Seven Deadly Sins

Kevin Leiton
English
Research Paper
First Draft

Deadly Afflictions?

The Seven Deadly Sins are known as the most immoral practices that have been used to teach about “fallen men’s tendency to sin”. In not any particular order, they are sloth, greed, gluttony, wrath, lust, envy, and pride. In my estimation, the seven deadly sins are, in actuality, an enigma yet to be fully understood. Something I have thought often while pondering on the matter is, “Yes, they are sins, but does that necessarily mean that if you’re ‘afflicted’ with one, do you suffer and or endure tragedy?” In order to be able to answer that question, you have to delve deeper into each individual “sin”. Who’s to say that one sin is more dangerous than the other? It’s hard to say, especially since each sin is different from each other (except maybe for lust and envy).
First you must know about the sins so you can have a basic understanding of why they are considered immoral. The seven sins are derived from Christianity. They are pretty controversial due to the fact that they have to do with religion and beliefs. Mortal sins are said to “destroy to life of grace, and create the threat of eternal damnation” unless you do an act to forgive you of those sins, such as going through the sacrament of confession. The only type of sin is venial, which is not as severe and can be forgiven through the sacraments of the church. As you can tell by the name, the seven deadly sins are mortal sins.
Even though some of these sins go deep in the aspect of spirituality, they are not all that complicated. Take sloth for example. We all know if someone is a sloth, it means that that person is lazy and a majority of the time, doesn’t want to do anything, including taking care of personal hygiene. But in the end, what are they really doing? It’s more of an internal problem. By being slothful, in reality, you are not using the talents and gifts that you possess. It can even go as far as someone being apathetic or indifferent to everybody and everything around him. In Christianity, being afflicted with sloth means putting off what God asks you to do, ultimately showing Him that you do not love him.
Greed is one of the three sins of excess. Excess in what? A variety of things. Money, wealth, power. They all have a connection though. Somebody afflicted with greed try to find happiness through material objects. Think of someone who has a hole in their life, and he tries to fill it up with things that he thinks would bring him joy. While you possess the things you want, you may have small comfort, but never true happiness. Greed is considered one of the seven deadly sins due to the fact that it goes against the commandment “I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other Gods before me.” While material possessions may not literally be another God, it is a form of idolatry if you value these things more than God.
Gluttony, like greed, is a sin of excess, but takes it to a different level. Gluttony in itself is a pretty controversial sin on what it refers to, but let’s agree that gluttony is over-consumption of things like food, drinks, or intoxicants “to the point of waste.” This means a desire for foods and such, when you honestly do not really need it. Church leaders have taken gluttony even farther by showing five signs in which gluttony is portrayed; Time, quality, stimulants, quantity, and eagerness. Quality, quantity, and eagerness are easy enough to understand. However, church leaders put time because of people eating before meal times in order to satisfy themselves, and stimulants for adding more to what you already have.
It’s safe to say that somebody would not like to be best friends with someone afflicted with wrath. Wrath is pretty serious in reality since its uncontrolled, irrational feelings of hate and anger that can be directed to anybody, including you. This leads to the desire to do harm to people, and can maybe even lead to suicide (also a sin), “a final rejection of God’s gifts.” Wrath is usually associated with “denial” and vengeance or revenge, which can possibly lead to murder, genocide, or other forms of violence. Out of all seven sins, it is the only one that doesn’t necessarily have to do with self-gain, but can be. Being afflicted with wrath can be as evident as a situation in where somebody loses something of yours, and you assault him or her.
Lust is the third sin of excess, and pretty straightforward. And it’s just this; excessive thoughts or desires of the sexual nature. Lust is craving to please yourself and your body. Being lust will get you the title of a pervert. Many people would think that being afflicted with lust is not that sinful. That’s not entirely true. Being lustful can bring sexual addictions, rape, adultery, incest, and “bestiality”, which are sexual relationships with an animal. Lust does not limit to sexual feelings however. Desire to avoid pain, comfort, or the best of something can all be lust. Anything that brings pleasure. Those afflicted with lust become blind to many things, including warning signs in a relationship, and lust tends to go out of control.
Envy and lust and greed are pretty similar in relationship. Just as greed compares to envy. Envy derives from lust. Envy is the exact opposition of love because of what they signify. In love, you seek out other people’s best interests, and you become happy for whatever good comes to them. Nothing but resentment comes out of envy; you resent the good that comes to people. You want it all for yourself. Greed compares to envy because in both, you want something. In greed, you want material objects, whereas envy is more general. Yet, envy derives from lust because you want what others possess. You “love” what others have.
Finally, there’s pride. Pride has been said to be the original and most serious out of all of the sins. Upon further examination of pride, you will notice that it’s where all of the other sins derive from. In sloth, you’re too “good” to do what you need to do. In greed, you desire what you think will bring you happiness. Same as gluttony but with food or power. For wrath, your excessive love of self can lead to anger towards those “lower than you”. For lust and envy, your tug to be the most attractive, important, or simply have all you desire shows pride. Pride can be summed with the sentence “If someone else’s pride bothers you, you have a lot of pride. In Christianity, pride is extremely serious because it comes with love of self more than love of God. Pride is the result of Satan, or Lucifer, who in his desire to be equal to God, fell from heaven. And that’s what people with a lot of pride do: try to make themselves as perfect as God.
Now back to the question. Does being afflicted with any one of these sins bring you tragedy and or suffering? The answer to that is: you guessed it; depends on the sin. In Garth Nix’s series, Keys to the Kingdom, he subtly has one character from each of the seven books (in accordance to the weekend; Monday through Sunday) afflicted with one of the Seven Sins. If you have not guessed, these characters are the antagonists of the series, known as the Trustees. All in all, Keys to the Kingdom is a pretty hard book to follow, but the points are very clear. Taken from Wikipedia, here is a plot summary to the book.

