Analyze A Movie Using Sociological Perspectives: The Scarlet Letter

The film "The Scarlet Letter" (1995) depicts the drama of Hester Prynne, a young Puritan woman living in New England who is condemned to forever wear the label of adultery upon her clothing, in retribution for transgressing the bonds of her loveless marriage with Roger Chillingsworth. Hester Prynne commits the act with an initially unknown man, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. At first, Dimmesdale seems like an apparently blameless member of the strict, Puritan society of early America. But Dimmesdale is just as guilty as Hester. The evident societal labeling of Prynne, which is rendered explicit by the enforced wearing of the scarlet letter upon her breast seems to reinforce the idea, as advanced by some sociologists, that a community needs to self-consciously create deviant persons or outsiders to uphold its own sense of order. Social labeling arises when a society wishes to define itself as essentially normal, upright, or moral against so-called deviant influences. By making a spectacle of Prynne, the morality of the members of the so-called perfect, ideal Puritan community is implicitly reinforced. Prynne becomes a figure who is spat upon on, openly mocked, and hated. The more other people ostracize her, the more their own


One of the foundational concepts of social labeling is that labeling is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, they initially try to remove her from her mother's so-called corrupting influence at first in a misguided effort of kindness towards the child, as they think they are trying to save Pearl's soul. This meant that they created a community under strain, an artificial set of rules that were unrealistic and continually at war with natural impulses. The best and most effective prescription a sociologist would offer the community would be to change the letter of the laws and make morality a personal rather than a legal and community concern, rather than to adopt a new symbolic system regarding sexuality. It also explains Chillingsworth's hatred of his wife's potential transgressor, and his obsession with finding the man. Differential association might be another possible way of analyzing what transpires over the course of "The Scarlet Letter. " If one accepts that the treatment of Hester is criminal, in a moral if not in a strictly legal fashion, one could postulate that the elders and the common members of her society mistakenly 'learn' to construe sexuality as deviant, and treat Hester as such, not because they are lacking in desire, but because society has taught them that abstinence is the only 'correct' way of life. In other words, they do not try to continue to create another deviant example, in the form of Pearl. Labeling Hester as evil with a scarlet letter is supposed to act as a symbolic moral lesson or example to others, but Hester's personal interpretation makes this letter a badge of pride. The elders who condemn her, moreover, do not validate social labeling theory by saying that Pearl, the child, must be bad because she is the product of Hester's adultery. After all, one could argue that "The Scarlet Letter" is primarily about a culture, namely Puritan culture. Even viewed in a negative fashion, Puritan society places a high priority about being open and confessing one's sins to the community. The problem with applying social labeling theory to Prynne, however, is the idea that labeling produces, inevitably, more deviant behavior.