Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Picture of Dorian Gray : Chapter 4

I. Quotations
1. "After all, it never would have happened if I had not met you. You filled me with a wild desire to know everything about life. For days after I met you, something seemed to throb in my veins." (page 52)
  • Dorian Gray's increasing desire to know about the world and human created an obsession to Lord Henry. This naive young boy thirsts to discover this world with the eyes of Lord Henry, and Lord Henry is taking advantages of it. The witty and eloquence Lord Henry has fascinated him and made him think this wise man is trustworthy. That is why Dorian said to Lord Henry, "I cannot help telling you things. You have a curious influence over me. Of I ever did a crime, I would come and confess it to you. You would understand me" (56). It is quite horrifying when you realize that Dorian is considering Lord Henry as God - you confess to God when you have done something wrong because you believe that God would understand and forgive you. Dorian is a perplexed young man. So when he got those so-called advises from Lord Henry, his heart echos with those hedonistic theories of life, which seem to solve his problems. However, little does he knows, those "throb in my [his] veins" (52) will, at the end, turn him into a ruthless and cold-blood creature.
2. “Now and then a complex personality took the place and assumed the office of art, was indeed, in its way, a real work of art. Life having its elaborate masterpieces, just as poetry has, or sculpture, or painting." (page 62)
  • After all, Lord Henry sees Dorian Gray as "his own creation" (61) It make sense that the infatuation Lord Henry had for Dorian was actually his obsession in vivisecting and analyzing the nature of human life. By investigating Dorian's spiritual changes, Lord Henry was satisfied - he saw his ability to change a beautiful and youthful creature by the witty and genius of eloquence. Although he said that "beauty [...] is higher than Genius, as it needs no explanation" (24); he is, indeed, using his genius destroying the halo of beauty. But why he wants to destroy beauty when he said that "the search for beauty" is "the real secret of life?" (85) In Lord Henry's Theory of Sicken and Taken, one must sicken the things they values in order to receive it. He wants to see the downfall of beauty because he thinks that only in this way, he may find the most aesthetic and empathetic thing in the world. I think this is why people always say that angels fallen from heaven are the most wondrous and beautiful things.
II. Vocabulary
1. grotesque - [adj.]
1> distorted and unnatural in shape or size abnormal and hideous
2> ludicrously odd

Ex. "They were both as grotesque as the scenery, and that looked as if it had come out of a country booth." (54)

2.
ecstasy - [n.]
1> a state of being carried away by overwhelming emotion
2> a state of elated bliss
Ex. "In the garden scene it had all the tremulous ecstasy htat one hears just before dawn when nightingales are singing." (55)

The Picture of Dorian Gray : Chapter 3

I. Quotations
1. "There was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence. No other activity was like it. To project one's soul into some gracious form, and let it tarry there for a moment; to hear one's own intellectual views echoed back to one with all the added music of passion and youth [...] there was a real joy in that." (page 39)
  • The desire to influence is empowered by possessive instinct. Just as Basil is using Dorian as an inspiration of arts, Lord Henry is using Dorian Gray as a proof of he's intelligence and remains of youth. Lord Henry simply enjoys injecting his radical and somehow poisonous thoughts into this lovely and flawless young man. In his mind, building one's personality is a form of art, too. Actually, it is not only the art human performs, but also the God's work - creating one's soul.
2. “He would try to be to Dorian Gray what, without knowing it, the lad was to the painter who had fashioned the wonderful portrait. He would seek to dominate him - had already, indeed, half done so. He would make that wonderful spirit his own. There was something fascinating in this son of Love and Death." (page 40)
  • The two best friends, Lord Henry and Basil Hallward, are fighting over the ownership of Dorian Gray. In their eyes, Dorian is just "some brainless, beautiful creature, who should be always here in winter when we [they] have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer when we [they] want something to chill our [their] intelligence" (5). Dorian is being used as their inspirations and motivations of living delightful life, instead of the previous dreadful one. The dominance both man are seeking for turned them to pathetic leech - drink one's blood in order to live - in this case, steal Dorian's charming youth to satisfy their varies of desire. Dorian Gray is destine to be the "son of Love and Death" (40): Lord Henry and Basil's "love" for Dorian was too aggressive that it may hurt this handsome lad, and even leads him to "death".
II. Vocabulary
1. stoutness - [n.]
1> the property of being strong and resolute;
2> the property of excessive fatness

