Compare and Contrast Revenge in Scarlet Letter

Abigail’s Versus Chillingworth’s Revenge What does revenge mean? The definition is "to exact punishment or expiation for a wrong on behalf of, especially in a resentful or vindictive spirit" (dictionary. com). What does that mean? It means to give punishment to someone who deserves it for some specific reason, especially if the reason was personal or offends to the person giving the revenge. In both The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter there was revenge. However, they both had different types of revenge and how it was used. There was a lot of revenge in The Crucible.

The first person that was using revenge in The Crucible is Thomas Putnam. From the beginning of the play, Thomas Putnam had grudges against Francis Nurse for preventing his brother-in-law from being elected to run for office as minister. "Thomas Putnam's man for the Salem ministry was Bayley. The Nurse clan had been in the faction that prevented Bayley's taking office" (Act 1). He also dislikes George Jacobs because they have had land disputes in the past. Thomas Putnam decides to have his daughter Ruth charge witchcraft against the man.

He does this because if George Jacobs is executed, then Thomas Putnam can buy all of George Jacobs' land. Giles Corey knows this and in the book he says, "If Jacobs hangs for a witch he forfeit up his property - that's law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin to buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbors for their land" (Act 3)! Another person that Thomas Putnam wants to have revenge against is the "witch" that the people of Salem have been trying to find since the very beginning. He and his wife are the reason that the whole witchcraft hysteria went out of control.

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Thomas Putnam and his wife were very upset about how they lost seven newborns and now their only living child, Ruth, is sick. In the book Mrs. Putnam says: "Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the earth. Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born. And yet, each would wither in my arms the very night of their birth. I have spoke nothin', but my heart has clamored intimations. And now, this year, my Ruth, my only – I see her turning strange. A secret child she has become this year, and shrivels like a sucking mouth were pullin’ on her life too. " (Act 1) They are desperate and try to onvince Reverend Parris to tell everyone what he saw with the girls dancing in the woods. One of the girls was naked, Tituba was doing some Barbuda spell, and something with a frog in it was boiling in a pot. The last thing that Thomas Putnam does for revenge is when Giles Corey accuses Thomas Putnam of using the witch trials as a way to get land much cheaper than it is worth by accusing people and having them executed and then buying their land. Giles Corey is pressed to death, for not telling the court who told him this information and Putnam gets his revenge. He refuses to confess because he knows he will lose his land.

He knew if he just dies without being guilty by the court then his sons will get the land but if he confesses he loses the land so he has them put more weight on him and he dies. His last words in the play were "More weight. " Thomas Putnam's wife, Mrs. Putnam, has Rebecca Nurse arrested for the supernatural murder of her seven babies because Rebecca was her midwife. Mrs. Putnam is very jealous of the other wives because she had seven stillbirths. The main person that uses revenge in the play is Abigail Williams. She is a cruel, selfish girl that will do anything to get with John Proctor.

So, naturally, she hates his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, more than anything in the world. Here's a quote from the book showing how Abigail dislikes Elizabeth, "She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her" (Act 1). The first reason she hates Elizabeth Proctor is because she fired Abigail from being her servant because Elizabeth found out that her husband, John Proctor, was having an affair with her. John Proctor ends up confessing in court about the affair and he says: "A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now.

I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her what she is . . . She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance. " (Act 3) She goes to the extent to have Tituba do some Barbuda ritual thing with a chicken and boiling something. She even drinks the blood of the chicken. In the book when accused of drinking blood Abigail betrays Tituba and blames her and says that she made her drink the blood, "She makes me drink blood" (Act 1)!

When Abigail, Tituba, and the girls get caught dancing (and Abigail is also naked) and performing this "witchcraft", Abigail threatens to murder anyone who says they did anything other than dance. An example of a quote of Abigail only caring about herself not getting in trouble is, "I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil" (Act 1)! During the play, she desperately wants John Proctor.

She begs and begs for John to remember their "connection" and all the things she taught her. In the play Abigail says, "I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes? I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet" (Act 1)! The next thing that Abigail does is the doll she gives to Elizabeth. Abigail forces Mary Warren to sew Elizabeth a doll and put a needle in the stomach of it.

