Final Sin Essay

Dave Oreste
AP English 11- Mr. George
February 26, 2009
Final Sin Essay
Road to Redemption
If man only gets one life to live, why should he care about his sin? Sin is only an action that gives life more pleasure. Man should be living life to the fullest and treat each day as an adventure. Why should others care for your sin, what’s done is done? Why should they care, for it was your action not theirs. Since God gave us life, he has already pre-destined all the sins we will commit and all the temptations we may fall into. Why should we even bother repenting if God knows we may do it again? In that question lies the answer: God gave us life to be born into his image. Life is a privilege, not a right. God brought us into this world to live life to the fullest under his laws of morality. In the novels, The Scarlet Letter and The Picture of Dorian Gray plus in the play “The Crucible”, we have learned that if we do not acknowledge our sins, and ignore them without any sort of repentance, we will be shunned away from the kingdom of heaven for eternity.
From “The Crucible” both John Proctor and Abigail Williams have both sinned together in the act of adultery. These two are perfect examples to show the different types of ways to deal with your sin. Abigail Williams does not seem to care about her sin thinking it will not harm her. She does not deal with her sin privately or publicly. In fact she does not deal with her sin at all. She is a sinner who has yet to acknowledge her sin, or even think about redemption. She instead manipulates people to force them on her side. With Abigail you are either with her or against her. If you’re against her then she will make sure you have been removed from the village. It seems that even though she was the worst sinner in “The Crucible”, she would get off the hook scot free. But what she did not realize is that if you do not seek redemption for your sin, you will not see God in the mortal world. She will never hope to see God in the next world.Abigail soon became nothing more than a degrading prostitute who will never see God for all eternity. She chose to not grapple with her sin at all, unlike her adulteress partner.
John Proctor chose to deal with his sins privately. The reasoning behind his choice of bearing his sins privately is because his village “had no ritual for the washing away of sins” (Miller 20). Since there was no way the village as a whole could absolve his sins; so he concluded his salvation would have to come from elsewhere and from other people. Proctor’s choice of bearing his sins privately forced him to keep it from the village, but not from his wife as he still valued the sanctity of his marriage. He confides in Mrs. Proctor about his actions and proves his honesty to her. But the true reason is that he is turning to his wife to forgive him and absolve his sins. Therefore he needs to find another path towards redemption. Proctor’s sin will now continue to cause him great turmoil. Since his wife acts cold towards him, he feels as if he has not been forgiven.
Even though Proctor wants to tell the villagers that Abigail is a liar he wants to protect his own reputation of being an honest man. If he tells the villagers about Abigail’s lies, she would then tell the public about their adulteress acts, because of this Proctor faces an internal conflict. Proctor reveals his sin in front of the council, because he knows that Abigail is minx. And he asks the court, “God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore’s vengeance, and you must see it” (110). Meaning that he has finally realized he has been looking for redemption from flawed humans and if they can’t see Abigail for what she is they can’t judge him.
It is difficult to confess one’s sin but the more you confess the better you can recover from it. By publicly revealing his sin, Proctor realized that God is the ultimate and final judge: “I can. And there is your first marvel, that I can” (144). Proctor realizes that even though his village may not have any rituals to wash his sins, but there lies a ritual with God. He accepts this flaw and forgives himself. Which gives him the fortitude to receive his final redemption.
Abigail sin affected her life in more than she thinks. Even though she was the worst sinner she was getting off scot free, but in the end she became a prostitute. Proctor may have died even though he revealed his sins both privately and publicly, but he got an even greater accomplishment. He dealt with his sin and it was his priority to find some sort of redemption. What is important is that we have got to acknowledge that we have sinned. By doing this your sin can never make you weal, you can only grow stronger because of it.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, there is also a theme of adultery as well. Hester Prynne was a beautiful seamstress who had seeming “lost’ her husband. Arther Dimmesdale was a young, well respected priest of the people. To them Dimmesdale looked as if he was a representation of God; meaning he should be infallible since he is representing the almighty father. In this novel, they both have sinned in the act of adultery. Both characters have a different ways on how they deal with their sin.
Living in this theocratic town, Hester will be punished for her sin. Since she cannot hide the fact that she gave birth to Pearl outside of marriage, she is branded with the title of adultress. With this she openly bears her sin publicly because she feels she has no need to hide it or her Pearl. She decorated her Scarlet Letter and made it gorgeous and placed it on her bosom. So that whenever anyone saw her that bright red “A” would be the first thing they see. To the villagers, “It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of ordinary relations with humility, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (Hawthorne 51). The town would do nothing but gossip about her because no other sinner has shown their Scarlet Letter with such fruition. That they there not go close to her. But Hester has come out proud and beautiful with her sin, as opposed to being grim and lifeless. She sought out to be a “living sermon against sin” (59). And by bearing her sin publicly she has grown stronger because of it. With her strength Hester declined taking off her Scarlet Letter, instead of a source of sin, the Scarlet Letter had become a source of strength. And with it her A transmute from Adulterer to Able. As she is able realize that God is the final judge.
