Comparing The Scarlet Letter and Long Black Veil :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing The Scarlet garner and Long Black Veil The song, Long Black Veil, write by Johnny Cash has many similar elements to The Scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both have to do with the sin of fornication that ends up hurting the characters in the stories. In Long Black Veil a man is convicted of a murder because he cannot provide an exculpation for the darkness that another man was killed. It turns bring out that the night of the murder, this man had been in the build up of his best friends married woman. The man ends up being executed while the muliebrity punishes herself for not saving his life by wearing a broad black veil. Long Black Veil and The Scarlet Letter twain demonstrate how secrets can destroy ones life. This theme is shown through the sin of adultery, the punishments that the characters go through and the symbolism of the long black veil and the scarlet letter. The victor sin of adultery is what starts the events that end up ruining th e characters lives. Come up hither, Hester, thou and little Pearl...Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you. Come up hither once again, and we will contain all three together (p. 133). Though it is never said out in the open, you come to the realization that Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale have committed the sin of adultery and when Hester becomes pregnant, she is convicted for that sin. Id been in the arms of my best friends / wife The man and his best friends wife also commit the sin of adultery and when he cannot give an alibi to a judge because he does not want anyone to know where he was that night, he is convicted for murder and executed. Adultery is what ends up destroying the characters lives because none except for Hester be willing to admit to the sin of adultery. The punishments that the characters must undergo are worsen by the fact that they do not tell the whole truth. Hester has been prime guilty of adultery but when she is asked to tell whom it was that she committed the sin with she refuses tell Never.