Ex. "Women who are not Duchesses are described by contemporary historians as stoutness." (41)

2.
iridescent - [adj.]
1> varying in color when seen in different lights or from different angles
2> having a play of lustrous rainbow-like colors
Ex. "He played with the idea [...] made it iridescent with fancy, and winged it with paradox." (44)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Picture of Dorian Gray : Chapter 1 & 2

I. Quotations
1. "The harmony of soul and body - how much that is! We in our madness have separated the two, and have invented a realism that is vulgar, an ideality that is void." - Basil Hallward (page 12)
  • Having the harmony of one's physique and spirit is the key to live a upright and meaningful life. Through Basil's words, we can see that he has a better understanding of the meaning of life than his friend, Lord Henry, does. This is why he does not want Dorian Gray to meet Lord Henry. He know that Dorian, the charming and naive lad, will be influenced by Henry's view of life - youth is the best and only treasure of life, thus one has to spend this God-given "money" before he gets old. God created us with both bodies and souls; one cannot separate them. If one does, his soul will be void and his body will be vulgar. This is why when Dorian sold his soul to stay young and let his portrait gets old instead, he is separating his soul and body. The beautiful but soulless Dorian Gray is destined to have an epic downfall.
2. “How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young [...] If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that - for that - I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!". (page 28)
  • This is when Dorian realized that his youth, his dazzling beauty, will not last forever. Every second passes by is a waste of his charm. Accepting Lord Henry's hedonistic philosophy of life, Dorian now treasures his youth more than ever - he would give up everything to save his youthful beauty, even his soul. However, everything has a price to pay. When Dorian trade his soul for the everlasting appearance of the portrait, he became ruthless and emotionless, just like a painting. He not only sold his soul, but also his conscience, his love, his heart; and furthermore at the end, his life.
II. Vocabulary
1. truculent - [adj.] defiantly aggressive
Ex. "I remember her bringing me up to a truculent and red-faced old gentleman covered all over with orders and ribbons." (9)

2.
caprice - [n.] a sudden, unpredictable change, as of one's mind or the weather
Ex. "The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer." (26)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Scarlet Letter Essay

Lu Li Li 1
AP English (Period F) ---Mr. George
Date: Jan. / 12/ 2009
Assignment name: “The Scarlet Letter Essay”

Confession – A Deal with the Public or God?

As the play The Crucible points out, “people [often] have no ritual for the washing away of sins” (Miller 20). People along the stream of history always struggle to find the way to their salvation. Both stories, The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, gave us a profound inside look at how the four characters: Abigail, Proctor, Hester, and Dimmesdale, with different temperments, deal with the same sin of adultery. Ironically, the main messages, which the two stories emphasized, tend to be polar. The Scarlet Letter suggested that it is better to bear one’s sin publicly, while The Crucible argued that one should deal with their sin privately with God. However, comparing both novels’ stances, The Scarlet Letter’s argument makes more sense. The text states that bearing one’s sin publicly is a part of the punishment, which is essential to gaining one’s redemption. Futhermore, truthfulness is the key to the gate of one’s ultimate redemption. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, makes the point perfectly clear that concealing sin from the public is not wise.

Arthur Dimmesdale realized at the end of his life that bearing one’s sin publicly is a part of the punishment God grants to the sinners. God punishes the ones who have sinned “by bringing me [one] hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people” (Hawthorne 229). Hester was forced to wear the scarlet letter and was exiled by society; while Proctor was arrested and thrown into the dungeon; and Dimmesdale suffered from the burning sin on his heart. However, Abigail, the one who escaped from her punishment, was at last, a lost soul in the dark and somber woods where God’s lights of mercy could not reach. Therefore, it is crystal clear that of the four characters who have sinned, only the ones who have been somehow tortured by their sin got their salvation from God.

Bearing God’s punishment is essential, but it is just a part of redemption; thus, it is important for a person to “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!” (Hawthorne 231). In front of the irreversible sin of adultery, the four characters reacted in different ways; some embraced it, some ignored it, some hid it, and some struggled in between; yet it is clear that embracing the sin and unveiling it to others is the best way to be redeemed.