“The series protagonist is an asthmatic 12-year-old boy, Arthur Penhaligon. The series begins on a Monday, with the events starting a week later on the next Monday. Each book moves onto the next day of the week, over the course of about three weeks in Earth time, concluding on a Sunday. Each day features beings, collectively known as the Trustees, who each govern a portion of the House, which is the center of the universe. The seven demesnes of the House are, in the order Arthur visits them: The Lower House, the Far Reaches, the Border Sea, the Great Maze, the Middle House, the Upper House, and the Incomparable Gardens. In the beginning of the first book, Arthur lives a relatively normal life as an adopted child in a large and caring family. An asthma attack on a Monday that should have killed him bring him into contact with Mister Monday, who rules the lower house. He eventually finds his way into the Lower House himself, where he is to find a cure to a plague brought to his world by its agents. By convenience, he is declared Heir to the Kingdom and given the Lesser Half of the First Key, which is shaped like the minute hand of a clock. Because of this Key’s magical properties, Arthur is relieved of his asthma while in contact with the Key or in the House, and proceeds to a strange and dangerous set of adventures. As Arthur discovers, the Will of the Architect, (creator of the House and the “Secondary Realms” that surround it) was not fulfilled as it should have been. Instead, it was broken into seven pieces by the Architect’s Trustees, the self-named Morrow Days. The Will was forced to act on its own, and the First Part chooses Arthur to be Heir to the Kingdom. It thus becomes Arthur’s responsibility to recover each of the missing pieces of the Will, defeat each Trustee - each of whom has been afflicted with one of the seven deadly sins - claim their domains by taking each Key, and ultimately fulfill the Will.”

Like it said in the summary, each one of the Trustees were afflicted with one of the seven sins, and they were as follows: Mister Monday was afflicted with sloth, Grim Tuesday was afflicted with greed, gluttony ruled Lady (or Drowned) Wednesday, Sir Thursday had Wrath, Lady Friday was afflicted with Lust, Superior Saturday was affected by envy, and of course, Lord Sunday pride. To further elaborate on the book, but more specifically the seven sins, Keys to the Kingdom goes against what was said on tragedy depending on the sin itself. For Mister Monday, his slothfulness started the entire series, because of him putting things off for his own benefit, not only did he have many problems himself, but also started the entire process of Arthur becoming Heir in the first place. He is tricked into giving Arthur the Lesser Half of the First Key, so Arthur ends up living when he was supposed to die, and in the end, wrests the other half from Mister Monday. Funnily enough, the only time Monday was not lazy was when he was fighting Arthur for the sake of his own benefit. In the end, Monday ends up dying due to his carelessness.
In Grim Tuesday, Tuesday dies due his greediness. He ruled the Far Reaches. In his own demesnes, he was very rich and owned everything possible, but wanted more. He kept digging into Nothing (what everything is made), which is really unstable and dangerous. He dug so far, that there were often several breakouts of Nothing. This all came back to him when he was defeated by Arthur and dissolved by Nothing. For Wednesday, one can’t help but to feel sorry for her. She was afflicted with gluttony. She ate so much, that eventually she turned into a several hundred miles long Leviathan. It is assumed that she became glutinous after breaking the Will, and after trying to release it, the other Morrow Days took advantage of her. She suffered, and after working with Arthur to release her part of the will, she was so consumed by Nothing, it was a tragic ending for her.
For Thursday and Friday, only because of “Lord Arthur” were they not killed. He arrested them both and put them under careful observation after he defeated them both. But again, their afflictions with a sin brought misery upon them, and especially those around them. Sir Thursday had killed two people, and Lady Friday draining hundreds of people of their memories, which showed her lust for “experiencing” humans. It’s not safe to say what will happen to Saturday or Sunday, due to the fact that Lord Sunday is expected to be released, but the point is clear. Who ever are afflicted with a sin shall endure tragedy.
However, is this entirely accurate? Like said before, it should depend on the sin itself. Remember, the seven deadly sins are used in Christian teachings, which is highly controversial. Also, the Keys to the Kingdom is a fiction novel, so things may not be as extreme in real life as they were in the book. I think it’s safe to say that the three sins out of all seven that would actually bring suffering to a person (aside from scientific reasons for things such as eating excessively) would be the sin not necessarily having anything to do with self interest, and the two sins sometimes indistinguishable from each other; Wrath, envy, and pride.
You can more or less figure out why being afflicted with wrath would bring tragedy or despair. If you’re wrathful, I don’t think many would want to be around you. It’s possible that you can become a leader, what ends up happening to all leaders. There’s the eventual fall. However, being afflicted with wrath can get a little more serious. It’s called “doing something you’re going to regret.” It’s true. Say in a fit of anger, you end up killing somebody just like Sir Thursday. It could be somebody close, or somebody essential to your life. You end up living with regret, and you end up in jail as well, if not worse. Many would think that jail is not as bad as it seems. In reality, its really not. However, wouldn’t life be dreadful if you do kill somebody and have to sit in jail with nothing to do but think of it. It may have not been on purpose, and it may not be someone close. Yet, a sensible person would feel remorse, and have to endure it for a very long time.
Envy and pride are much more realistic. As much as humans try, it’s very difficult to avoid both. There may be times where you can't help but to feel jealous of someone and superior to another.