Michael Smedley

Mrs. Pierce
English IV AP
24 May 2016

Sin and Corruption

Sin and corruption are fundamental in life as we know it. It is found throughout everyday
life and within famous works of literature such as The Picture of Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, and
Wuthering Heights. People become tainted by materialistic objects which clouds their minds of
their moral compass. This drives people into madness and causes complete and utter chaos to
break out via the sins that occur. These sins have no restriction and in most cases, people end up
losing their lives by the hands of the corrupted. This corruption is not only found in novels, but
everywhere in the real world as well, allowing people to see the true nature of each other.
The Picture of Dorian Gray shows how innocence within an individual can be tainted
with relative ease. Dorian was a young man who was pure of heart, genuinely kind, and
respectful until a fateful day occurred in which he was acquainted by the presence of Lord
Henry. Lord Henry's essence in itself exemplifies his personality filled with selfishness and evil.
Dorians once pure heart became tainted within mere moments of spending time with such a dark
and diluted human being. The corruption of this previously innocent lad led to a life filled with
sins and unruly temptations. This life of corruption could have been prevented but this was not
the case ( Nevile, Jill, and Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: Oxford UP,
2008. ).
Dorian was a perfect touchstone for upper class beauty and wealth. His divine appearance
and young age attracted numerous amounts of people for separate reasons. One of the people

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who adored him went by the name of Basil, Basil was an artist who was struck with awe upon
viewing this perfect example of a person. Basil created his masterpiece based off the appearance
of Dorian, this masterpiece however was used as a way to judge the corruption within Dorian
over time. Lord Henry uses this beautiful rendition of Dorian as a prime example to show him
that age means everything in the world. He explains that with youth and beauty comes
everything that a person could need, and that once one grows older, no one will bother with them
anymore as they are no longer an important asset. This small discussion changes Dorians
outlook on life permanently ( Nevile, Jill, and Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 2008. ).
Dorian becomes one of the most corrupt characters in literature and manipulates those
around him only to gain new experiences and pleasures. Dorians new persona and attitude
causes deaths of people around him both directly, and indirectly. Dorian leaves a path of
destruction as he goes through life and which cause nothing but death to his newly found love,
his old friend Alan Campbell, and the artist Basil. This transformation that Dorian has gone
through is not only seen in his character himself but in the painting that Basil created prior to his
death. The painting changes with every sin that Dorian commits, slowly becoming what he is
most scared of, himself. The path of sins that were created by Dorian were only caused by his
temptation and corruption due to speaking with the wicked Lord Henry. This literary work does
nothing but show that corruption leads people down a path of evil and that it takes only a
minimal amount of effort to lead someone down this ruthless path. This literary work however, is
not alone but is accompanied by many other works relating to corruption ( Nevile, Jill, and Oscar
Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. ).

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Wuthering Heights is a prime literary work dealing with mainly corruption in various
different ways. Heathcliff is a prime example of this savagery that causes corruption within. He
wants everything to happen by his plans and acts like he is owed something in his life. Heathcliff
was treated poorly by his peers when first arriving in his new home after being a gypsy, he was
constantly harassed by his brother which caused something inside of him to snap. He became a
manipulative and corrupt person stopping at nothing to gain what he wants. Heathcliff grows up
filled with hate which is the prime cause of this corruption. He stops at nothing to get complete
power over all of those who treated him poorly and will not even stop at murder if necessary.
Heathcliff has an eye for opportunity and seizes every beneficial one that passes him, a vital
opportunity occurs during a game of poker between him and his brother. He takes advantage of
his brother and intoxicates him to such a point that he has no reasoning left. This eventually leads
to Heathcliff gaining control over the entire mansion via the deed of the home. Heathcliff
however, does not stop at control over all of his brothers previously owned land, but then plots to
kill his brother himself. Heathcliffs troubled childhood led him down a path of corruption and
lust for power which can only lead a person to sin. This troubled path changes Heathcliffs mind,
as he no longer wants to kill his brother Hindley, but goes out of his way to purposely ruin his
life until he dies as he feels that it is a more cruel punishment than a swift death. Heathcliff
contemplates simple choices as if they were the most difficult to make because his mind is not
normal, but is blurred with fury and corruption. An explicit example is when he involuntarily
saves Hindley's child from falling to death and has a struggle with himself to contemplate
smashing the baby onto the floor as if he were never there to save it in the first place. He seems
to have some innocence left as he does not go through with it, but it is revealed that this is not
true as he plans something else for this child. He decides to take over as the father of the child

