ANXIETY OF ARTHUR DIMMESDALE IN SCARLET LETTER MOVIE: A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH

ARIYANTI, FITRI SRI (2010)

Abstract
This study elaborates the anxiety of Arthur Dimmesdale in Scarlet Letter movie by Rolland Joffe, based on structural analysis and based on psychoanalytic approach. The aim of the study is to analyze the structural elements and the anxiety of Arthur Dimmesdale. This study belongs to qualitative study. The data source is divided into two, namely primary data source and secondary data source. The primary data source is the movie Scarlet Letter and the secondary data source is the other sources related to the analysis such as author’s biography. The technique of analysis data is descriptive technique. The outcome of the study shows that the major character faces the conflict in his life. It brings him into anxiety that influences his personality. The most dominant anxiety is moral anxiety.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Scarlet Letter is one of the most suspenseful psychological thriller
movie ever produced. Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American author of scarlet
letter novel. The screenplay of this film is adapted from the novel with the
same title by Douglass Day Stewart and Rolland Joffe as director who was
born on November 17, 1945. Scarlet Letter is the sixth movie by Rolland Joffe
of ten movies. It was released in Cinergi Pictures on October 13, 1995 by
Rolland Joffe which running time is 135 minutes. The cover artist of Scarlet
Letter movie is Gary oldman and Demi more. The Editor of the movie is
Douglass Day Stewart. The publisher of the movie is Ticknor, Reed and
Fields. The movie uses English Language. Scarlet Letter movie is a movie
which focuses on introductions romance movie. It is the sixth of ten movies in
the Rolland Joffe Cycle. There are The Killing Fields in 1984, The Mission in
1986, Fat Man and Little Boy in 1989, City of Joy in 1992, Super Mario Bros
in 1993, The Scarlet Letter in 1995, Goodbye Lover in 1999, Vatel or Francois
Vatel in 2000, Captivity in 2007, You and I in 2007.
Scarlet Letter tells about adultery between Hester Prynne and Arthur
Dimmesdale. Arthur Dimmesdale as a church leader, a young woman Hester
Prynne, Roger Chillingworth is Hester’s husband, and Pearl’s child. A young
woman, Hester arrives at the colony with the purpose to find a house for
herself and her husband, old doctor Roger Prynne who still resides in good old
England and follow later. Hester’s husband who is much older than her is sent
her head to America, but he never arrives alone in Boston, Massachusetts.
From the first day, the other inhabitants of the village notice that
Hester is an intelligent and independent woman which attracts the ones and
strikes the other. While waiting her husband, she meets Dimmesdale a church
leader. In the moment, when she finds herself a house near the forest and takes
a walk in it she sees by chance a naked young man swimming in the river
nearby. The man as she finds out later is the very popular Reverend Arthur
Dimmesdale. The two soon find themselves attracted to each other and
secretly begin an affair. As result of this Hester becomes pregnant and when
the government finds out, she is showed up in public and has to wear a scarlet
“A” as adultery on her chest. Because she refuses to tell name of her child’s
father, she goes into jail where she gives birth to her daughter, Pearl. Then,
surprisingly, Roger Prynne whose ship is supposed to have been destroyed in
a storm with no survivors appears in the village. The doctor is now driven by
the idea to find out who is Hester’s lover and destroys his life as well as the
life of Hester. Finally, in the moment a war happen when Hester and
Dimmesdale will justice of society and them to slip away from capital
punishment. Then, they become happy family.
Scarlet Letter was major critical success. Scarlet Letter movie is one
of movie which every audience loves it. From the audience, Scarlet Letter is a
good movie which shows someone’s sacrifices, someone who wants to protect
her lover. The movie is an adventurous and exiting movie. Scarlet Letter not
only is a good movie but also in the novel and literature to be analyzed. The
audiences also evaluate that it is a glowing movie and enthralling journey to
end. Scarlet Letter was released on October 13, 1995. In published, Scarlet
Letter has budget $50,000,000. This movie gets 1Won and 9 Nominations
Award.
The good acceptance movie does not only come from the market, but
also from the film expert. They said that this film is generally regarded as a
landmark because there are visualization of both repulsion and psychological
acts shown to the audience. It also portrays a distinctive relationship between
two very significant characters named Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale.
