Preview

The Corruption Of Jealousy In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Blackmail

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1231 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Corruption Of Jealousy In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Blackmail
People all over the world commit the crime of blackmail. Blackmail is any payment extorted by intimidation, as by threats of injurious revelations or accusations. These payments can be such things as money, sexual favors or favors in general (nonsexual). Blackmailers have different ways they present the blackmail and each blackmailer has their own reason as to why they are blackmailing the person in the first place. Some do it out of jealousy and some just get enjoyment out of this particular crime. Why? Some believe that they have vendettas and others believe they may have some kind of mental illness. Mental illness can cause anyone to do thing they would not normally do and/or are not proud of. In almost every case the blackmailer …show more content…
In order for Mrs. Ferrars’s secret to say a secret she would have to comply with the blackmailer. This blackmailer’s motive was simply greed; one that I think is the most common in novels. The criminal know a dirty like secret about Mrs. Ferrars and knew that she was a wealthy women. Having this knowledge, they pressured the old women into giving up large sums of money to keep quite. People of a higher stature like Mrs. Ferrars, must do what needs to be done so their personal life doesn’t become a public affair. In the book, everything takes place in a small town; where everyone knows everyone and …show more content…
Whether the blackmailing is a short or long term event, serious damage can be done. Damage on one’s reputation, employment, and social status. For example take Mrs. Ferrars from “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, a little old lady tormented for years, ending with her taking her own life. Still to this day most people don’t understand why people blackmail each other. Yes, they have a vendetta but what really makes them go as far as ruining someone life for personal gain? Blackmailers have the ability to have no conscience to remind them of their wrong/illegal doings. I personally could not blackmail a person professionally. By professionally I mean, to follow and document the actions of another; or have someone do it for me. Although everyone has done it at some point in their life; in the smallest amount. Like when a teenager wants to stay out late but is not allowed, they pull the card that the parent recently did something wrong and they hold it over their head. Sure it seems harmless but in the end someone will evidently be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Identify and discuss the absorption of nutrients resulting from the digestive process and the structures into which they are absorbed.…

    • 2060 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “But did your reverence hear of the portent that was seen last night? –a great red letter in the sky, -the letter A, which we interpret to stand for Angel. For, as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night, it was doubtless held fit that there should be some notice thereof!”…

    • 1967 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jealousy doesn’t appear out of the blue. It doesn’t just show up one day. Jealousy is like a cloud. It builds up with “water” over time, and eventually downpours onto everyone standing in its way, just like in the book written by John Knowles, A Separate Peace. The three main characters involved with jealousy are Gene, Finny, and Brinker. Every riveting scene of jealousy, changes the mood of the book completely. Jealousy causes friendships to be destroyed, and hatred to form in this novel. Jealousy is the new form of self-destruction.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    People have been trying to put a face to evil for many years. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, does exactly that with the character Roger Chillingworth. Roger Chillingworth is the embodiment of evil. Throughout the story the reader sees embodiment of evil through his thoughts, actions, and appearance. Once this things are taken into account then one will see how Roger Chillingworth is the symbol of pure evil.…

    • 68 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Revered Dimmesdale's health begins to deteriorate, so the townspeople are elated to welcome Roger Chillingsworth, a newly arived physician, who befriends Dimmesdale. Suspicion arises with the close proximity of Chillingsworth to Dimmesdale. The physician searches the minister's interior, and enacts psychological inquiries to see if Dimmesdale will exploit his inner, darker, secrets. Upon discovery of the Scarlet A upon Dimmesdale's chest, Roger immediately plots revenge, the physician employs a series of psychologically torturing colloquies that enable deep internal conflicts. Hester soon discovers Arthurs morbid character, moreover Hester then convenes with Roger to convince hime to stop taking revenge, however Roger refuses to listen. Hester…

    • 119 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The setting of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, conveys a powerful structure of jealousy to the reader’s understanding that Abigail Williams’ decision in concealing her affair with John Proctor will prevent charges of witchcraft on John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth Proctor. In addition, Abigail William is marked as the lowest in the social pyramid in Salem. Witchcraft gave her instant recognition within Salem which fed her power from within, which led to the circulation of innocent people being indicted with false accusations.…

    • 80 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Edith Wharton’s short short Roman Fever, shows how people succumb to rage and jealousy from social competition, how emotions, especially love and hatred, can cause us to not think about the potential of seriously damaging consequences in the short and long term.…