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once Hindley is no longer in the picture and treats this child as if it were Hindley himself.
Heathcliff is filled with abuseful nature due to corruption and lust to ruin everyones life around
him. Heathcliff is a cruel person that abuses his wife and even hangs her dog by its neck for no
particular reason. Corruption caused Heathcliff's moral compass to blur and effectively lead to
nothing but various sins (Bronte, Emily, Fritz Eichenberg, and Bruce Rogers. Wuthering Heights.
New York:).
Frankenstein is effectively a perfect example of what corruption leads to. Doctor Victor
Frankenstein created life solely out of parts from cadavers. This creation of life was pure of heart
and mind from the moment it was brought into the world, much like a newborn baby. The
monster as it was called was not of harmful nature, but was curious about what its life
contained. Its malcontentedness was not part of its nature from the beginning, it was learned. The
moment it was brought into the world, its own creator was repulsed by the mere sight of it and
thought of the creation as repulsive. The monster was outcasted and ended up fending for itself in
the wild. The crude words said by its creator however did not let the monster become corrupt as
it still felt the need to do good deeds. The monster learned english through immersion and
lessons via a family household that did not know the monster was living with them. The monster
listened to lessons that Felix gave to Agatha and began to understand the english language and
that using their food for his benefit was a wrong thing to do. The monster realized that he was
stealing supplies from a poor family and decided to assist them with tasks, such as gathering
firewood for the winter, and made sure not to be seen. The monster had no ill intention within
itself and only wanted to aid others. The monsters revelation after this new found knowledge to
read was an eye opener to him. He began to understand the atrocities that humans did to one
another because of greed and began to view himself as a monster and an outcast. The monster

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was outcasted from the cottage it was hiding in and was forced to live in the woods. The monster
did all that it could to be generous to those around him and was returned with nothing but
ungratefulness all due to his appearance. The monster saved a little girl from drowning in a river
and was rewarded with a few rounds of ammunition unloaded into him. The monster was born
pure and generous but became corrupt due to the circumstances that he was put through. The
monster had no complete hatred towards anyone until it was forced upon him. He was fully
aware of why he was treated this way and went back to his creator for assistance only to be lied
to and betrayed once again. This final betrayal was the end of his kindness as he began to desire
his own needs and would stop at nothing until he got them or until there was no one left to
challenge him. The monster becomes ruthless and murders William after it discovered that he
was related to Frankenstein and frames Justine. The monsters new corruptness controlled him to
hunt down all of Victors family and friends in order to force him into giving into the monsters
request. Desire was a learned habit, it was not a natural one. This work of literature truly defines
that corruption causes the pure of heart to commit sins that they would not normally do under
any circumstances. Literature however, is not the only place where corruption is located.
Corruption is found in everyday life in a vast amount of people (Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft,
and Diana Gibson. Frankenstein. Madrid, Espana: Edimat).
These great works of literature are not made from fantasy themes or motifs, they are
based off of real world examples and the fact that corruption is occurring around people in
everyday society. Studies show that under certain circumstances people will tend to have
corruption behavior in order to achieve what they want even if it is a trivial matter. An example
of this is accepting a family member or close friend as an employee rather than someone you do
not know even though they may be more suitable for the job simply because you know those

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people and have correlations with them. Over 40% of people who were asked about this certain
circumstance claimed that this was decidedly corrupted behavior at least, and may be more
severe than that. Most of the studies pertain to a person receiving a gift or discussing something
that pertains to them in a positive manner even though it may not be true. An example of
receiving a gift would be receiving money from a politician in exchange to run an election
campaign without disclosing any information to the public. If the information were to be
disclosed to the public than it would not be such a great issue as it would declare the interest of
the firm who lent the money. This shows corruption in the purest form as it shows that people are
willing to hide facts from one another in order to gain an advantage in everyday life. Though
these events may not seem major, they are a gateway for more serious ones to unfold. Corruption
is not easily removed from a person once they have a taste of it as it empowers them to achieve
what they want by any means necessary. These people involved become untruthful and distant
from those around them as they believe this sort of behavior aids in their plan to achieve their
goals. Occurrences happen like this in everyday life and they give authors inspiration to write
literary works based upon them to show human nature in a fictional work of literature (Kubiak,
Anna. "Corruption in Everyday Experience." Risk and Society (2001)).
Politics are in everyday life, and as everything in life, can be filled with kind hearted
individuals or with cruels leaders stopping at nothing to achieve what they believe to be the only
option (Thomas. "The Value of Political Corruption." The New York Times. The New York
Times) . A leader such as Adolf Hitler is a prime example of corruption within leaders, not only
for what he did, but how he went about leading his nation. Hitler used the fears of the people of
Germany and feasted upon those fears in order to rise to power. This fear arose after the first
world war and it allowed for his corruptness to take over. He decided to take advantage of weak