Dimmesdale decides to bear his sin privately, and he did it for the same reason as John Proctor to protect his reputation. With his sin Dimmesdale enters a cycle of Self- Torture that he cannot stop. As a priest Dimmesdale preaches against sin even though he had already sinned. Then he needs to atone for it publicly but he cannot because he feels like it will ruin the entire Christian faith in his colony. If the best representation of God has fallen into sin what chances would the people have, there would be nothing but mass pandemonium. And it was Dimmesdale duty to avoid this at all cost. He holds the Christian faith as the most important thing. So when he preaches to the villagers it always has a double meaning as he is talking about how wretched he is. By him preaching how wretched he is the people only love him more, which makes him hate himself more because he is acting as a hypocrite. By them loving him more he hates himself to the point that he beats the sin out of himself. He beats himself with a scourge, “in order to purify the body and render it the fitter medium of celestial illumination, but rigorously, and until his knees trembled beneath him, as an act of penance” (132). This is an abrasive way to redeem him, but he sees it as the only way to redeem himself. Because he hates himself, he feels he needs to speak to the people but he will not. Until, he comes back from the forest and realizes that his sin will always be with him. He then focuses on what he has to do and makes one final sermon. He says, “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). I t came to him that the ultimate judge is God and you can only reach him if you are true with yourself. So you must reveal your sin and deal with your consequences. When you do God will be waiting for you.
In the Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian has a different sin from adultery. Rather than just talking about sin, Dorian’s sin is just a general sin that he committed. And one he tries to hide from and puts on a front about how it does not affect him.
In the beginning of the novel, Dorian is shown as a very handsome, loving, and innocent when Lord Henry firsts meets him. When Basil Hallward, a painter, tries to capture Dorian’s true essence on his canvas; Harry begins to speak with Dorian. “The moment I met you I saw that you were quite unconscious of what you really are, of what you really might be” (Wilde 25). When Harry talks to him he tells Dorian that he is just flaunting his beauty and wasting it by doing these charitable works. And that Dorian should use his beauty to his advantage. Harry is trying to put into Dorian’s mind, a brand new Hedonism that Harry wants him to follow. Harry talks about, “Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth” (25). Harry piques Dorian curiosity and begins to manipulate him with his words. Even though Harry says youth and beauty are important; he uses nothing but the elegance of his words to trick Dorian into believing this new Hedonism.
Harry wants to see what will become of Dorian when he undertakes this new life Harry has for him. What sins will he commit and what lives will he ruin with his beauty. Harry may not believe this Hedonism himself, but he will use Dorian as an experiment to see what the consequences will be of his actions.
When Basil finishes the portrait the portrait, Dorian could feel nothing but sadness because now the picture will remain forever beautiful, while Dorian loses his beauty to an enemy who cannot be charmed-time. At this moment is where he makes his wish that, if it were only the other way! If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now!” (29). This wish makes it so that the painting will take Dorian’s hardships and consequences while he always remains free from sin. When Dorian meets Sybil Vane he thought he had fallen in love, but what he loved was Sybil’s acting. He loved the all the different women Sybil could portray; it had given him pleasure. When Sybil acted poorly, she did it because she was in love with Dorian. She could not believe that she was actually her character. Dorian felt heartbroken because he was in love with Sybil’s acting now that it is gone he cannot get any pleasure; therefore has no more use for her. Dorian says, “You have killed my love” (91). He had acted as if he were the victim. He disowned Sybil and left her. Later she committed suicide.
When Dorian looks at his portrait he notices that it has become hideous and that his picture his taking the brunt of all his sins. He no longer has to worry about the consequences of his actions. And can now be the spectator and actor of his own life. Years later, Dorian is known for destroying the reputation of his friends. He acts like poison spreading from one relationship to another. Only Basil cannot believe Dorian because he worshipped him. When he meets with Basil he wants to show him the painting and how much it has changed. Basil feels horrified when he sees it and then Dorian draws a knife and kills Dorian. When he does he begins to refer to the painter as it and is seemingly dehumanizing Basil. He calls his friend Alan to get rid of the body for him. And while he is telling Alan the story he then acts again like he is the victim. Dorian forces him to do it because he knew some dark secret about Alan that could potentially ruin him. Just like Dorian’s former friends. Alan gets rid of the body of the body just like Dorian wants. Later it is revealed that Alan also committed suicide maybe as an attempt to escape Dorian’s sinful ways.
Dorian now feels like he cannot take this lifestyle anymore. He wants a fresh start to his life; one without sin. So he goes up to the attic to where the painting is located. He draws a knife and is ready to destroy his sin once and for all without any sort of repentance. When he tries to stab his portrait, he ends stabbing himself. Where he dies without an attempt to absolve his sins.
What should one take from this, that it does not matter whether you bear your sins publicly or privately. What matters is that you that you bear you sin at all. You have to grapple with it. In “The Crucible”, The Scarlet Letter, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is shown that all the characters have performed some type of sin. We see that Abigail, Proctor, Dimmesdale, and Hester have all done the same sin-adultery. Even though they have all done the same sin all but one seemed to grapple with their sin. Proctor realized that God was the final and ultimate judge. Hester bared her sin publicly, and Dimmesdale bared his sins privately. Abigail did not grapple. Only Abigail ignored her sin. And it seems that her time on earth was the worse out of all of them as she was seen as a prostitute and is seemingly sent to hell. Like Dorian Gray did not bear his seen. He just watched as his portrait took all the consequences of his sin. He did not want to grapple with his seen, as he thought he was the victim of every sin that he committed. When he realized what he was turning into he wanted to abolish his painting and with it the sin, but what he has failed to realize is that he did not repent. He just wanted it out of existence and with this wish; he was abolished from existence. Dorian cannot have his sins gone if he did not repent. It will only destroy you. That is why you have to realize you have sin and start your penance; or else you will be haunted by your sin.