Proctor versus Dimmesdale in Millers The Crucible :: Essay on The Crucible

Proctor vs DimmesdaleIn Arthur Millers The Crucible, and Nathaniel Hawthornes The florid Letter, the char symboliseers John Proctor and Arthur Dimmesdale are victims of the puritan ethics of Moderation and uninterrupted Faith. These ethics are reflected in the way that they are forced to act kindred every matchless else, resulting in a feeling of being trapped, as salubrious as internal and physical torture, which led to their eventual demise.Hawthornes showcase Arthur Dimmesdale is the epitome of what a puritan should be. He is a ministera man of God yet despite his position, this perfect man has unmatched dark secret he is an adulterer and the father of an illegitimate child. This one sin is more than he can bear, for although he has many time repented, he feels he is not entirely forgiven. His sin is such that if it were to be found, his reputation would be torn apart. After many years of secrecy his secret and being burdened by it he can no longer hold it inside. This is the reason he goes to the scaffold one nighttime in hopes to alleviate his guilt by publicly showing that he has committed a crime. His remorse is so deep and constant, that it has actually changed him. At nights he whips himself, hoping to gain salvation again, but in his mind he gains nothing.Crime is for the iron-nerved, who have their choice their choice either to endure it, or, if it atmospheric pressure too hard, to exert their fierce and savage strength for a well-grounded purpose, and fling it off at once This feeble and most subtile of spirits could do neither, yet continually did one thing or another which intertwined, in the same inextricable knot, the agony of heaven-defying guilt and unserviceable repentance. (Hawthorne, 134.)And although it seems his remorse cannot go deeper than it already is, Dimmesdale begins to realize how his parishioners must see him. He is supposed to be an honest man, but in hiding his sin, he begins to see himself as a hypocrite. What ca n a ruined somebody, like mine, effect towards the redemption of other souls?or a polluted soul towards their purification? And as for the peoples reverence, would that it were turned to scorn and hatred (Hawthorne, 172.)Clearly Dimmesdale is upset(a) about the reaction of the congregation if they were to discover his sin. This is a perfect fashion model of Moderation, everyone has to act holy, without sins and mistakes, otherwise be condemned to the scaffold and public humiliationor worse.