Scarlet Letters Never Die

Timmy Turner and his deep secret.

First, I apologize to all for my second tardy post but at the same time, I’m pretty happy that it’s come this late. Last weekend, I traveled upstate with a few friends and after a debauched weekend where four gentlemen brilliantly courted a young woman, she now has my copy of The Scarlet Letter. It’s ironic. It’s hilarious, but most importantly–it informed my understanding of confession, guilt, morality and sin.

As I learned more about the protagonists in Hawthorne’s novel, I thought about the presence of guilt in communicating one’s sex. It was interesting to see how the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale was sickened by fear. Chillingworth didn’t do much to assuage the Reverend’s guilt. And here, guilt does not apply to the act of sex. It is Dimmesdale’s sexuality that is found to be guilty. Are there moral implications to his sex because of his position? He seems to think so. In “The Leech and His Patient”, an important exchange with Chillingworth reveals that Dimmesdale struggles with his position and identity as a preacher and the act. The resulting discourse–that moment where he forces himself to introduce his sexuality–is highly problematic. (Or so he thinks.) Granted, by way of “morals” it isn’t really beneficial to find out that everyone’s favorite preacher is not the epitome of chastity. But Dimmesdale is capable of recognizing that his sex and his sexuality are distinct. The moment where he holds Pearl’s hand in “The Minister’s Vigil” poignantly demonstrates relative success. Remarkably, he is guilty over his sexuality in while accepting of his actions.

Guilt and morality are intensely undefined for the dynamic between Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, which is why the novel is so relevant. The book involves constant succession of the passing of shame and guilt onto each character. By experience, Hester knows Dimmesdale is the father and Chillingworth lives under false pretense. By intuition and experience, Dimmesdale knows of Chillingworth’s relative insincerity and Hester’s innocence. By pure intuition, Chillingworth is aware of Dimmesdale’s infidelity. This made me think of how the woman was treated during my weekend. At one point, each gentleman (out of a possible fear or anxiety), identified her as unchaste due to her position, but also due to their fear. From the way I saw things, each gentleman was somewhat guilty of their interest in the woman because each knew that other guys were interested as well. Of course, all this is speculative and pure conjecture. I could say that during the weekend, I was Chillingworth–but that could also mean that I was really unnerving. What is important here, however, is that in both cases guilt was used to keep others in check. In this respect, each party controlled and was simultaneously controlled by the inalienable truth. And to communicate that truth involves the emergence of a guilt-inducing discourse on sexuality.

The last thing that came to mind when I thought of guilt and sin in The Scarlet Letter was Nickelodeon’s Fairly OddParents, a long-running animated series that examines the guilt of Timmy Turner, a 10-year-old boy with fairy godparents. He lives in Dimmesdale (I sense a literary reference!), is always adorned in pink (scarlet might not appeal to kids) and is constantly surveilled by his teacher, a man with a terrible hunchback, which is very reminiscent of Chillingworth’s appearance. Both Timmy and Dimmesdale could lose everything (prestige, comfort, winged creatures who grant wishes) with a simple admission. Interestingly, both the TV show and the book depict the weight of guilt on their respective characters. After commenting on a couple of posts, I plan on spending some of my President’s Day watching a few episodes. If you have 22 minutes, maybe you can draw comparisons between both characters and their struggles with anxiety. Or you could do the same with Presidential Infidelity, if you’re feeling patriotic. (JFK, FDR, Clinton). Either way, the concept of guilt is fascinating, and in context with Dimmesdale’s sexuality, I look forward to your comments on the matter in class tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2013 at 7:01 pm and is filed under February 19, Kwame K. Ocran. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.