Psychoanalysis of the Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne's literature can easily be used as a prime study for psychoanalysis. Freud's ideas and assumptions can be perfectly linked in a psychoanalysis of The Scarlet Letter. In fact, Freud himself has studied Hawthorne's characters in order to develop his postulations about the unconscious. His ideas about the id, the ego, and the superego are extremely significant when taking a look at characters in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne displays the unending war between social expediency and moral righteousness in the mind of the main character, Hester. Regardless of Hester's conscious morality, she is playing out her subconscious desires, which is distinctly Freudian. Hawthorne and Freud ironically have harmonizing views on people's actions and state of mind. Freud's ideas suggest that people are ruled to a large degree by their subconscious. Nevertheless, people are judged by their actions and not by their subconscious yearnings and agendas. In result, Hester is branded as an adulteress for her actions, but unlike her weak lover, Dimmesdale, she took her ostracism very seriously and wore her 'A' proudly. In that way, she rebelled against the community and its unconscious neurotic values. Hawthorne uses Hester's chara
Some topics in this essay:
Hester Prynne, Happy Hester, Dimmesdale Hester's, CG Jung, Hawthorne Freud, Hawthorne Dimmesdale, Hester Hester, Hawthorne Hester's, Letter Freud, Scarlet Letter, subconscious mind, scarlet letter, puritan community, entire puritan community, laws religion, puritan woman, loss innocence, subconscious desires, playing subconscious, playing subconscious desires, portion mind, subconscious yearnings,
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Approximate Word count = 1596
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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