• Remember that focused revisions proposals (a.k.a., “rationale statement”) are due today; please hand it in to me now, and I will return it to you before the end of class..
• Form groups of 4
• In small groups, share key quotes and take-aways from the Zinsser “One Writing Well” excerpt reading.  Which statements and ideas resonated with you and why?

Wordsmithing Warm-ups
Please take out any handouts you have related to writing clear prose. Keep Zinsser close to (for moral support).
Try to simplify, clean-up, or clarify each of the following:

1.) Due to the thoughts of the town it is suggested that Chillingworth lives with the minister in order to heal him from his illness.


2.) Reverend Dimmesdale is a public holy man being the minister of the town.


3.) These characters each go through their own hardships, but it is paramount to determine whether they were punished for something that is truly a “sin, or solely something that is looked down upon by society.



4.) Hawthorne through the use of the characters Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale and Rodger Chillingworth portrays that society is but a biased view.


5.) Dimmesdale, on the other hand, has a very dissimilar experience to that of Hester.  


6.) In a society so strictly influenced by Puritan beliefs, Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fall prey to the cruel and harsh nature of the society they live in.

7.) The mention of Hawthorne’s piece illustrates that while the text is nearly two centuries old, it still embodies a significant part of American culture and imparts much about how the liberalization of religion is sometimes necessary for society to move forward, but must be done so within limits.




Essay Evaluation Practice
Read the following essay and edit the paper to improve clarity and conciseness. Also make notes in the margin regarding content/development of the main idea: strengths, weaknesses, places for improvement, etc. Work through it one paragraph at a time (read aloud followed by discussion and editing). Once you have finished reading and editing it, carefully assess it using the rubric provided.  Underline specific words in the rubric that best describe your evaluation of the essay.

Mr. Wesley
English 3AP-10
10 October 2014
Passion and Sin in The Scarlet Letter 
In a society so strictly influenced by Puritan beliefs, Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale fall prey to the cruel and harsh nature of the society they live in. As a punishment for their sins, Dimmesdale and Hester are forced into a life of isolation, but upon being so far removed from civilization, they begin to view their sins with a different frame of mind. Nathaniel Hawthorne, having written The Scarlet Letter during a time period influenced by Romantic ideology, explores the complexity of their sin of adultery from both a Puritan and a Romantic perspective. Hawthorne’s use of juxtaposition to contrast Puritan values with Romantic ideals in society creates a cultural environment in The Scarlet Letter highlighting the intersection of passion and sin, showing how passion can drive an individual to sin and conveying how sometimes sin can lead one down a path that will bestow a newfound sense of humility upon him or her. 
Predominantly, Hawthorne uses juxtaposition of Puritan and Romantic values to portray an intersection of passion and sin. The harsh and God-fearing society Hester lives in publically shames and humiliates her for her sin of adultery, badging her with a scarlet letter, “a halo of misfortune and ignominy” (Hawthorne 37). Conversely, as the story develops and Romantic ideals become more prominent in the text, the conception of the scarlet letter evolves “to stand for Angel” (Hawthorne 109). Hester is regarded with higher respect amidst her cohorts as she becomes somewhat of a martyr for her cause, having endured the repercussions of her sin including public contempt and obligatory isolation, at which point Puritan ideals and Romantic ideals begin to overlap. As the ramifications of Hester’s sin play out, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is at a crossroads due to the guilt he feels for having participated in such a sinful act, although he believes it was “a sin of passion, not of principle” (Hawthorne 137). Dimmesdale’s justification for his action reveals the influence of Romantic values, including emotion and intuition among many. With a more Romantic world-view, adultery was not seen as so much of a crime as it had been in Puritan society, but rather a symbol of the passion Hester and Dimmesdale felt towards one another, and the emotional exchange between the two. Hawthorne utilizes the juxtaposition of both ideologies to underscore the impact one has on the other, and identify the point at which they meet.
Furthermore, Hawthorne emphasizes Puritanism and Romanticism to create a cultural environment that illustrates the contrast between the two ideologies and illustrate how they coincide with each other in the Puritan society. The public display of Hester’s humiliation establishes the “cruel weight and harshness of reality” (Hawthorne 70) in her town, as opposed to the freedom and isolation of the forest, where Hester and Dimmesdale can be free of judgment for their sin. Hawthorne uses the cultural environment to create a distinction between how Hester’s sin of adultery is received by the standards of Puritanism versus how it is seen from a Romantic world view, and amidst this distinction lies the intersection between passion and sin, at which point an act of an extreme exertion of passion in the eyes of the Romantics becomes a sin in the eyes of the Puritans. Dimmesdale, having seen how the town had ostracized Hester, feels an overwhelming sense of guilt and remorse for his actions, due to “the infectious poison of [that] sin” (Hawthorne 152) that plagues him. Additionally, he is a public figure, and a religious one at that, thus there is a lot at stake for him if he is recognized as an adulterer in a town where he is regarded with such high respect. After spending some time isolated from society in the woods alongside Hester, Dimmesdale begins to develop a more Romantic perspective on his sin, calling it a “triumphant ignominy” (Hawthorne 176) before he dies a sinner, highlighting the extent to which the passion that he felt before he committed adultery and after ultimately overshadowed the belief that what he had done was truly sinful. At this point Dimmesdale has also become a martyr for his cause, capturing the passion he feels for his actions.
Moreover, with his death, Reverend Dimmesdale portrays how sin can lead an individual down a path that will bring him or her to a newfound sense of humility. Dimmesdale has long been troubled by his sin, but comes to realize he “[he] might have been supposed safer within the line of virtue, than if he had never sinned at all” (Hawthorne 137). Dimmesdale evidently considers himself a survivor of the turmoil he endured as a repercussion of his actions, which empowers him to come to accept what he has done, and come back into society “another man...a wiser one” (Hawthorne 153). The tumultuous path Dimmesdale’s sin leads him on shows how his sin has changed him into a new person with new strength and a newfound view of the world, bringing about a new sense of humility and humanity in him. Because of his religious identity, the public holds Dimmesdale to high expectations; his sin reveals the imperfection of human nature that even he, a devoutly holy man, is susceptible to. With his last dying breath, Dimmesdale proclaims his death is one of “triumphant ignominy” (Hawthorne 176), revealing how, although he had sinned, he still felt a sense of triumph for all that he endured as a result. Reverend Dimmesdale’s transformation depicts how sin is a means of growth, and for that reason, it can change an individual for the better. 

Overall, despite the harsh and rigid nature of Puritan society, Hawthorne is able to create a cultural environment that foils the concept of sin through the eyes of a Puritan and a Romantic. Through his use of juxtaposition, Hawthorne contrasts the values of Puritanism and Romanticism, creating a cultural environment to reveal the intersection between passion and sin, demonstrating how the two influence one another, depicting how an individual can learn from his or her sin and emerge a stronger, wiser person having been humbled by the obstacles faced as a result. Through the internal and external conflicts Reverend Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne are faced with throughout the novel, Hawthorne portrays certain elements of each ideology to assess the nature and value of their sins before finally, they are able to accept their sin, and move forward from it.