometimes we often compare our red marks to others and convince ourselves that our letter is really not that red. Nevertheless, all of us bear a scarlet letter regardless of how scarlet it is. As a result, we should refrain from mocking others marks and reflect on our own marks. No matter how hard we try, the letter will remain there. The truth is that this mark that we all bear is a sign of our weakness as human beings. Hester had more than enough time to reflect over her mishap because she had to wear her letter where everyone can see it. Besides being forced to wear it, the fact that "she rejected [what she did] as a sin," made it easier for her to wear the letter (74). Hawthorne even refers to her as a "martyr," one again showing how much better of a person she is for accepting her transgression (75). How much better are the ones who are mocking her? This kind of reminded me of the story in the bible about the
woman who had committed adultery. When she was brought to Jesus to be condemned, he simply asked anyone who has not sinned to throw the first stone. Unfortunately, they had all sinned so they left. Likewise, every member of that town has at least one of their own stigma that deserves as much scorn as Hester is getting. However, would it not feel better to scorn than to be scorned? But sometimes our wrongdoings burn us so bad that we have to let it go, and one way to let it go is to expose it. Dimmesdale's sin had burnt his scarlet 'A' into him; it was eating him up so quickly that he had to bring his calamity to the table. Upon the revelation of his sin of adultery, Dimmesdale died. However, Pearl finally accepted him before he passed away. The Christian-oriented critics might say that Dimmesdale was forgiven because Pearl kissed him. This will make sense if we relate Pearl to Jesus. As a child, Pearl still possess that innocence that Jesus possessed. In addition, both children where not seeds of married, and up till Dimmesdale's confession, it was uncertain who their father's were. However, there is one thing man enjoys more than seeing his fellow human being suffer; this is known to us as revenge. Chillingworth can be viewed as the d
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Approximate Word count = 849
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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