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people for his own personal gain which shows that he was truly corrupt. His rise to power was
not one to be impressed by, but one to be repulsed by as feasting on the weak is in no way the
characteristic of a pure hearted individual, but one of a corrupt being ("Adolf Hitler." Grobman,
Gary. N.p., 19 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.) . Hitler was not the only leader however to feast
on the weaknesses of others. Joseph Stalin is another valid candidate that has done this as well
("Joseph Stalins Rise to Corruption." Global Issues. N.p., 2011. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.). These two
leaders give people knowledge that corruption is everywhere in everyday life, not just in pieces
of literature.
The works of literature known as The Picture of Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, and
Wuthering Heights while fictional, have truth to them as people will do anything to aid them in
their goals. They will become corrupt with power and force their hand upon others in order to
achieve what they want at any particular point. Dorian Gray does so by selling his soul to the
devil in order to stay young for his own personal gain showing his corruptness. Dorian also
causes the deaths of those he previously loved before turning over to the dark side of his mind.
The creature of Victor Frankenstein shows that even though a person can be pure hearted with no
ill intentions whatsoever, corruption can take the best of them if it comes between what they
want. The monster had no intention of harming others until learning about the corruption that
already existed in the world within a piece of literature titled Ruins of Empires. Heathcliff was a
cruel individual who would stop at nothing for revenge and became corrupt due to the fact of his
poor treatment. He wanted nothing more than revenge and that is was caused his corruption. He
had no control over his moral compass as he thought about murdering and torturing those around
him at every waking moment. Society in the world as we know it shows that individuals will stop
at nothing to achieve their dreams if it means sinning, this is also shown by leaders such as Hitler

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and Stalin. Literature revolves around sin and corruption in life and draws from real events
throughout history. Sin and Corruption within people is not a fictional theme or motif, it happens
in everyday life and authors use those occurrences as examples to go by.

Annotated Bibliography
"Adolf Hitler." Grobman, Gary. N.p., 19 Apr. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
<http://remember.org/guide/facts-root-hitler>.

Summary: This website depicts Hitler's early life and the historical
events that occurred during his childhood. It gives clear information on his political
views and how he decided to go about become leader of his country. The
information states his rise to power during the war in order to lead Germany out of a
depression which ultimately gave him his ultimate power. He seemed like an over
achiever that wanted to have people view Germany as the great country it was

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during that time, which led to his power. It ultimately shows how once he became an
idol to his people that everything he said would be accepted as facts and shows that
all of his power corrupted him and in turn caused him to be the monstrosity he is
known as. This corruption of power eventually led to the holocaust and tragic events
that happened during World War 2.
Evaluation: This source is reliable and states a multitude of facts
about a corrupt individual that relates to my topic and shows how it happens in the
real world. It is a reliable source from an organization that aids with my thesis topic.
It allows me to have a real world example of sin and corruption.
Reflection: This source was helpful as is aided me with a real world
example on my thesis

Bronte, Emily, Fritz Eichenberg, and Bruce Rogers. Wuthering Heights. New York:
Random House, 1943. Print.

Summary: A man by the name of Lockwood settles into a new home

and is surrounded by a handful of strange characters that allow the events to unfold
like they do. One of the main neighbors goes by the name of Heathcliff. Heathcliff
is the major person who shows his sinful side. He stops at nothing to get revenge
towards his brother. Brother being used lightly as Heathcliff was adopted and
treated poorly throughout his childhood by this brother. Heathcliff becomes corrupt
from how he was treated as a young lad and wants to stop at nothing in order to
repay the favour. Heathcliff at one point contemplates murdering his brother whilst
he is sleeping but his plan is foiled due to the door being locked. Heathcliff also

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does many sinful things that include attempted murder on his brothers baby by
dropping him off of a balcony. Heathcliff is a corrupt individual that truly shows
that corruption can cause an unhealthy lifestyle of sin later on in life.
Evaluation: This is a useful source as it comes from a piece of
literature we have read in class and fits in with The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is
reliable due to the fact that sin and corruption is a main theme, and the goal is to
have a reliable source to reference.
Reflection: This source aids my research as it is a direct piece of
literature that was read during our class time that perfectly suits my thesis. It
pertains to a corrupt individual that stops at nothing to obtain what he believes is
his. His drive of pure hatred gives a prime example of the lengths people will go to,
to gain what they want.
"Joseph Stalins Rise to Corruption." Global Issues. N.p., 2011. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
<https://issuesfortoday.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/joseph-stalins-rise-tocorruption/>.