As Hester said herself, “In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did hold fast, through all extremity; save when thy good, - thy life, - thy fame, - were put in question!” (Hawthorne 175). Hester, being a role model for everyone, was truthful for her entire life. Hester embraced her sin by loving, cherishing the poor, comforting broken-hearts, and pacifying wrathful men. Hester honestly acknowledged guilt; therefore, she displayed it with courage and pride to the strict Puritan community. The embellished scarlet letter on her bosom, and the way she dressed up her daughter, were proof of this. Although uncovering her guilt to the public made Hester’s life harsh, and to some extend, miserable, in the long run, Hester gained her ultimate salvation through her goodness, and more importantly, her honesty.

On the contrary, Abigail was the complete opposite of Hester. This lascivious woman sinned not only once – committing adultery with Proctor – but hundreds and millions of times, because she lied to everyone, even to God. Every time she lied and blamed her sins on others, she was staining herself with the poisonous blood the Devil uses when he makes people sign his book. Lies to cover up lies. Abigail’s soul was corrupted by the darkness of dishonesty, which drove her away from God; therefore, she lost her chance to be redeemed from her sin.

Proctor, a sinner who struggled between publicly and privately bearing his sin, failed to get forgiveness from the community, not because confessing publicly is unnecessary, but because he lied to the court and the rest of the town by saying he signed the devil’s book. Fortunately, Proctor later realized that after lying to himself, to the public, and to God, his “honesty is broke” (Miller 136); therefore, he is no longer a “good man” (136). He gained his forgiveness from Elizabeth and God at the end because he opened his long-concealed heart by admitting his sin to them.

The Reverend Dimmesdale suffered profoundly compared with the other characters. Hawthorne writes, “at the head of the social system, as the clergymen of that day stood, he was only the more trammeled by its regulations, it principles, and even its prejudices” (180), to show the readers that unlike Abigail, who does not acknowledge of sin, Dimmesdale oscillated between his conscience and his pretentious obsession with his position. Hester wears her sinful scarlet letter on the outside; whereas, she is actually a faithful and honest saint on the inside. Ironically, Dimmesdale is the reverse, both literarily and figuratively, because he wears his saint-like mask on the outside while his sin is burning inside of him. “He had striven to put a cheat upon himself by making the avowal of guilty conscience, but had gained only one other sin, and a self-acknowledged shame, without the momentary relief of being self-deceived” (Hawthorne 131). In Dimmesdale's mind, confessing his sin in public is only a portion of his redemptive process. He still believes that God, not society, grants the ultimate redemption. He believes that speaking his guilt will only lead to another sin - staining the holiness of God. However, as the quote said, hiding the secret is just deceiving himself. Although the good name of the Church is preserved, his guilt is still there, waiting eagerly to be unveiled. So Dimmesdale is not only suffering from his guilt, but from his lies; yet, dishonesty is still a sin. Therefore, truthfulness can be seen as an essential key to the Kingdom of Heaven – no matter how penitent one is, or how he or she loves God, a person should be honest to himself in order to be open to God. Being honest to the public is a direct outcome of being veracious; thus, being honest is an indispensable step to gain one’s redemption.

Fulton John Sheen, a famous clergyman, said in Calvin H. Chamber’s book Two Tracks, “no person is ever made better by having someone else tell them how rotten he is; but many are made better by avowing the guilt themselves” (Chambers). This shows that concealing guilt from the public would rot one’s heart, although lies can comfort one in the short term. After embracing God’s punishment with faithful hearts, it is important to concentrate ones’ conscience on being truthful. Honesty and confession to the public is the fundamental step to achieve God’s forgiveness, so people should avoid the detours of going back and forth between public and private confession, like what Proctor and Dimmesdale have gone through. Hester, on the other hand, was open with her guilt; thus, open to the punishment that was given by God. Soon her sin dissolved with her dedication to charity, therefore, she was ultimately redeemed by God and lived a happy life. So, be true to the public; be true to oneself; then the sinner will be forgiven by the final judge – God.



Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. “The Crucible”. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 1976.

Nathaniel Hawthorne. “The Scarlet Letter”. New York: Bantam reissue, 2003.

Calvin H. Chambers. “Two Tracks”. Alcoholics Anonymous AA History and Book Bibliography. 30 May. 2008.