Then when Mary gives it to Elizabeth, Abigail shoves a needle in her stomach in the same spot and goes to the authorities and tells them that Elizabeth sent her spirit out to stab her with the needle. In the play Cheever says this about what happened: “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, Sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris's house tonight, and without word nor warnin' she falls to the floor. Lake a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out.

And demandin' of her how she came to be so stabbed, she (to Proctor now) - testify it were your wife's familiar spirit pushed it in! " (Act 2) Unfortunately for Abigail, her plan of getting rid of Elizabeth and marrying John backfires and John Proctor hangs and Elizabeth lives. John Proctor hangs because of Abigail. When John Proctor has Mary Warren tell the truth to the judges the girls turn on him and Mary. Then Mary gets scared and says John bewitched her into saying all that so she doesn't get in trouble. John is accused of witchcraft and confesses.

But then the judge has him sign a paper saying he did it and Proctor refuses because he knows it will be hung on the church door and he doesn’t want his name ruined. In the book he says, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Act 4)! After all this happens, Abigail is afraid someone like Hale will start convincing people that she has been lying. Worried about this, Abigail and Mercy steal Parris' stuff and then run away.

There is also a lot of revenge in The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne seeks revenge in the book. In the book, Hester is alienated from the rest of the town and I'm sure it made it pretty miserable for her. A good quote from the book that shows how she was isolated from the town and the people of the town is this: “Measured by the prisoner’s experience, however, it might reckoned a journey of some length; for, haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them to spurn and trample upon. (page 53) In the book, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale and is forced to where the scarlet "A" on her clothing for adultery. This makes her an outcast to the rest of the community. The other people of the town were somewhat cruel. Some examples of them treating them cruelly is when the kids threw mud at her and Pearl until Pearl chased them away. Another example is when Bellingworth and Wilson tease Pearl and call her a demon child and bird. Hester nearly got her revenge by escaping to England with her lover, Dimmesdale, but Dimmesdale dies.

The main person who seeks revenge in The Scarlet Letter is Roger Chillingworth. From the very beginning of the story, Chillingworth is obsessed with trying to find out who his wife, Hester, slept with. He is extremely jealous and angry she did this and his only life goal is to find out who it is. When Dimmesdale gets sick, Chillingworth is already suspicious of this man so he takes up the opportunity to become his "doctor. " Chillingworth pretends to be nice and friendly to Dimmesdale as Dimmesdale is sick because he is he feels bad for committing adultery and no telling anyone.

The author also hints that Chillingworth is making Dimmesdale sicker instead of helping him get better. In the book, Chillingworth slowly tortures Dimmesdale with his guilt for what he did. Chillingworth did a few things to torture Dimmesdale. His presence was torture because it was a constant reminder of his sin of adultery. In the book Chillingworth mentions that lying is against God a lot to make Dimmesdale feel bad for what he did. On top of all this, Chillingworth was caring for Dimmesdale so he could have been poisoning him.

Dimmesdale cannot handle this torture and extreme guilt he feels and starts harming himself physically. In the book it says, “In Mr. Dimmesdale’s secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge” (page 141). He harms himself by whipping himself and among other ways. Finally, Dimmesdale can't take it anymore and reveals what he did to the town. Chillingworth tries to stop him, because if he says it, then it's over and Chillingworth can't torture him anymore. In the book Chillingworth yells to Dimmesdale, “Do not blacken your fame and perish in dishonor.

I can yet save you” (page 235)! After that, Dimmesdale dies because he allows his guilt to just destroy him. When Dimmesdale dies, Chillingworth has no point in life anymore so he soon after dies too. After all this Hester goes back to her house in her old life. She is depressed because she was so close to having a great life with Dimmesdale. “But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne here, in New England, than in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home. Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence.

She had returned, therefore, and resumed,—of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it,—resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. But . . . the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, and yet with reverence, too. ” (Page 257) In The Crucible, there seems to be revenge mostly just jealousy.

In this play, it’s mostly out of jealousy because Abigail wishes she was John’s husband and is jealous of Elizabeth. She does her revenge by trying to get her convicted of witchcraft which in the end backfires because Elizabeth lives and John dies. In The Scarlet Letter there is mostly revenge because Chillingworth loathes Dimmesdale because he slept with his wife. Chillingworth does his revenge by torturing Dimmesdale with guilt but this also backfires because Dimmesdale gets out of it and Chillingworth dies because he has nothing else to live for. To conclude, The Crucible and The

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