Summary: This article states key facts in Stalin's life as he rose to the
role of leader of Russia via the use of corruption. It gives key informational facts
about this corruption, an example being the robbing of banks in order to send money
to Lenin which in turn allowed Stalin to become one of Lenins party members.
Facts about witch-hunts are also presented in this article which talk about the
murder of a high volume of key Lenin supporters and intelligentsias. It talks about
the multiple imprisonments of Stalin and his corruption as a person.
Evaluation: This source is quite useful as it allows me to gain key
information on another leader who was corrupt during his time of ruling. This

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source is reliable and even states some of the key places it received information
from which shows they are reliable with their facts.
Reflection: This source will help me reference another key instance
of corruption and sin within the world helping me reference my thesis properly.

Kubiak, Anna. "Corruption in Everyday Experience." Risk and Society (2001): n. pag.
World
Bank Funds. Web.
<http://www.batory.org.pl/ftp/program/przeciwkorupcji/publikacje/corrupt_everyday.pdf>.

Summary: Provides clear facts of corruption in real life with clearly

depicted graphs and charts of numerical data. It depicts statistics of how people are
corrupted and why they chose to do so. It has clear information on bribery of all
people with power and shows just how often something of this nature can occur.
These clearly depicted facts show corruption within public officials, politicians, and
individuals and shows how often corruption takes over people in everyday life.
Corruption within people occurs in everyday life in a high quantity and shows that
many people don't have high moral status and will do anything for money.
Evaluation: This is a useful source that gives accurate statistics on
corruption in everyday life and allows me to give numerical claims to my thesis. It
is a reliable source and gives me numerical stats to base my research off of.
Reflection: The source was helpful based off of the vast amounts of
statistics it gave to me.

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Nevile, Jill, and Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008.
Print.

Summary: A young man by the name of Dorian who has not been
corrupted by the outside world decides to have a portrait of him painted by a quite
skilled artist. This rendition of this young man shows all of his perfections and his
uniqueness as an individual young lad. This portrait however is the main cause of
all of his upcoming corruption along with the aid and guidance of a so called
friend, Lord Henry. Lord Henry implants the thought into Dorian that growing
old leads to nothing but bad signs and that staying young is the way to get what
you want and is the only true way to live life. This causes Dorian to feel the need
to make a deal with the devil to stay forever young in order to get what he
wants. Dorian has been corrupted with his power of his youth and based off of
this he commits many sins. Dorian ends up with the blood of his friends on his
hands after killing some of them and causing death around him which shows how
terrible corruption can really be.
Evaluation: The information is reliable as it is a direct source from
a novel that was read in class. The goal of the source is to have direct examples
from a text we read in class.
Reflection: The source is helpful as it allows me to have prime
examples of my thesis that are able to be cited throughout my paper.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Diana Gibson. Frankenstein. Madrid, Espana: Edimat
Libros, 2000. Print.

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Summary: A genius scientist decides to create life from the body
parts of deceased people. The scientist known as Dr. Frankenstein succeeds in doing
so, but unwillingly created a disgusting monster that he is repulsed by. The
monster however is kind hearted and just wants to be accepted by those around him.
His repulsive look however causes everyone around him including his creator to
treat him like a monster. The monster lives his life away from his creator and is
respectful to everyone. He saves a little child from drowning and even brings
firewood to a poor family to help them in their situation. The monster however, is
thanked by gunshots fired towards him and he feels betrayed. He becomes corrupted
by those around him based off how they treated him and decides to take out his rage
on Dr. Frankenstein and his loved ones. The monster hunts them down and murders
them in order to get revenge, he also blackmails his creator into creating a female
monster.
Evaluation: This source fits in with my other book sources which we
read in class and has reliable information in it. It shows how characters respond to
one another and how easy it is for a clean hearted person to become tainted. The
source allows me to quote direct instances that prove my point of corruption having
the ability to take over anyone.
Reflection: This source was helpful as corruption within was a major
theme in this novel that perfectly depicts my thesis.

Thomas. "The Value of Political Corruption." The New York Times. The New York Times,
05
Aug. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.

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<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/opinion/thomas-edsall-the-value-of-politicalcorru ption.html?_r=0>.

Summary: This article allows normal people to view the issue of

corruption in a substantially easy method. It gives accurate percentages from recent
years about corruption within our own country, The United States. It shows that
corruption can be found everywhere and not just in foreign countries. It shows how
greed causes people to become corrupt and do anything necessary to get their way. It
shows that people will stop at nothing in order to gain the power they need.
Evaluation: This source is quite useful as it gives insight on what
populants think about their own government and whether it is corrupt or not. It fits
in with the other source containing numerical values and allows me to draw precise
numbers and facts to support my thesis claim.
Reflection: This source is helpful and will allow me to use key facts
in order to support my thesis with numerical values.