Monday, January 5, 2009

The Scarlet Letter 10: P221-235

I. Quotations
1. "Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, not forever do battle with the world, but messenger of anguish was all fulfilled." (page 229)
  • From here it is clear that the minister's honesty moralized the elf-like Pearl's wild personality. There “was certainly a doubtful charm, imparting a hard, metallic luster to the child’s character (166)". Pearl cannot fit the society before because she did not understand the sorrow and sympathy which the world has. This is why Hester wanted Pearl to have "a grief that should deeply touch her [Pearl], and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy” (166). Pearl’s defective personality was completed when she kissed on her dying father’s lips and her tears fell upon her father’s cheek. She finally understood what his father was struggling with; therefore, she grant him her kiss, which symbolized her forgiveness and love for him- and those are exactly what Dimmesdale ever wanted in the past seven years. There is a fulfillment in Pearl's tears - to herself, and to her father.
2. “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!". (page 231)
  • This is not only a story about redemption, but also a story about truthfulness and forgiveness. As Hester had said, "In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did hold fast, through all extremity" (175), she has been honest along the way - she wears the scarlet letter on her bosom; take good caring of the living shame of her sin, Pearl; and revealed Chillingworth's evilness to Dimmesdale under the pressure of Chillingworth's threaten. On the contrary, Dimmesdale has been living under his saint-like mask for seven endless years, although he wants to be truthful and to be forgiven by God. In the forest, Dimmesdale forgave Hester for covering Chillingworth's true identity for the past seven years because he loves her and she was being honest to him. This is an impulse and inspiration to Dimmesdale himself. He thought if he can be truthful, maybe God will forgive him, like he has forgave Hester. Dimmesdale thinks God loves everyone, even the ones who have sinned, because "He is merciful" (229) - just like how he loves Hester. The connection between these two truth-forgiveness scenarios made Dimmesdale believes that truthfulness can bring self redemption.
II. Wacky Vocab
1. zenith - 1> the point on the celestial sphere vertically above a given position or observer
2> a highest point or state; culmination (dictionary.com)
Ex. "Within the church, it had hardly been kept down; beneath the sky, it pealed upward to the zenith." (223)

2.
necromancer - 1> one who practice magic or sorcery
2> one who practice divination by conjuring up the dead (
WordNet® 3.0.)
Ex. "Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent necromancer, had caused it to appear." (230)

Friday, January 2, 2009

The Scarlet Letter 15-22: Notes

I. Chapter Abstract

1. Chapter 15 - Hester was certain that she hates Chillingworth after they ran into each other in the forest. Then she had an impulse to tell her child, Pearl, the meaning behind the scarlet letter A. However, at last, Hester lied to Pearl about it. This is the first time she tried to hide the shame of the letter A from others.
2. Chapter 16 - Hester decided to reveal Chillingworth's true identity to Dimmesdale, so she took Pearl and went into the forest to meet Dimmesdale. While they are waiting, Pearl talked about the Black-Man story she heard from others, and she questioned if the clergyman is the black man. After a while, they saw Dimmesdale making his way through the forest, suffering, and kept his hand over his heart.
3. Chapter 17 - Hester and Dimmesdale had a secret meeting in the forest. They finally decided to escape to Britain together.
4. Chapter 18 - They sat together, side by side, kept talking about their struggles during the past seven years. Hester tried to cheer Dimmesdale up so she told him not to look back but pursuing the happiness in the future. She took off the scarlet letter from her bosom and threw it into the nearby brook - stream of freshness and freedom ran through her entire body. The charm of womanhood beamed out of her. Then, Pearl came back into the scene.
5. Chapter 19 - Hester was introduced Pearl to the pastor. Pearl refused to cross the brook unless her mother put on the scarlet letter on her bosom again. Hester's womanhood faded after she put the letter A back on her chest. Pearl refused to show any friendliness to the priest because she was jealous that he took the spot beside her mother, which always belongs to her.
6. Chapter 20 - Dimmesdale felt everything and everyone on his way home seemed to be different. He regained his enthusiasm of life. When he got back, he refused Chillingworth's medical. So Chillingworth found out he had probably met Hester in the forest. Dimmesdale rewrote his papers for the Election Sermon with great passion.
7. Chapter 21 - Hester took Pearl to the procession. The shipmaster who own the ship Hester and Dimmesdale are going to take told Hester that Old Chillingworth is going with them.
8. Chapter 22 - Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale delivered the Election Sermon. People thought it was the best sermon he has ever made. However, Hester was surrounded my locals and visitors who were curious about the scarlet letter on her bosom.


