The Scarlet Letter: Guilt’s Deterioration

Guilt’s Deterioration

In Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic personality theory the id, ego, and superego are the three parts of the human personality. According to Freud, these three parts create the complex actions of human beings, which can be seen throughout the Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the book, Hester Prynne is taken from the prison and forced to stand on the scaffold to be judged for her sins. She endures the jeers of her community on the scaffold with her newborn daughter Pearl in her arms and refuses to tell the magistrates who the father of her child is; Hester is then forced to wear the sign of adultery for the rest of her life by wearing a letter A at all times. Then, Chillingworth, Hester’s long-lost husband returns, only to force her into keeping their relationship a secret as a means of protecting his dignity and to investigate the identity of Pearl’s father. Secluded from the rest of the town, Hester and Pearl live on their own, while Chillingworth moves in with Reverend Dimmesdale because of suspicions that the Reverend is the father. For many years, Arthur Dimmesdale is tortured by Chillingworth and his inner-guilt of not confessing to his sins of adultery. Finally, Dimmesdale joins Hester and Pearl on the scaffold to reveal the letter A that he has carved into his chest as a form of personal punishment, then dies of his wounds in Hester’s arms, freed from his sins. Hawthorne claims that guilt can deteriorate and destroy a person until penance and self- redemption is achieved which is shown through the character Dimmesdale.

In the beginning, Freud’s theory of id, the part of one’s personality that contains their primitive impulses, shows how the deterioration of Dimmesdale’s mind is caused by guilt and anguish. At the end of the novel, Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the forest, instigating his desire to be with Hester. This causes the lovers to make the rash decision to escape to Europe for a fresh start. As Dimmesdale walks away from the forest, Hawthorne describes how once “the decision [was] made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast” (Hawthorne 198). As id takes control of Dimmesdale’s decisions, he feels like “a prisoner [who] just escaped from the dungeon of his own heart” and wants to rid himself of his pious roles and instead follow his love for Hester (Hawthorne 198). His id influences the idea of dismissing Puritan beliefs and to instead live in “an unredeemed, unchristianized, lawless region” where he can follow his primal desires (Hawthorne 198). As time progresses, the more Dimmesdale wants to confess his sins to the public in order to free himself from the burden of guilt. Eventually, he becomes so overwhelmed by guilt, he attempts to reveal his sins to the community by standing on the scaffold and saying, “he was altogether vile, a viler companion of the vilest, the worst of sinners, an abomination, a thing of unimaginable iniquity”, only for it to have the opposite effect as the Puritans misunderstand Dimmesdale’s confession and respect him even more (Hawthorne 140). Disappointed with the community's reaction, Dimmesdale takes his punishment into his own hands for a release of guilt, illustrating his worsening mental health. He whips himself “wielding the bloody scourge” and stays awake for long periods of time “[keeping] vigils...night after night,” thinking that through suffering, he can be purified (Hawthorne 141). Overall, through Dimmesdale’s impulsive decisions and self-harm, it is clear that until there is a release of guilt, one’s mind and body continues to deteriorate.

Next, Freud’s concept of superego, often described as one’s conscious, and ego, the part of the mind that balances superego, demonstrates how one needs to atone for their wrongdoings in order to relieve themselves of guilt, which is shown through Roger Chillingworth taking the responsibility of punishing Arthur Dimmesdale for his hidden sin and Dimmesdale’s confession of his wrongdoings at the end. Chillingworth, who has always been suspicious of Dimmesdale, is always near him, often acting as a reflection of Dimmesdale’s conscience. Chillingworth often mentions daunting things like “I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, nor other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly weeds that have taken upon themselves to keep him in remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and which he had done better to confess during his lifetime” whenever Dimmesdale appears to be hiding something (Hawthorne 127). Chillingworth’s stories often have implications about Dimmesdale’s sin, a constant reminder that his suffering is due to his affair with Hester. After years of mental and physical torture from both Chillingworth and himself, Dimmesdale reveals his long-kept secret. During Election Day, Dimmesdale, with newfound energy, gives his last sermon to the Puritan community. Once he finishes, he pulls Hester and Pearl to the scaffold to join him as he says, “I stand upon the spot where seven years since I should have stood; here, with this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from groveling down upon my face! Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have all shuddered at it! God’s eye beheld it! The angels were forever pointing at it! The Devil knew it well, and fretted it continually with the touch of his burning finger!” (Hawthorne 249). By admitting his sins to the public, he frees both Hester and himself from the continuous pain of their sins, and they are finally free from the distressful secrets that had haunted them for years. As he finishes his confession, his body, deprived of strength from all the years of self-torture, collapses and he dies freed from guilt, showing how admittance of guilt can free a person from continuous pain.

Hawthorne illustrates that until atonement and self-redemption are achieved, remorse can degrade and devastate a person which is shown through the actions of character Dimmesdale. The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s id uses up all of his strength and life force through continuous punishments to appease his guilt, so when superego and ego do come into play, Dimmesdale is too weak to be completely relieved of his pain, which is why he dies in the end. To be truly freed from the guilt of a sin, one must repent from the very beginning; there are no positive consequences that come from keeping a harmful secret and the act of keeping all of one’s guilt hidden will only end in a decline of their mental and physical health, similar to Dimmesdale.

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References

• Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. The Scarlet Letter. New York, U.S.A. Signet Classic, 1988.