Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Today Will Soon Be Yesterday'
Today Will Soon Be Yesterday
By: Eric Phelps
The novel The Scarlet Letter shows many problems of the human nature that were present at that time and are still present today. There is anger, there is hatred, and there is remorse. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows all three of these problems through his novel. He has Roger Chillingworth show anger when Hester committed adultery, he has Roger say that he hates what he has become, and he has Arthur and Hester show remorse and guilt throughout the entire novel about there misdeeds. The first problem of the human nature listed in the book was anger. He shows anger through Roger, Hester’s husband, first when Roger returns to Boston to find Hester up on the scaffold for committing adultery. He is angry not at her but at himself for letting it happen and knowing it would happen if he had left. …show more content…
Which brings us to our second problem, Hatred? Nathaniel shows hatred not to other people but to himself. Through this novel he has Roger come to hate what he had become through the acts of torturing Arthur. He thought of himself as becoming a monster, which he was. He also started to blame Hester for what he had become. “It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Chapter XIII "Another View of Hester". This quote shows what was happening to Roger, he was originally helping Arthur. But as he stating putting the pieces together, that Arthur was Pearls father, he started gradually torturing him more and more. As I said before from anger comes revenge, and from revenge comes hatred. If a misdeed had come upon a loved one, we would come to hate the one responsible for the
By: Eric Phelps
The novel The Scarlet Letter shows many problems of the human nature that were present at that time and are still present today. There is anger, there is hatred, and there is remorse. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows all three of these problems through his novel. He has Roger Chillingworth show anger when Hester committed adultery, he has Roger say that he hates what he has become, and he has Arthur and Hester show remorse and guilt throughout the entire novel about there misdeeds. The first problem of the human nature listed in the book was anger. He shows anger through Roger, Hester’s husband, first when Roger returns to Boston to find Hester up on the scaffold for committing adultery. He is angry not at her but at himself for letting it happen and knowing it would happen if he had left. …show more content…
Which brings us to our second problem, Hatred? Nathaniel shows hatred not to other people but to himself. Through this novel he has Roger come to hate what he had become through the acts of torturing Arthur. He thought of himself as becoming a monster, which he was. He also started to blame Hester for what he had become. “It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Chapter XIII "Another View of Hester". This quote shows what was happening to Roger, he was originally helping Arthur. But as he stating putting the pieces together, that Arthur was Pearls father, he started gradually torturing him more and more. As I said before from anger comes revenge, and from revenge comes hatred. If a misdeed had come upon a loved one, we would come to hate the one responsible for the