Sunday, October 21, 2012
Sympathy
The blog post Mrs. Kirkman asked the class to write was about who the individual person sympathized with the most. Having a hard time picking between two of the characters, I decided to write about four of them. Sympathy for Roger Chillingworth is surely uncommon and probably uncalled for. But honestly, it was not his fault. Imagine a man finally being able to travel to a new world to be with his wife, and bam, he sees that she is holding another man's child in her hands. Yes, revenge was not the smartest or most righteous thing to turn to, but the reader cannot blame the man. He was hurt and felt betrayed, so he acted on impulse and hunted for revenge. The part that does not warrant sympathy from Chillingworth is the fact that even after seven years, he still did not change, and continued to feel a need to acquire his revenge. Arthur Dimmesdale on the other hand basically died because of the guilt that was eating him away. In the beginning of the story, Arthur was selfish and kept his secret to himself while the girl he loved was being punished for a crime she only halfway committed. However, towards the end of the story, Arthur basically sacrificed himself. He revealed his sin and died to repay Hester and the townspeople back the punishment that could be repaid in no other way. Hester Prynne was the main sufferer in this story. She had to be punished for her sins, watch her husband turn into a revenge loving monster, watch her lover slowly die, all while raising a little girl all by herself. Hester truly had a distraught life and never found a shrivel of relief in all her years. Even when Pear grew up and Hester grew old, Hester felt the need to go back to Boston, because only there was Hester, in a way, comfortable. That was where Hester had loved, sinned, punished, hurt, and truly where her life and womanhood died. The last person to sympathize for is Pearl. Pearl had to grow up in a town that believed she was a devil spawned, evil, elf child. She grew up without a father, and grew up out of place, different. Even in the story, it is shown that Pearl is mentally unstable because of all that she went through during the first years of her life. How sad is that? The kid is psychologically unbalanced from the beginning of her life. The happy part about Pearl's life is that she finally grows up and gets married, and is most likely happy with her new life. But that still does not make up for all the hardships that she had to overcome in the past.
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All of these characters suffered throughout the story, but I think Chillingworth was the most innocent one among them other than Pearl. He had no idea what was going on in Boston while he was gone and when he came back a terrible surprise was awaiting him. Even though he tortured Dimmesdale frequently, he was just trying to release all the anger from inside of him. He felt betrayed by his wife and did what any other man with dignity would do.
ReplyDeleteIt was a smart idea to write about all four of them, because they all suffered in their own ways. Although, I feel more sympathetic to some of the characters over the others. All the information you gave and the reasons you gave are true and justifiable. Aside from Pearls innocence and facing all of this, I would have to say that I feel the most sympathetic for Arthur Dimmesdale. I feel that he suffered most by punishing himself to the point of death, and living a life that he had to hide from the whole community. He was not able to live with his family and his loved ones, and I believe that, that alone is enough suffering for one man to handle.
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ReplyDeleteChillingworth kept his promise to meet hester in Boston. All he expected was to pick things up with Hester from where he left off. However, he comes to Boston only to find out that he came to Boston for absolutely no reason because the wife which he promised to return to has stabbed him in the back and conceived a child from that affair. He did nothing to deserve the punishment. Hester and Dimmesdale's sin caused Chillingworth misfortune.Chillingworth's anger led him to a revengeful life with anger and rage. Even though he was angry at Hester and Dimmesdale, he left his inheritance to Pearl showing that he actually cared.
ReplyDeleteAni, I agree with you completely. Each of these four characters suffered at some point in their lives. Although, I sympathized with Chillingworth, you made me realize what Pearl and Hester had actually gone through in the novel. Hester lost everything to the point where she did not care anymore. Pearl spent half of her childhood alone, being the outcast from society. In a way, it was as if Pearl had to pay for what her mom had done as well. I can sympathize for Pearl and Hester too now because they each lost one part in their lives, whether it was a childhood or those simple moments of love and joy.
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ReplyDeleteThese four points are completely valid. They express a great deal of truth, however, I fail to feel sympathy for Roger Chillingworth. When Hester and Dimmesdale committed the sin of adultery, they did not plan it to be out of evil, rather out of love. It was because of love they had a child together, but unfortunately, they never had the opportunity to live as a family in peace. However, Chillingworth, from the start, wished to carry out a plan to torture Dimmesdale, which made him resemble Satan more and more each day. All of Chillingworth's actions were executed with a evil purpose to distress Arthur. The true victim in this novel is not Hester, Pearl, nor Chillingoworth, but is Reverend Dimmesdale. Nevertheless, the justifications you have written in your blog about this matter is completely understandable and commendable.
ReplyDeleteI agree that all four of these characters have had their own share of suffering. However, I do not view Dimmesdale's death as a sacrifice. In my opinion, he was a coward till the very end. Even when he admitted to his sins, he collapsed dead, leaving Hester and Pearl alone all over again.
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