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Sin Can't Buy Happiness
Lindsay Kate Britton
John Blakey
ENG4U
Monday May 11th
From the very start of creation to modern day sin has been knocking on man's door. It is rooted in his selfish desires and follows him, tempting, taunting and torturing with a false and temporary satisfaction. It was Benjamin Franklin who said “Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful”. Both C.S. Lewis' masterpiece The Screwtape Letters and Oscar Wilde's brilliant classic The Picture of Dorian Gray explore sin as their main theme. The novels demonstrate that is is a deeply part of humanity. Throughout each book it takes many shapes sometimes as a desire and even sometimes physically in another person. Sin is a destroyer and just like the branches on a family tree that lead to estranged relations, it is unavoidable. Many, fall into sin blindly and then there are those who willingly place themselves in its hideous palm. But each indulge in it's false pleasures with no care to consequence which is unfortunately dire.
The Bible describes sin as separation from God (Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”). God is depicted as a perfect being, and therefore cannot be on the same level as sin. So, much as when a son does wrong in the eyes of his father, humanity's sin creates a rift between them and the divine. But what exactly constitutes a sin? The Jewish faith has 613 commandments that depict what a person must and must not do, but boiled down the answer to the definition of sin is much simpler. The Merriam-Webster defines sin as 1 a: an offence against religious or moral law; b: an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible (it's a sin to waste food) c: an often serious shortcoming : fault; 2 a: transgression of the law of God; b: a vitiated state of
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human nature in which the self is estranged from God. This definition parallels with the Bible which has several different ways of explaining sin. 1 John 3:4 takes the obedience approach and states: “Everyone who makes a practise of sinning also practises lawlessness; sin is lawlessness”. This verse in John compares sin to transgression and obedience to being law-abiding. But the ten commandments or present day laws are only fraction of the definition. Sin is also the omission or failing to do what God asks of you (James 4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”). However, sin is not just a religious idea, it is relevant to every last person, regardless of their beliefs. Every human being has a conscience which tells right from wrong and sometimes produces a feeling of guilt over one's wrongs. In a religious concept sin is anything that offends God; in a worldly context sin is anything that society generally considers to be immoral.
The Bible narrates the fall of mankind eloquently through the sin of two humans. God created Adam in his likeness to govern over Eden but over time Adam's loneliness became obvious. God then created Eve, a helper and like the rest of creation, it was good. To his two servants God gave the whole of Eden except for one thing: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. From this tree, they were not to take. And, like servants to a master, the were obedient. Though the end of the story is known to most everyone: the two sin. But how can a creature without any knowledge of right and wrong sin? In both The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Screwtape Letters, the main characters are introduced to sin by another. In the Bible Satan was the original instigator of sin, he tempted Eve to take the apple and she obliged. If sin had not came to her door and knocked, she would still be blameless. Lord Henry Wotton of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is a character who has extensive views on just about everything. He thinks himself a philosopher, one whose primary focus is what the the world sees as immoral. He is an instigator of sin for the novel's main character Dorian. When Lord Henry first sees Dorian he describes the young man as particularly innocent “All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world (pg
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21)”. He is a pure boy when first revealed, much like Adam & Eve before their great sin. When the two are introduced Dorian is warned that Lord Henry is a bad influence. When asked by Dorian if this is true the subject replies with “There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr Gray. All influence is immoral... Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul ” Influence becomes an increasingly prevalent theme throughout the book as Lord Henry ministers his own beliefs to Dorian. Lord Henry is easily compared to the snake in the Garden Of Eden who tempts Eve into sin; He corrupts Dorian with ideas like “There's only one way to get rid of a temptation, and that's to yield to it (pg 23)”. Dorian feels that Lord Henry has 'opened his eyes' with his many ideas and theories and when he ignorantly takes his advice it has has both physical and mental consequences like sin itself.
In C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters he portrays Satan and sin satirically in a positive light. The book is written as a series of letters from a 'Senior Devil' to a 'Junior Devil'. The former is Screwtape, an 'Under Secretary' tormentor, the latter his nephew, Wormwood, an apprentice. In the novel God is named 'The Enemy' whereas Satan takes on the name 'Our Father Below'. Each devil is
assigned a 'patient', a human whom it is their job to bring to the Kingdom Below through simple and
frighteningly unnoticeable ways: “All these, as I find from the record office, are thoroughly reliable people; steady, consistent scoffers and world-lings who without any spectacular crimes are progressing quietly and comfortably toward our father’s house. (pg 57)”. Lewis again and again addresses the idea of sin being accidental or more so the sin of omission. Screwtape instructs Wormwood to make his patient blind of his own actions and keep him at a state of mind in which he feels he is doing the right thing “You must bring him to a condition in which he can practise self-examination for an hour with-out discovering any of those facts about himself that are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office (pg 21)”. The most insidious type of sin is that which is unrecognizable, even when seen in the full light of day.
