Essay on Concepts of Human Sexuality as Brought Out in The Scarlet Letter Movie

Human sexuality is a general term used to describe the experiences and expressions of individuals as sexual beings. This encompasses behaviors expressed in a physical, emotional, erotic, biological, social and spiritual manner. Behaviors on human sexuality form the basis of this paper. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze a movie using three concepts from the Psychology 312 class. The movie I will analyze is The Scarlet Letter. The three concepts that I will analyze are attraction and love, sexual aggression and gender issue.

The Scarlet Letter is an American fictional movie written by Nathaniel Hawthornes. The movie has its setting in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. This movie involves characters such as Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, Governor John Billingham, Horace Stonehall and Harriet Hibbons. At the beginning of the movie, Hester arrives at the Massachusetts Bay Colony with the aim of finding a house for her family. Her husband, Doctor Roger Prynne, who resided in England, was to follow Hester once she secured a house for them at Massachusetts Bay. As she is busy fixing her new house, Hester gets acquainted with the Puritans who consider her to be both intelligent and independent. One day while taking a walk around her house in the woods, she came across reverend Arthur swimming in a nearby river. Passion draws Hester to Arthur. The two entered into a secret love affair after discovering that Hester's husband had died and later they consummate their love. As a result, a child, Pearl, is born. When Hester refused to identify the father to the child, she was shunned by the community and forced to wear a red Letter, "A" which signified her sinful acts. Years later, the man thought to be dead, Roger Prynne, makes an appearance having changed his surname to Chillingworth. Infuriated by the whole ordeal, Rogers Prynne seeks to find Hester's lover, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, to take revenge on him. Later at the end of the movie, Arthur, on his state of death, confesses what he did together with Hester. After his death, Arthur grave was set next to Hester's grave with a red letter "A" printed on both of them.

The above story brings out several concepts as taught in the psychology of human sexual behavior. Attraction and love are one of the first concepts of human sexual behaviors in The Scarlet Letter. The concept is simply an attraction or an orientation towards gender of the opposite sex or even in some cases towards the same gender and, which is a key factor for love to develop. The concept is first evident when Hester takes a walk in the woods and meets the young Arthur, naked, swimming in the river. Hester arouses a sexual attraction towards Arthur who in turn engages in a secret love affair. According to the Puritans culture, a woman should be loyal to her husband, but in this case, the attraction between them developed into a love affair.

The concept of sexual behavior depicts itself where Hester and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale engage in a secret love affair. Their sexual behaviors are also evident when the two engages in a sexual act that leaves Hester pregnant. The latter may not have occurred in a public place, but this is evident when Hester becomes pregnant and has to bear the burden of carrying The Scarlet Letter, "A" which publicly humiliated her as a fornicator. The sexual behavior between Hester and Dimmesdale is evident when Dimmesdale confesses his sinful act and later when he dies his grave is also marked with the letter "A."

Lastly, gender issue is one of the concepts that vividly occur throughout the movie whereby women are seen as the weaker gender. In The Scarlet Letter, gender issue appears when Hester alone pays dearly for the sin they both committed. Unlike Dimmesdale, she finds it difficult to hide their act of adultery because she cannot hide her pregnancy. Gender issue showed itself when Hester had to undertake her parenthood roles as no one was there to take care of her baby considering that Dimmesdale had frowned up. The puritans branded Pearl an Evil child, as they believe that nothing good might come out of a woman born in the act of adultery. Therefore, this concept portrays that a female individual will suffer if she is carrying an unwanted pregnancy.

In conclusion, attraction and love, sexual behavior, and gender issues are the major concepts of human sexuality as brought out in this movie. The secret affair between Arthur and Hester is a real example of this concept in the movie. Hester's pregnancy gives a clear picture of how they sexually behaved when they were together. Lastly, the concept of gender issue is evident because in most cases Hester has suffered so much for the sin that they both committed. For example, after Arthur runs away, Hester carries The Scarlet Letter alone as the inhabitants believed that getting a child out of wedlock was a taboo in their colony.