Posted by Hannah on April 07, 19100 at 18:30:19:

In Reply to: Re: Hawthorne posted by Bushmanof Africa on October 31, 1999 at 00:30:35:

: I believe that you are wrong in saying that Hawthorne should be read by high school students everywhere. I say this because I am a junior in high school and feel that Hawthorne, in most of his writings (i.e. The Scarlet Letter, Young Goodman Brown), is saying that hypocrisy and choosing sin are much worse than a sin of pion. Let us not lose sight of the fact that any sin is bad, be it pion or not.

This is ridiculous. I'm sorry, but I am tired of all the mush-brained people I encounter. You are probably capable of better than this, young person. I am a young person too, by the way.

First of all, Hawthorne does NOT excuse Arthur and Hestor's sin. He clearly believes that what they did was wrong.

However, you are right--he also believes that crimes of pion are less detestable than sins of hypocrisy, hate, absence of love, etc. This is the only logical position to take, since the latter type of sin involves a coldly premeditative choice whereas giving in to the flesh is only part of the human condition. Not that we can't rise above it, but clearly it is much harder to make the choice not to give in to one's flesh than it is to make the choice to be unkind, for example.

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