Freud and The Scarlet Letter

According to Sigmund Freud, repression is "related to the ego". In other words, it is a way to protect ones ego from all the wrongs he has done in his life. He believes repression is "the corner-stone on which the whole structure of psychoanalysis rests"(http://www.enotes.com/repression-reference/repression). It is a main component to every individuals personality as some point in life. Repression helps people cope with problems and experiences from the past that truly haunt their current conscious. Freud also believes repression to be a “defense mechanism to achieve and aid repression”(http://www.victorianweb.org/science/freud/repression.html).“Thus a sickness”(124). Roger Chillingworth declared to Reverend Dimmesdale, who is blatantly dealing with repression of memory. Dimmesdale does not want to remember an affair he had with a married woman from his past, "a secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge"(page 132). He has deemed this act so terrible and guilt ridden that his mind is not allowing him to think of it at all. However, his bodies reaction to concentrating on forgetting such a significant event is taking a toll on the rest of his exterior and interior self. Dimmesdale "conscious that the poison of one morbid spot was infecting his heart's entire substance, attributed all his presentiments to no other cause"(page 128) but to resort to Roger Chillingworth and seek out his physician expertise. Chillingworth can sense all of this and identified that he is repressing a memory which has hurt his conscious greatly. By Dimmesdale trying so hard to repress this memory he has lost the drive for “immediate gratification” and is slowly deteriorating. Backing up Freuds theory, Dimmesdale defends himself against Chillingworth with repression forcing him to "deny, deny, deny".

This is truly a sickness for Dimmesdale, so much so that people surrounding him see the problem affecting his health and everyday life. However, repression is not an obvious matter. It is something deeply hidden that the person who is repressing the memory does not even know that he is doing so. He vaguely references this repressed memory when speaking to Chillingworth one day, he claims "...it may be that they[their secrets]are kept silent by the very constitution of their nature. Or, can we not suppose it?-guilty as they may be, retaining, nevertheless, a zeal for God's glory and man's welfare, they shrink form displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men,,,no evil of the past [can]be redeemed by better service."The people around Dimmesdale do not see this change in behavior, the sudden change in thought that a good deed can not right the wrong. It is not like a clergyman to retain his secrets, he should repent. Yet, people around Dimmesdale simply believe his health had "evidently begun to fail"(page109). Truly, the negative downfall of Dimmesdale mental and physical health is due to his own brain activity. Chillingworth, the leech that he is, stuck himself onto Dimmesdale to learn what was actually causing these vivid changes, and intelligently noted the repression. When Dimmesdale unconsciously realizes what Chillingworth is about to bring out of it, Dimmesdale quickly reverts to another one of Freud’s defense mechanisms, projection. 

In Freud’s words, this is Dimmesdale “Attributing one’s own unacknowledged unacceptable/unwanted thoughts and emotions onto another. It reduces anxiety and allows expression of undesirable impulse or desire without conscious awareness”(http://www.psychologyfitness.com/category/freuds-defense-mechanisms/). These repressed feelings were Dimmesdales primitive desires towards his lover. He didn’t want them to exist nor be surfaced, so he found a way to project his deepest anger from the memory onto ``Chillingworth. “Not to thee! But, if it be the soul’s disease, then do I commit myself to the one Physician of the soul! He, if it stand with me as, in His justice and wisdom, He shall see good. But who are thou, that meddles in this matter?-that dares thrust himself between the sufferer and his God?”(124). Dimmesdale does not want to believe it is a sickness or a defense mechanism. Instead, he wants to believe that whatever it is, it is something simple enough and not within him, so that his one true God can fix him. He becomes so angry and frustrated, because in the depths of his mind and his heart, he knows what he is repressing. Yet, he does not want Chillingworth to mention the thing that causes so much pain; so all he can do is blame the person doing so.

Lethe Nor Nepenthe

page 67

"I know not Lethe nor Nepenthe." This quote made me very interested in reading and really figuring out what the two words mean. Lethe was the River of Forgetfulness in Greek mythology. This doctor is telling Hester Prynn that he does not know how to forget what she did. He can never forgive nor forget that she wears the Scarlet Letter. He does not know the River of Forgetfulness because will never let forgiveness stream through him towards Hester. He knows not Nepenthe which is an Egyptian drug(perhaps opium) used to dispel sorrow through forgetfulness. He cannot feel sorrow towards Hester because he can never forget her crime. He does not believe that this drug "exists" because he does not believe there is something to take away what she did, nothing to help him forget. The people of this town clearly believe that was Hester did was inexcusable and disgusting. They look down upon her and her baby, as if they are not real and deserving people.