Scarlet Letter has Best Actor by Gary Oldman as Arthur Dimmesdale, Best
Actress for Demi Moore as Hester Prynne. Besides the good response, Scarlet
Letter also gains complain, especially from extramarital affairs about adultery
between church leaders with follower in the film.
There are aspects that make the movie interesting to study. The first
aspect is in the visualization and cast of the movie. Hester Prynne makes the
audience feel enthusiastic with this thriller movie, even when the movie shows
about the process of punishment by society. The cast of this film also a
valuable part in this film.
Second, in Scarlet Letter movie the director add interesting people
along the way to move the plot along. This movie shows adultery action
between church leaders, Arthur Dimmesdale, with follower, Hester Prynne.
The last aspect is theme in the movie. The movie has close relationship
with psychoanalytic and literary work which has involved in anxiety is Scarlet
Letter movie which proposed the psychoanalytic study, especially anxiety as
problem of Scarlet Letter.
Here the anxiety occurs when Arthur Dimmesdale wants to skip with
society which is not supposed to be belonged to. He feels anxiety when visited
Hester Prynne in her home, because he is the detected by people. Dimmesdale
appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble
seemingly caused by psychological distress. It is clear that Scarlet Letter has
anxiety in the main character; the psychoanalytic approach by Sigmud Freud
is suitable to analyze this movie through the major character Arthur
Dimmesdale. Then, the research is intended to conduct a study on
psychological aspect of character in this movie using psychoanalytic approach
under the title: ANXIETY OF ARTHUR DIMMESDALE IN SCARLET
LETTER MOVIE: A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH.
B. Literature Review
Before the writers analyze it, the writer has read other papers that are
relevant with his analysis, especially about the approach as follow: Umar
Faruk with the title Anxiety in John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas: A
Psychoanalytic Approach (UMS 2001) and the Aim of his Research is to
Analyze how Anxiety in John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas A
Psychoanalytic Approach.
C. Problem Statement
Based on the title and background of the study, the writer formulates the
problem as follows “How is Arthur Dimmesdale’s anxiety reflected in Scarlet
Letter movie? “
D. Limitation of the Study
To achieve the objective of the research, the writer needs to limit
study. The researcher is going to analyze Arthur Dimmesdale as the major
character of The Scarlet Letter Movie from psychoanalytic perspective.
E. Objective of the Study
Objective of the Study are:
1. To analyze the Scarlet letter movie based on its structural elements
2. To analyze the Scarlet letter based on the psychoanalytic approach.
F. Benefit of the Study
There are two benefits expected from this study they are as follows:
1. Theoretical Benefit
To give some contribution on understanding of the Scarlet Letter movie
especially by a Psychoanalytic approach.
2. Practical Benefit
The study is hoped to enrich knowledge and experience of the writer and
another students of Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta who have
interest with literary study on the movie from psychoanalytic approach.
G. Research Method
1. Type of the Study
In the research, the writer analyzes the Scarlet Letter movie using
qualitative method besides books and other related references to support
the subject matter.
2. Object of the Study
The object of the study is Arthur Dimmesdale in the Scarlet Letter
movie directed by Rolland Joffe and written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
3. Type of the Data and Data Source
The data of the research is the movie Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel
Hawthorne as the script writer and Rolland Joffe as directed. Beside that
the data sources come from internet and other sources that support the
analysis.
4. Technique of the Data Collection
In the research, the writer uses documentation methods and then
the steps on collecting data are:
a. Watching the movie more than one to get deep understanding.
b. Determining the character that will be analyzed
c. Reading some related books to find out the theory, data and
information required.
d. Taking notes of important parts in the data
e. Classifying and determining the relevant data
f. Developing the selected materials into a good.
5. Technique of the data analysis
In Analyzing data, the research used descriptive analysis. It concerns
with the structural elements of the movie and the psychoanalytic approach.
H. Paper Organization
This research paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter
contains introduction, which consists of background of the study, literature
review and limitation of the study, problem statement and objectives of the
study, benefit of the study, research method and paper organization. The
second chapter is underlying theory: it deals with psychology of literature,
notion of psychoanalysis, system personality, anxiety, structural elements and
theoretical application. The third chapter is structural analysis. In this chapter
the writer explains the structural elements and discussion of the movie. The
fourth chapter is psychoanalytic analysis. The fifth chapter is conclusion and
suggestion of the research.