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Michael Rossi
February 22, 2010
Advanced Placement English Language and Composition
Keep It Down, I’m Trying to Repent!
Is repentance a duty best undertaken publically or privately? The Catholic Church raises its members to repent with an audience only consisting of God. The Catholic Church teaches not to treat repentance as a performance to gain the attention of others. The Church is apt to point out that God is the only one who ultimately chooses to forgive or condemn, however, the Church neglects the possibility that a supportive community may help to cultivate a proper redemption. According to C.S. Lewis, one ought to ignore Church teaching if one’s conscience sings a different tune. Thus, public redemption ought to be societies’ methods of dealing with sin. Abigail, Proctor, Dimmesdale, and Prynne have demonstrated how private repentance can develop into neglecting faith altogether, while Prynne exhibited just how a social nudge can lead to genuine self-improvement.
Private redemption and public redemption are both equally important, as they are two steps towards a final goal. Redemption is usually forced upon an individual and then one reacts to it privately. The process of being fully redeemed is a lot like the process of a maintaining a plant. Public confession is the water that provides nourishment to keep the stem of redemption strong. The dormant seeds of privacy lay incomplete and worthless without the water of public redemption. Redemption requires the cleansing waters of confession.
In life, it is the internal victories that yield the greatest rewards. It is often argued that penance should follow this lesson as well, only without another’s help because it cheapens the victory. While this statement is not completely unfounded, it is rather incomplete. It does not
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consider the outliers that may be defeated from their own internal conflict. Abigail from The Crucible is an excellent example of this. When society is ignorant of her lechery she does not acknowledge her responsibility to repent. Instead, she simply tries to evade the repercussions for her sin. The purpose of shame is to bring about a sense of remorse to help its victim develop a commitment to self improvement. Abigail needed to experience shame in order to motivate her to change. In its absence, Abigail grew even worse and misused Danforth to punish certain members of the town: “Let you beware, Mr. Danforth. Think you to be so mighty the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of it!” (Miller 108). When Danforth hinted at the possibility that Abigail may be to blame, Abigail stormed out of the court and out of the town. Abigail was not only running away from Danforth, but she was also running away from the shame that she dared not face. Rather than have society help her to work out her sins, Abigail misinterpreted this shame as a threat. The internal victory left Abigail with many people’s blood on her hands, and a job as a prostitute in the slums of Boston. In the end, Abigail was not defeated by her internal challenges because she officered no struggle.
Proctor, in The Crucible, is a perfect example of how private redemption can be misleading. Proctor’s main issue when it came to sin was denial. Proctor’s denial was not as chronic as Abigail’s, however it was there. Whenever Elizabeth challenged Proctor, he would resort to anger and aggression in order to protect this ego: “Woman. She turns to him. I’ll not have your suspicion any more” (Miller 54). Originally, Proctor was not looking for redemption, he was looking to have his wife forget the incident. Elizabeth demanded that Proctor
seek God’s forgiveness before he sought hers. Internally, Proctor was not urged to be forgiven in God’s eyes. Virtually the only reason why Proctor was redeemed is because he was on trial by
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Salem. Although they were trying him for the wrong reasons, the trial taught him the fortitude and selflessness necessary to truly be redeemed in God’s eyes: “Because it is my name! […] How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller 143). This demonstrates that no matter how erroneous a society is, so long as it forces some degree of public redemption, a better end product is produced (as demonstrated through Abigail and Proctor). Proctor conducted himself as a bright man in the community who was capable of carrying out much of his redemption; however, he needed to be spurred by an outside influence. Imagine that The Crucible’s court is an awful parent and Proctor is its child. Although a parent may mistakenly adopt a parenting route that consisted only of public punishments (such as making the child stand in the corner) instead of afflicting his child with shame, the parent is still punishing the child for the right reasons. The child, whether he cares about his actions or not, will come to hate shame and develop a fear of punishment. The child will naturally try to bring about an end to shame in the future and will think about the actions that could potentially be the cause of his punishment. Eventually the child will adapt to their parents’ whims, and in doing so, the child will be forced into self reflection. Thus, Proctor was forced by the results of the trial to be introspective and seek public redemption.