With incredible insight Lewis makes the point that often people are hypocrites. “All you then
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have to do is keep out of his mind the question 'If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention? (pg 1 cool ” He illustrates perfectly the sinful pride of human kind. Divided by racial backgrounds, religions and geography persons are more likely to care for their own than their neighbour. “I am a Jew. Hath/not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,/dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with/the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject/to the same diseases, healed by the same means,/warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as/a Christian is? If you p***k us, do we not bleed?/if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison/us, do we not die?”. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare takes place in an intolerant Venice. The Christians look upon the Jews as lesser beings and in some cases do not even regard them as human. The pious nation shuns the Jews to their ghetto, picking at their flaws which is only too ironic, considering the first book of the New Testament, Mathew, calls them to do the opposite: “3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Similarly, Oscar Wilde also touches on the theme of human arrogance as well as hypocrisy in The Picture Of Dorian Gray. “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world in its own shame. (pg 172)”. As humans, mankind is inherently narcissistic and doesn't want to be reminded that it has faults, so like a bully each individual becomes a tormentor of the what they deem the weaker link. As a species humanity cares about their own desires and their own pleasures and their own wants and needs, something that interestingly enough is one of Screwtapes pointers to his nephew: “We produce the patients sense of ownership not only by pride but by confusion. We teach them not to notice the different senses of the possessive
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pronoun – the finely graded differences that run from 'my boots' through 'my dog, 'my servant', 'my wife', 'my father', 'my master', and 'my country' to 'my God'. They can be taught to reduce all these senses to that of 'my boots', the 'my' of ownership (pg 109)”. Selfishness, like hypocrisy and arrogance is one of the greatest banes of society, it prevents a wholeness that would be incredibly powerful if achieved.
Just like an addiction, the first step to overcoming sin is admitting it. There are different ways to repent of sins. In the Old Testament burnt offerings were given to God to atone for wickedness. A perfect animal with no defect was to be the sacrifice. In many cases it would be a male bull or lamb but the poor used pigeons or doves. The sinner would place two hands on the animal - a sign of transferring the sin - and then kill the animal to pay the penalty. Often times the physical affects of sin are unnoticeable. Lord Henry Wotton from The Picture of Dorian Gray puts beauty alongside morality, and describes morality as opposite of intellect “Look at the successful men in any learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don't think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful. (pg 7)” Sin is though by most to be only a corruption of the heart rather than one of the visage, but that is not so for Dorian Gray. “How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that-for that-I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that! (pg 31)” With these words Dorian Gray transfers all his future sin to his portrait. From that moment on all corruption which he takes part in does not affect him physically. But as he grows more worldly and participates in sinful things Dorian's portrait begins to change. The once reflection of a beautiful young man becomes a cruel and ghastly sight “in the eyes there was a look of cunning and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the
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hypocrite... the thing was still loathsome – more loathsome, if possible, than before – and the scarlet dew that spotted the hand seemed brighter, and more like blood newly spilled (pg 20 cool ”. Dorian's sin is his ultimate downfall. His life of luxury and 'satisfaction' falls short of any actual delight. Instead his actions eat away at him and his heart to such extremes that he murders some of the closest people in his life.
Wickedness, disobedience, sin, it all has an allure. It seems to pleasurable and one desires most things forbidden but in the end it is simply not worth it. A life of wickedness seems so much more satisfactory to the ignorant but as one grows wiser they come to realize that like money, sin can't buy happiness. One must learn to resist and to ultimately conquer their own personal devil. Sin does not bring reward. Dorian dies a lonely death because of his crude life whereas Wormwood's nameless patient chooses light over darkness. Nothing can be achieved through a life of wrongdoing but through a life of humility and sacrifice and obedience one will be rewarded
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Works Cited
Bible Gateway, 10 May 2009
<http://www.biblegateway.com>
“Definition of Sin”, 10 May 2009
<http://mw1.m-w.com/dictionary/sin>
Lewis, C.S. The Screwtape Letters, London and Glasgow, Collins Clear-Type Press, 1942
NIV, The Bible, 1999
“Sin” Ethics and Values Volume 7, 1999
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice, Simon & Schuster, 2004
Wilde, Oscar. The Portrait of Dorian Gray, New York, New York, Penguin Books, 1985
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