Theme Of Mental Illness In The Scarlet Letter

The Puritan belief and lifestyle plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. The story takes place in Puritan New England, and opens with a scene presenting to the audience that a young woman named Hester Prynne has committed adultery. Wearing her punishment proudly, a scarlet letter “A” on her breast, Hester continues to live in New England where she raises her daughter and creates an embroidering business for herself. All the while, in the heart of the town, Hester’s lover and the child’s father, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale silently suffers and is ultimately overcome with guilt from his secret sin until the point of death. Throughout the story, references to witchcraft and a witch’s link to Satan is expressed. Several

The article titled “Witch Trials: 4 Real Medical Illnesses That Were Mistaken For Witchcraft And The Devil” written by Elana Glowatz described four illness that show symptoms similar to ones present in accused witches. Under the section titled “Mental Illness”, a finding published by the National Institute of Health said that many of the convicted witches or people allegedly possessed by witchcraft most likely displayed visible mental distress. Basically, symptoms of mental illness were present in the accused witches. There are specific possible disorders that could have symptoms similar to those present in circumstances concerning witchcraft including epilepsy, ergot poisoning, encephalitis lethargica, and mental illnesses like schizophrenia. (Glowatz). An article from the Psychiatric Times titled “Witchcraft or Mental Illness?” included similar findings when the author, Beatriz Quintanilla stated that “Hysteria and epilepsy were the 2 illnesses most frequently confused with witchcraft or demonic possession”. Both of these mental disorders can express symptoms of convulsions, seizures, loss of consciousness, or tremors, which have been confused with witchcraft in the past (Quintanilla). Many disorders were not understood well enough by anyone during this time for proper diagnosis to be

During this time, Puritanism was very prominent, along with the belief in God. Puritanism had strict rules and views that were followed by many people. According to the reference article “Mental Illness and Psychiatry”, all behavior was considered or created by the will of God, but deviant behavior was considered as an illness brought on by the devil. In the same way, Beatriz Quintanilla wrote in her article “Witchcraft or Mental Illness?” that witchcraft is linked to devious powers. This article first introduces the belief that madness or symptoms of odd behavior were considered a message. The Great Plague altered this perspective, and encouraged people to believe that illness was a supernatural force that physicians could not treat. Since certain forms of illness did not appear preventable or treatable by the doctors at the time, people incorporated their religious beliefs into the reasoning. Since God created everything, the destructive aspects were thus created by supernatural forces beyond anyone’s