Mental Illness In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

While Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter certainly tells a compelling story, the novel also acts as a psychological study of sorts; delving deep into the minds of complex and troubled individuals. Each main character; Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, is confronted with their own predicament to which they all react distinctively. Their responses to Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin are constructed by their own distorted perceptions of the world due to the mental illnesses they are all troubled by. Each character’s method of retaliating, coping, or succumbing indirectly reveals the illogical patterns within their mind. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, each character faces unique mental afflictions, as Hester battles clinical depression, Dimmesdale

Commonly misunderstood, antisocial personality disorder is defined as “a mental condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others,” (“Antisocial Personality Disorder”). These often manipulative, harsh behaviors occur without regret or shame. Chillingworth completely fulfills all of these characteristics on his quest for revenge towards Dimmesdale, evident where Hawthorne describes him as, “…devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analyzed and gloated over,” (Hawthorne 116). Chillingworth successfully sought for control of his victim’s greatest weakness: his guilt, which he then manipulates for his own enjoyment and benefit. The pain he is able to inflict gives him such twisted, pure joy that he essentially feeds off of; a reaction completely deviating from typical human behavior. Chillingworth describes these demented intentions, claiming that he plans, “to make himself the one trusted friend, to whom should be confided all the fear, the remorse, the agony…all to be revealed to him, the Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving!” (Hawthorne 96). Chillingworth becomes utterly absorbed in his newfound ability to

Each character’s unique mental afflictions contribute not only to their personal perspectives on their situations, but concretely alters the matters they face from their resulting actions. In their own ways, these actions lead to the character’s isolation, whether it be socially, physically, or mentally. Their mental states are able to deteriorate further through this, as their world is seen through an already crooked view, with no one to draw them back into reality. With these many factors in mind, it is therefore valid to conclude that each main character in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter battles increasingly severe mental illnesses following this infamous