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A best friend is someone who is always there for you, someone you can trust and who trusts you- or is it? At least, this is what most people think of when they think of the term ‘best friend’. But what if the person you have always considered your best friend betrays you, becomes jealous of you, doesn’t trust you, and even could have caused your death? Are they still your best friend? Are these behaviors just small mistakes that every human makes or are they really worth forgiving? Can two people with this relationship still remain friends? In the book A Separate Peace, author John Knowles uses his two main characters, Gene Forrester and Phineas to show that friends can have disagreements, but major characteristic differences like jealousy…

    • 182 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Capital punishment was wide spread in Puritan Boston. Although the Bible was a moral guide, societies were swarmed with crimes and sins. The punishments included severe whipping, imprisonment, slitting nostrils, and public execution on scaffold(“Puritan”). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, although the two main characters, Hester and Dimmesdale are guilty of the similar sins, they experience different punishments and outcomes.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Crucible: Jealousy

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Page

    Between democratic and republican those two groups are the main reason why the earth keeps on spinning but are driven by jealousy that they know more than the other and will never stop spinning due to the communication between the two, these groups have two different believes all the time which gives everyone a plot to look forward to like how in the story ‘The Crucible’ Abigail threatens the other girls in the story not say the truth, other than what she has already revealed, and we learn that Abigail is a treacherous person. She tells Proctor that Betty is not really sick which gives the people who are reading the story more than just one plot because of the options about the truth and false information that goes with the story but not…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hawthorne uses manipulative diction to show his disdain towards the American government (Such as tenderness- “has no great tenderness”, fling off- “fling off her nestlings”, scratch/dab- “scratch of her claw, a dab of her beak”, rankling wound- “rankling wound from her barbed arrows”) to influence the reader to see how moody and dangerous the government can be. His vicious tone enforces the idea that the government hides behind a dangerous facade putting up a front that it is forgiving while in all actuality it is controlling and wrathful (again “but she has no great tenderness” implying that previously he had mentioned the misconception of the government being tender). The over glorified American government is represented by the metaphor of…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As people around him demonstrated their actual religion, which was praising the devil, Brown lost all the faith he had. The forest is an image of Goodman Brown's evil personality. The forest in the story is an obvious image of the devils home. Goodman adventure into the forest can be considered as the excursion into sin, and Goodman Brown's finding his evil nature. The forest was said to be “ a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be” (Hawthorne 1).Goodman Brown adventure through the forest is on a tight, dark, and suspicious way. The dark road symbolizes the evil in the forest and also the evil…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Guilt is through the spirit and Pain is the body.” Everyone is sinful or guilty in a way, whether it is lying or doing adultery. It is mistakes that are caused by people. Because you will have to be guilty first in order to suffer the pain that was caused by their sin. Mr. Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne had to suffer his own sin and can’t find a way to confess to the society, no one understands what is he going through. Hester has to suffer from her own sin with everyone be disgusted by her, wish to not have any relationship with her. This is the same with John Proctor in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He had to suffer a sin of his own, due to the affair between him and Abigail Williams. Therefore he has to face…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne commit an act of adultery that is marked by the birth of their daughter Pearl. As a result, the two are forced to face the consequences of their sin by means of the cruelty they receive from their peers. While the Puritans ostracize Hester by forcing her to wear a scarlet A, Dimmesdale is secretly tormented by Hester’s husband Roger Chillingworth. This animosity results in both characters gaining greater insight into the meaning of being human. Therefore, cruelty functions as a means of carrying out the selfish motivations of an individual or society, while revealing how cruelty dehumanizes the perpetrator and enlightens the victim.…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our fatal flaw often brings out the worst in us. The Salem Witch Trials, one of the most influential events in American history. The trials took place in 1692, Salem, Massachusetts. Historically twenty became executed as a result of “witchcraft”. The Crucible, a play written in 1953 about the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, Salem, Massachusetts and the townspeople are contemplating what to do with the prospect of witchcraft running amok in the town. Arthur Miller wrote this play as an allegory to Mccarthyism and the Red Scare, in the same sense that people are frightened by new concepts coming into their town and destroying life as the know it. Envy, we all will have a desire at one point in time; whether or not we let it consume us is another…

    • 2325 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays