The film "The Scarlet Letter" (1995) depicts the drama of Hester Prynne, a young Puritan woman living in New England who is condemned to forever wear the label of adultery upon her clothing, in retribution for transgressing the bonds of her loveless marriage with Roger Chillingworth. Hester Prynne commits the act with an initially unknown man, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. At first, Dimmesdale seems like an apparently blameless member of the strict, Puritan society of early America. But Dimmesdale is as guilty as Hester.
             The evident societal labeling of Prynne, which is rendered explicit by the enforced wearing of the scarlet letter upon her breast seems to reinforce the idea, as advanced by some sociologists, that a community needs to self-consciously create deviant persons or outsiders to uphold its sense of order. Social labeling arises when a society wishes to define itself as essentially normal, upright, or moral against so-called deviant influences. By making a spectacle of Prynne, the morality of the members of the so-called perfect, ideal Puritan community is implicitly reinforced. Prynne becomes a figure who is spat upon on, openly mocked, and hated. The more other people ostracize her, the more their worth is validated by implication.
             The problem with applying social labeling theory to Prynne, however, is the idea that labeling produces, inevitably, more deviant behavior. One of the foundational concepts of social labeling is that labeling is a self-fulfilling prophecy. But Prynne shirks this notion by striving to be more moral than the persons who condemn her crime. She refuses to name Dimmesdale, even though this would mean she could tear off the labeling letter. Also, she defends her ability raise the child of her so-called sinful union morally. The elders who condemn her, moreover, do not validate social labeling theory by saying that Pearl, the child, must be bad because she is the product of Hester's adult...