The Scarlet Letter and Modern Day Pop Culture

When I was in the 11th grade, my English teacher brought out this old romance-looking book and said "You will read this over the next month, and we will have tests on it." I was dismayed, to say the least. It looked boring and 17th century-ish. But when I finished the book and had to make a project using modern day media to explain it to the rest of my class, I found that the things that happened to Hester Prynne in the book happen to people in every century, and that it wasn't just some old dusty book, but it was an explanation of depression, discrimination and paying the price for love.

The Faces of Depression
By: Jane Flatwater

No two people get depressed in exactly the same way. Some people show just one or two of these symptoms, while others can relate to just about all of them:
You feel sad, anxious or guilty.
You're not interested in doing your favorite things, like playing soccer.
You sleep a lot more or a lot less than usual.
You lose your appetite or constantly eat, and gain or lose weight.
You feel everything around you is hopeless, you view everything in a negative way.
You cry all the time, or you're cranky.
You have difficulty making decisions, concentrating and remembering.
You have headaches or stomach pains that won't go away.
Most seriously, you have thoughts of death or suicide.

This article was collected from Teen magazine and it reminds me of Hester Prynne's depression and hopelessness because of her crime. She is depressed because of Pearl's elf-like behavior, Chillingworth's evil intentions, Dimmesdale's odd behavior (comforting her one minute, ignoring her in public the next minute), and everyone in the community's hatred towards her and Pearl. She is clearly suffering from depression.

Vitamin C
"Me, Myself, and I"

Chorus

I ain't got nobody,
That I can depend on.
Just me, myself, and I.

This song states the situation that Hester Prynne is going through. She can't depend on anyone in her community but Pearl. Arthur Dimmesdale helps her out when he pleads for Pearl to remain in Hester's custody, but he doesn't recognize her as his lover or friend in public, only as a citizen of the community. She can't depend on Roger Chillingworth because he is an evil, old man that only cares about hurting people.

Roger Chillingworth = Heartless Paparazzi

In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth resembles the heartless paparazzi that haunt today's celebs and political officials. Like the dreaded camera-carriers, Chillingworth eats into people's minds to find out their deepest, darkest secrets and expose them to the world.

As the life is sucked out of Arthur Dimmesdale by "The Doctor's" probing words and analyzing ways, the paparazzi does everything in their power to expose every lie, cheat, and scandal of the public's favorite stars to show that they are only human and should not be idolized. But if the public does not have someone to idolize, their dreams vanish and they soon become full of hopelessness that their drab lives will never improve. But Chillingworth's act is closer to evil, because he is not improving the lives of anyone in the village; he is simply hurting Hester and Dimmesdale for his own pleasure and revenge.

Hope this helps any struggling teenage understand some of the major themes of the book The Scarlet Letter. Its simply a timeless tale of desperation. Between trying to get the right girl/guy to like you, borrowing your parent's car, and getting all that homework done on time, surely you can understand what that feels like, can't you?