In The Scarlet Letter Dimmesdale exhibits that private redemption can backfire even if one genuinely strives to fulfill its duties. The process in which Dimmesdale attempted to fulfill his penance trapped him in a vicious cycle. Dimmesdale sinned. Dimmesdale cannot stand his sin and feels the need to repent. It is understandable that any minister would have a problem with sin, however in Dimmesdale’s unique circumstance, he cannot atone for his sin. Dimmesdale believes that it will ruin the entire Christian faith in his colony. He is looked upon as an ideal
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individual. If Dimmesdale cannot remain true to God, how can anyone else? Dimmesdale’s faith is the most important aspect of his life, so he feels that he must speak to his people. However, he cannot openly discuss his sin because he believes he will be harming his followers’ faith, so he only speaks of how wretched he is. The people love him even more as they view his self loathing as simply humbling himself: “He had told his hearers that he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest […] They heard it all, and did but reverence him more” (Hawthorne 131). As the people’s love for Dimmesdale increases, his guilt and self hatred are only intensified. As a result, he punishes himself by flogging (which he believes is God’s will). Dimmesdale is thus stagnated by two major obstacles. First of which is Dimmesdale’s inability to seek progression through penance. When one sins, the object of repentance is not only to demonstrate how remorseful one is, but also to bring about a change in one’s life. If one does not feel the need to change, then one will be perpetuating his personal injustice, by becoming mired in one’s feelings with a euphoric sense of self redemption. Consequently, Dimmesdale overlooks a second element of his redemption. Physical punishment is a selfish does not replace the justice that is due.
Prynne demonstrated what it means to take advantage of public redemption. Early in the The Scarlet Letter, Prynne was branded with a scarlet A. Prynne’s community utilized shame in its ideal form by utilizing the letter to change Prynne. Later on, Prynne was able to change the meaning of the Scarlet Letter: “many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able;” (Hawthorne 146). It was the mirror of public redemption that provided Prynne with the impetuous to reflect upon her sins and change the parts of her that she could not stand.
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A sublime out of text example is the Japanese soldiers during World War Two. Throughout history the allied powers in Europe had grown used to the style of warfare where each side would fight until a decisive victory had been won. Japanese soldiers fought until death. If lost or were unable to fight to the death for any reason they would commit mass suicide by cutting their stomachs open and removing their entrails in the hopes of regaining their honor. In a broader sense, this is utterly selfish, because Japan lost the war mainly because they lacked experienced Generals due to mass suicide. Thus, no one could learn from their defeats how to lead properly, which would then create more losses and throw Japan in the same vicious cycle that Dimmesdale was bound to. Both Dimmesdale and Japanese soldiers placed individual honor over the honor of their society’s who they were striving to protect. In the end, Dimmesdale and Japanese soliders spilled out their organs of cultural beneficence only to be awarded with the mind numbing pain of self righteous honor.
Abigail, Proctor, Dimmesdale, and Prynne have demonstrated how private repentance, can develop into neglecting faith altogether, while Prynne exhibited just how a social nudge can lead to genuine self improvement. Penance is a musical performance with God as its judge. The guitar of redemption is able to be played by many, but few are masters of playing both the simple notes of private redemption and the complex chords of public redemption. Private redemption is simple string plucking that even a novice could master in a short amount of time. Public redemption is a medley of strenuous difficulty. At first the mere thought of a medley makes one’s wrist ache and their fingers cringe. When the time for a performance rolls around, the notes of private redemption are the quieter notes that may be unnoticed in the event of an error. Public redemption is difficult, but if it is played with meaning, the judge will be left with a warm feeling
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in his heart and the performer with a gold medal in his hand. While both the quiet chords of private redemption and the brazen chords of public redemption are both key components of a performance, the loud chords are always the most reliable as they always enthrall an attentive audience, while singular quiet notes may fall on deaf ears.
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Works Citied
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam, 1850.
- Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin, 1976.
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