Lavender's AP Lit Class Blog
Friday, October 29, 2010
Who is the worst sinner?
I think I may write about how Chillingworth is the worst sinner in the Scarlet Letter. I understand that he was angry regarding Hester and Dimmesdale, but he had no right to do anything he did. Hester and Dimmesdale sinned out of love, rather than Chillingworth's intentions of revenge. He kept it a secret for almost seven years, pretending to be Dimmesdale's friend and doctor. Hawthorne said, "The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had balked this scheme." (p. 122) Because of Dimmesdale's happy and accepting nature, Chillingworth knew he could pull this off. Obviously, Dimmesdale agrees with me and says, "We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world... That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin." (p.170) I guess my main argument is that Chillingworth sinned out of revenge, in comparison with Hester's sin of love. This paper willl be interesting.
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I really like this idea. I think it's clever and I agree. The only thing that I have a problem with is that how are you going to keep it going for a full paper length? Great ideas!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a good idea. You also might want to include how Chillingworth's hypocrisy made his sin even worse. This hypocrisy was far greater than Hester's and Dimsdale's, which also makes his sin worse than theirs.
ReplyDeleteJackie,
ReplyDeleteI agree, this constitutes a fine approach to the novel, one which attempts to 'rank the sinners' (and I'm glad you are already looking to the text for passages that will help you develop your argument. Don't forget about Pearl. Isn't it a little ironic that, even though she was declared the devil's spawn, she may well be considered the most 'sinless' of all the characters.
Have fun with your first draft!