II. Notes

· Hester's View on Her Relationship with Chillingworth:
o “She marveled how such scenes could have been! She marveled how ever have been wrought upon to marry him!” (159)
o “ ‘Yes, I hate him!’ repeated Hester, more bitterly than before. ‘He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!’ ” (159)

· Effects of the Scarlet Letter to Hester:
o “It may be that it was the talisman of a stern and severe, but yet a guardian spirit, who now forsook her; as recognizing that, in spite of his strict watch over her heart, some new evil had crept into it, or some old one had never been expelled.” (163-164)
o “The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set her free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread.” (180)
o “It was a forcible type of the moral solitude in which the scarlet letter enveloped its fated wearer; partly by her own reserve, and partly by the instinctive, though no longer so unkindly, withdrawal of her fellow-creatures.” (210)
- The scarlet letter isolated Hester from the common society, which was seen as the morality.

· Pearl’s Existence in Relationship with the Scarlet Letter:

o “Pearl took some eel-grass, and imitated, as best as she could, on her own bosom, the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother’s. A letter, - the letter A, - but freshly green, instead of scarlet!” (161)
o “The child bent her chin upon her breast […] as if the one only thing for which she had been sent into the world was to make out its hidden import.” (161)

· Relationship Between Pearl and Hester:
o “If little Pearl were entertained with faith and trust, as a spirit messenger no less than an earthly child, might it not be her errand to soothe away the sorrow that lay cold in her mother’s heart, and converted it into a tomb? – and to help her to overcome the passion, once so wild, and even yet neither dead nor asleep, but only imprisoned within the same tomb-like heart?” (163)
o “In her was visible the tie that united them.”
- Pearl is the tie between Hester and Dimmesdale
o “Children will not abide any, the slightest, change in the accustomed aspect of things that are daily before their eyes.” (189)

· Pearl’s Characteristic Description Collage:
o “[…] a sense of new and untransmitted vigor in Pearl’s nature, as this never-failing vivacity of spirits” (166)
o “She had not the disease of sadness” (166)
o “It was certainly a doubtful charm, imparting a hard, metallic luster to the child’s character. She wanted – what some people want throughout life – a grief that should deeply touch her, and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy.” (166)
- Pearl’s defective personality was completed when she kissed on her dying father’s lips and her tears fell upon her father’s cheek. (see 229)
o “Jealousy that seems instinctive with every petted child towards a dangerous rival, or from whatever caprice of her freakish nature. Pearl would show no favor to the clergyman.” (191)

· Dimmesdale’s Physical and Emotional Descriptions:
o Before his meeting with Hester in the wood
- “He looked haggard and feeble, and betrayed a nerveless despondency in his air” (170)
- “There was a listlessness in his gait” (170)
- “Death was too definite an object to be wished for or avoided.” (170)
o During his meeting with Hester
- “It was fear, and tremulously, and, as it were, by a slow, reluctant necessity, that Arthur Dimmesdale put forth his hand, chill as death, and touched the chill hand of Hester Prynne.” (170)
- “All of God’s gifts that were the choicest have become the ministers of spiritual torment” (172)
o After they decide to flee to Britain
- “The decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast. It was the exhilarating effect […] his spirit rose.” (170)
- Of a deeply religious temperament, there was inevitably a tinge of the devotional in his mood.” (170)
o Back to the town
- “The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale’s feelings, as he returned from his interview with Hester, lent him unaccustomed physical energy, and hurried him townward at a rapid pace.” (194)
- “He took an impression of change from the series of familiar objects that presented themselves.” (194)
- “Another man had returned out of the forest: a wiser one; with a knowledge of hidden mysteries which the simplicity of the former never could have reached.” (200)
- “He fancied himself inspired [when writing the papers]” (202)
o Walking in the procession
- “There was no feebleness of step, as at other times; his frame was not bent; nor did his hand rest ominously upon his heart.” (213)
- “His strength seemed not of the body. It might be spiritual, and imparted to him by angelic ministrations.” (213-214)
o Delivering Election Sermon
o After the sermon in the crowd
o On the scaffold


