Public Prostitution In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
788 Words4 Pages
Lost in darkness, the iniquitous soul gropes blindly searching for a light or a drop of salvation to quench its everlasting thirst of guilt and shame. When all chance of redemption seems to be gone, a new hope arises in the form of a hot iron branding the cheek, or the deep, scarlet letter ever burning against the adulterous bosom. Forms of public humiliation, such as these, are effective in the redeeming of a soul. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne proves that public humiliation is effective. Also, articles such as “Concerns Raised on ‘Scarlet Letter’ for Drunk Drivers” by Toni Locy, and “Crazy Parent Punishments: Does Humiliation Work?” by nannywebsites.com/ reveal that public humiliation is still effective today. Although excerpts from all three modules ridicule against public humiliation, they emphasize the importance…show more content… "All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline, which might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it" (Hawthorne 159). Hawthorne affirms that Hester’s beauty and potential to be a woman of excellence in the community was bled out through the humiliation of the A. Locy declares that branding a license “is an invasion of privacy and that the bill would move the state away from the emphasis on [the solution]” (Locy). The invasion of privacy would shift the focus away from solving the solution thus creating a bigger problem than the one at hand. “Crazy Parent Punishments” expresses the harm to the emotional state of the kid. “[E]xperts caution that these out-of-the-norm acts could leave a mark on the teen’s self-esteem and add to depression, anxiety or isolation” (“Crazy Parent Punishments”). The isolation that embarrassment can lead to can result in depression or bullying and damage the kid’s emotional