Public shaming, a form of punishment meant to humiliate the offender, has been around for hundreds of years. However, its long period of existence doesn’t justify its ethicality now, nor then, despite being effective in most cases. But, shame punishment in minute doses, is innocuous. The well known epitome of fictional shaming is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. It takes the reader back to 1840s Massachusetts, where main character Hester Prynne is disgraced on a scaffold and branded
Public Shaming is something that can be accepted with different outlooks. For example, some view it as a hideous, gruesome display of how the consequences can be delivered. However, others see it as the only way the person of wrong-doing will be able to learn from their mistakes. With no precedents, our society may have never turned out the way it is today. In Source A, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne undergoes public shame through minimal interaction with her peers, and the placement of the embroidered
Making someone a public outcast as a form of punishment can bring many negative consequences for him/her. In the novel the “Scarlet Letter”, Hester was treated differently and was unwelcomed by the public because of her scarlet letter. Also, in the article “Concerns Raised On “Scarlet Letter” For Drunk Drivers,” people could be targeted by police and others if everyone knew what they had done. In “Companies ‘Named And Shamed’ For Bad Behavior,” the author explains how newspapers are trying to shame
Public Shaming Humans are social creatures, we strive to make friends and build a great reputation for ourselves. Anything that may ruin this reputation scares us, which is how shame based punishments work. When a criminal is publicly humiliated, they will change their ways to make sure they never have to face that again. These punishments seem like they are a great alternative to prison time, but in reality, they only isolate the offender. Plus, in today’s society social media unpredictably exaggerates
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
Public shaming is one of the oldest forms of punishment around. It is also one of the most simple ways to punish someone. Whether it be forcing someone to stand on a scaffold for all of their town to come and laugh at, or it may be that they have to walk through the streets of their home town completely shackled, allowing for everyone to know what they did; Either way, public shaming is a horrible punishment to put someone through. Being convicted of a crime is bad, then being sentenced to jail time
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a romantic work of historical fiction published in 1860, explores the costs of duplicity and disguised guilt among the lives of individuals who struggle to embrace their self-awareness within a stern society. Set in the mid-seventeenth century in Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, the protagonist Hester Prynne bears the scarlet letter upon her chest. The letter A serves as an unceasing public shaming for her adulterous actions with the highly regarded Reverend
In the romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commit adultery, but only Hester receives the consequences of their shared sin, which is to wear a scarlet letter and face public shame. The intensity of Hester’s punishment is partly due to the fact that she’s married, a woman, and has a child, due to her sin. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne portrays Hester Prynne’s identity and opinions as pertinent, yet useless at the same time
Puritan Beliefs in the Scarlet Letter Puritanism was a religious restructuring movement that results from within the Church of England in the late sixteenth century. The Puritans believed that God had formed a unique solemn agreement with them. They believe that God expected them to live according to the sacred writings. The Scarlet Letter introduces a critical, even sneering view of Puritanism. Nathaniel illustrates Puritan society as dowdy, merciless, unforgiving, and narrow-minded that unduly
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”, Hester Prynne, living in the extremely strict Puritan society of Massachusetts, is forced to wear a red “A”, the mark of an adulterer, after having a child with a man who is not her husband, believing him to be dead after his two-year absence. Hawthorne’s commentary on early Puritan society in the New World is highlighted throughout the novel in the ways in which different events that transpire in the town are perceived by the townspeople versus what