Abstract
This paper examines how Nathaniel Hawthorne was a prolific writer of short stories, novels, and children's books, and how his works cover a variety of different subjects. It looks at how there are several themes that recur in his works and how one of these themes relates to sin and depravity. It shows how it is one of the major themes of his best known work, "The Scarlet Letter", and how the same theme also surfaces in a number of other works, including the short story, "Young Goodman Brown", and the short story, "The Minister's Black Veil." It explores how, in all of these works, Hawthorne communicates a similar view of human nature as it relates to sin and depravity and how he always shows sin and depravity as natural parts of human nature, parts that people must constantly battle.

From the Paper
"As Hawthorne's best known work, it is fitting that the analysis begins with The Scarlet Letter. As well as being his best known work, The Scarlet Letter, is also a work with sin as the central theme. One source describes it as "an outstanding study of attitudes to sin and guilt, and of human psychology" (Kamm 204). Another source creates the link between the themes of sin and the study of human psychology by stating that the story is really about the character's personal battle between good and evil (Van Doren 10). This view of the story recognizes that the tendency toward sin is part of every person, where sin can also be described as evil. The good side of the person battles to control this desire to sin, but often the battle cannot be won. In the story, this is seen with the characters of Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, and Hester."

Tags:young, goodman, brown, scarlet, letter, minister, black, veil

Abstract
This paper examines the causes of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's murderous depravity. The paper discusses the defense attorney's insanity defense and details the biological causes, genetic disposition, mental disorders, sociological and economic causes.

From the Paper
"The Causes of Crime. Summing up the case for his client's insanity, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's defense lawyer, Gerald Boyle, painted a chilling picture with his words. Skulls in a locker, cannibalism, sexual urges, drilling, making zombies, necrophilia, drinking alcohol all the time, trying to create a shrine, lobotomies de fleshing, calling taxidermists going to grave yards and masturbating. This is Jeffrey Dahmer; a runaway train on a track of madness."

Tags:causes, of, crime, criminology

From the Paper
"With Blue Velvet, David Lynch did an effective job in dividing both popular and critical opinions about his odd piece of cinema. While some hail it as a masterpiece, others retain that it is pure perverse nonsense. Despite the initial shock of the overly violent sequences, Lynch's vivid revelation of baseness and depravity in small-town America makes its point clearly, if not bizarrely. One of the most obvious and effective ways by which the film's themes are conveyed is through an absolutely brilliant utilization of sound and score."

Tags:lynch, david, blue, velvet, film, music

Abstract
This essay will argue that it is possible to read "Billy Budd" on a number of levels. Of course, it is an interesting tale of shipboard life at the end of the eighteenth century. As well, it may be seen as an allegory for the life of Christ, with the virtuous, innocent and inarticulate Billy Budd standing in for Christ. On yet another level it may be seen as a story of innocent virtue versus experienced corruption and impotence. In this respect, Melville's intended American audience may have read the story as tale of the corruption of the Old World and its decaying cosmopolitan civilization.

Abstract
The paper explains the main theme of Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men", which is the sideslip of the modern world towards evil and depravity. The paper goes on to show how the book emphasizes the dark side of American life, with its extreme corruption and violence. The paper also highlights how the world constructed by McCarthy appears as an entrapment for the modern man, which not only encloses him tightly but also blinds him to anything else. The paper concludes that in McCarthy's novel, evil in the modern world is not so much perpetuated through actual perpetration, but through the modern's universe lack of concern for the distinction between good and bad.

From the Paper
"Cormac McCarthy's novel No Country for Old Men takes its title from William Butler Yeats' famous poem Sailing to Byzantium. The title therefore already announces the main theme of the book: the sideslip of the modern world towards evil and depravity. The fast paced action of the novel and the sketchy descriptions make of the book a Western and even a literary thriller, but, at a deeper level, the text is fraught with profound meanings about the battle between the forces of evil and the forces of good. McCarthy's world is filled with too much corruption and evil and too little good. The chain of gruesome crimes and amoral deeds pervades the whole of the novel. McCarthy thus depicts the modern world as a state of things in which the equipoise between good and evil is lost. This why the world is no longer fitted for old men who belong to a more balanced and ordered state of things."

Tags:good, evil, depravity, immorality, corruption, violence

Abstract
An analysis of the character of Bosola in Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" contending that the character, like the play, is shrouded in uncertain mists of evil, ugliness, and depravity. The author looks at the experiences of the character and how the character changes throughout the play.

