When I first saw that The Scarlet Letter was on our reading list, I have to admit I was a little excited. Was I excited because it’s an American classic? Was I excited to delve into the challenging language of Hawthorne? Well, not exactly. I was excited because of The Scarlet Letter’s connection to one of my all-time favorite movies, Easy A.
If you haven’t seen Easy A, I’ll give you a little plot summary (then you should go find it online ASAP). Easy A is about a typical high school girl named Olive. Like us, Olive is reading The Scarlet Letter in her English class. Unlike us, Olive lies about losing her virginity (even though she was actually just singing "Pocket Full of Sunshine" in her shower all weekend).
Soon, the rumor spreads like wildfire, upsetting the conservative Christian group in her school. Eventually, Olive’s little white lie spirals into a more elaborate one. She finds herself lying on behalf of bullied students, saying that she slept with them to help them gain popularity. Her reputation goes from bad to worse. Olive embraces this initially—she even embroiders a scarlet A on her chest—but soon, things begin to go awry. Olive is left friendless, and she has hurt many of the people closest to her. In order to resolve her complicated dilemma, Olive comes clean to the entire school on a webcast.
Although these two stories seem to have very little in common, I could definitely draw some similarities between the two. Despite their vastly different circumstances, Olive and Dimmesdale have similar justifications for lying about their transgressions. Olive genuinely believes that she is helping her bullied classmates by spreading these false claims. Likewise, Dimmesdale might see his actions as a way to protect his people. He seems to think in accordance with the Parson from the Canterbury Tales: “If gold rust, what then will iron do?” If Dimmesdale, the venerable minister, were to be revealed as corrupt, what would that mean for the general populace?
I found another interesting similarity between these two very loosely connected works in the conclusion. Much like Olive, Reverend Dimmesdale also has an important catharsis (granted, Olive doesn’t die after hers, but it’s the same idea). In his last sermon, Dimmesdale admits to his wrongdoing and deceit of the past seven years. “Is not this better…than what we dreamed of in the forest?” he asks Hester (227). Truthfulness is a final release for Dimmesdale, the only possible conclusion to his tragic story. Honesty frees him from torture, much as it releases Olive from her predicament. Once Dimmesdale owns up to his sins, Chillingworth loses all his power. To bring back the “leech” metaphor from a previous chapter, Chillingworth is basically a varmint thriving off the blood of Dimmesdale’s own guilt. “Thou hast escaped me!” he exclaims repeatedly (228). As soon as Dimmesdale confesses, Chillingworth is left without his source of life. Finally, Dimmesdale is free from his torture, “a spell was broken” (229). This refreshing truthfulness frees Pearl as well, her “errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled” (229). And just like Dimmesdale, Olive is freed by her confession as well. Perhaps she finished the book and learned her lesson.
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