· Hester’s Physical and Emotional Descriptions:
o During her meeting with Dimmesdale
- “All the world had frowned on her, - for seven long years had it frowned upon this lonely woman – and still she bore in all, nor ever once turned away her firm, sad eyes. Heaven, likewise, had frowned upon her, and she had not died. But the frown of this pale, weak, sinful, and sorrow-stricken man was what Hester could not bear, and live!” (176)
- “ ‘Let us not look back, answered Hester Prynne. ‘The past is gone! Wherefore should we linger upon it now?’ ” (182)
- “There played around her mouth, and beamed out of her eyes, a radiant and tender smile, that seemed gushing from the very heart of womanhood.” (183)
o In the procession
- “Her spirit sank with the idea that all must have been a delusion, and that, vividly as she had dreamed it, there could be no real bond betwixt the clergyman and herself.” (214)
o Listening to the Election Sermon
o After the sermon in the crowd


· The Love Between Hester and Dimmesdale:
o “Such was the ruin to which she had brought the man […] still so passionately loved.” (174)
o “ Hester: ‘Thou shalt not go alone!’ ” (179)
o “If this be the path to a better life, as Hester would persuade me, I surely give up no fairer prospect by pursuing it! Neither can I any longer live without her companionship; so powerful is she to sustain, - so tender to soothe!” (181)
o “O Hester, thou art my better angel!” (182)
o “Pacify her, if thou lovest me!” (189)
o “Hester Prynne listened with such intentness, and sympathized so intimately, that the sermon had throughout a meaning for her, entirely apart from its indistinguishable words.” (217)

· Differences Between Hester and Dimmesdale:
o “Dimmesdale: ‘Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!’ ” (173)
o “She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness” vs. “At the head of the social system, as the clergymen of that day stood, he was only the more trammeled by its regulations, its principles, and even its prejudices” (180)
o “She could scarcely forgive him […] for being able so completely to withdraw himself from their mutual world; while she groped darkly, and stretched forth her cold hands, and found him not.” (215)

· Things that Hester and Dimmesdale Share:
o “The grasp, cold as it was, took away what was dreariest in the interview. They now felt themselves, at least, inhabitants of the same sphere.” (171)
- Facing the same difficulty; suffering from the same sin.
o “Dimmesdale: ‘May God forgive us both! We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest!’ ” (176)
- The same enemy to face.
o “Here, seen only by his eyes, the scarlet letter need not burn into the bosom of the fallen woman! Here, seen only by her eyes, Arthur Dimmesdale, false to God and man, might be, for one moment, true!” (176-177)
- They understand each other.
o “Pearl was the oneness of their being […] when they beheld at once the material union and the spiritual idea, in whom they met, and were to dwell immortally together?” (186)
- The visual thing they share: Pearl
o “The minister’s own will, and Hester’s will, and the fate that grew between them, had wrought this transformation.” (195)
o “What imagination would have been irreverent enough to surmise that the same scorching stigma was on them both!” (221)

· Chillingworth Characteristic Analysis:
o “Dimmesdale: ‘That old man’s revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart.’ ” (176)
o “Hester: ‘He will doubtless seek other means of satiating his dark passion.’ ” (177)

· Miscellaneous Collection on Society and Religion:
o “Hester: ‘What hast thou to do with all these iron men, and their opinions? They have kept thy better part in bondage too long already!’ ” (178)
- A sick form of peer pressure
o “His sympathy and fellowship with wicked morals, and the world of perverted spirits” (199)
- When you live in a world that is deformed, being normal (virtuous) would be seen as abnormal (wrong).
o “After sustaining the gaze of penance, and something which it was a stern religion to endure, she now, for one last time more, encountered it freely agony into a kind of triumph.’ ” (203)
- A society that use religion to judge a person’s reputation and fame
o “The Puritans compressed whatever mirth and public joy they deemed allowable to human infirmity.” (206)
o “It was an age when what we call talent had far less consideration than now, but the massive materials which produce stability and dignity of character a great deal more.” (212)
- Inequality of the society