From the Paper
"The Duchess of Malfi takes place in what Northrup Frye called a "sick and melancholy society" (Rabkin 119). Rupert Brook described Webster's characters as "writhing grubs in an immense night" (Rabkin 112). Evil, ugliness, and depravity rule. Beauty and goodness are doomed. In the beginning the character Bosola appears to fit right in, to be an unprincipled man with no conscience. Whether this is his real self, or whether he is an actor playing a part in order to survive in a polluted and perverted world, or whether he changes during the course of the action are some of the questions Webster enshrouds in the mist of this play. Finding clarity is the responsibility of each individual reader or viewer, as it was, in the end, up to Bosola to find his own way through the mist."

Tags:john, personality, evil, ugliness, depravity, responsibility, personality

Abstract
This paper examines how both William Golding in "Lord of the Flies" and George Orwell in "1984" present a grim view of human nature, a view that indicates that humanity has an irresistible tendency to fall into an abyss of depravity and oppression. The paper explains that at first, Golding seems to offer a less pessimistic view of human nature than Orwell does but in the end their views are nearly identical. The paper looks at how Golding's boys begin free from the oppressions of society, but fall into savagery and how Orwell's society has already fallen before the novel opens, and escape is out of the question. The writer concludes that, in the end, it is harder to say whose vision is more negative, and a reader can do little more than hope that neither author is correct in his bleak vision.

From the Paper
"Orwell presents a society already fallen. The Party controls every aspect of life, especially through the control of the constant propaganda that is bombarded on the inhabitants of Oceana, in which London is located. With the telescreens that watch every person (Orwell 2, 5-6, 9, 11, 27, 97, 148), the "two-minutes hate" each day, to the monthly public hangings (Orwell 23-4, 49-50, 57), the constant fear of the thought police (Orwell 4-5, 62, 101), grim depravation in which goods are always in short supply (Orwell 49, 162), and everything from cigarettes (Orwell 5), to gin (Orwell 5, 77, 150) to housing (Orwell 20-21), is of such poor quality that there is no possibility of joy in life (Orwell 41, 49, 60-61), this is a totalitarian society."

Tags:depravity, oppression, savagery, totalitarian, society

Abstract
This comparative essay discusses William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" and George Orwell's "1984," finding them both grim novels. Golding starts with the boys in an idyllic setting, on a tropical island without adults, and shows their descent into depravity. Orwell presents a society already depraved, eventually catching and destroying Winston Smith as he attempts to break out. Each author's vision is bleak.

From the Paper
"Both William Golding in Lord of the Flies and George Orwell in 1984 present a grim view of human nature, a view that indicates that humanity has an irresistible tendency to fall into an abyss of depravity and oppression. In Lord of the Flies, a group of English school boys are stranded on a deserted tropical island, with no adult supervision. Free to establish their own society, they begin in what seems an idyllic situation, but gradually sink to a state in which they are hunting one another, with the depraved goal of impaling a hunted boy's head on a stick ...."

Tags:orwell, golding, bleak

Abstract
The paper uses Millard Erickson's book "Christian Theology" to compare and contrast the belief structures of the Calvinists, Arminians and Karl Barth. This includes a brief summary of Erickson's perspective on how the conflicts between these theologies can be resolved. The topics discussed in this paper include predestination, the elect, human depravity and free will as pertains to these concepts.

From the Paper
"The Calvinists and Arminians have some very basic conflicting views of the predestination of humans in relation to God, grace and free will. Theologian Karl Barth devised a series of arguments that attempted to walk a path between or perhaps around these conflicting arguments, while still not completely disagreeing with either position out of hand. In this paper, I will discuss the similarities and differences between these three perspectives and describe Millard Erickson's solution to the apparent discrepancies. The Calvinist beliefs on predestination are complex, and are best described, according to Erickson, as falling into one of five basic tenets. These are: "total depravity, unconditional predestination, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance." Each of these concepts is important to understanding their basic belief system, although there are variations in the theology."

Tags:calvinism, arminianism, barth

Abstract
The paper shows that the story of the original sin was a vitally important one for Christians throughout history, and in the extensively Christian world for which William Shakespeare wrote, its absolute truth went unquestioned. The paper discusses how in many ways, the play "Othello" may be seen as a political, emotional, and tragic response to the same questions of knowledge, culpability and death that this creation myth inspires. It shows how the serpent, Iago, convinces the original and ideal man to rebel against god in search of knowledge that he ought not have, and which will only destroy him: Thus Othello falls from strength and purity to weakness, depravity, and death.

From the Paper
"Act III, Scene III, is by far the most loaded and pivotal scene in the play. It is in this scene that Othello is truly seduced to take the forbidden fruit in his hand and to let that "green-eyed monster" of jealousy to run loose in his heart. Like a newly created creature, at the beginning of the seen he is a lighthearted 16 year old bridegroom. Certainly he has seen his share of the world, won battles and undergone dire straits, but he is still in many ways childlike and innocent. "

Tags:Montaigne, Marlowe, Spencer, Emilia, Cassio