Public shaming was a common punishment for criminals in the 19th century, however, it is not as common today. Public shaming is not an effective way of punishment for many reasons. Although the offender may have done something wrong, shaming them publicly can harm them in many ways. According to Dana Canedy, guilt is more humiliating than shame, which is what the culprit will feel after what they have done. Another thing that public shaming can result in the wrongdoers privacy being violated. In the article, “Florida 'Scarlet Letter' Law Is Repealed by Gov. Bush”, the man who stole the money was forced to put a sign outside of his house, admitting that he had stolen the money. This violates his privacy because he feels insecure every time someone …show more content…
Hawthorne describes Hester Prynne’s life desolate in The Scarlet Letter due to public shaming. Hester Prynne indeed commit a crime and sinned, however, she should not have to have her life ruined because of it. There are many more options to punish a criminal than by publicly shaming them. For example, the culprit can be put in prison, spend a certain amount of time doing community service, pay a fine, or anything else that fits the wrongdoers actions. Comprehensively, public shaming can cost someone’s happiness in their life all because of one mistake they made in the past. Ultimately, there are other punishments besides public shaming to discipline the offender. Public shaming is an ineffective way of punishment of today’s society due to the fact that guilt is more humiliating than shame. The wrongdoer will instinctively feel guilty about what they have done to receive the punishment. Shaming people publicly is also a violation of privacy and in some cases ruin lives. Instead of humiliating the individual and making them feel worthless to society, the culprit should be forced to do something that fits the crime and will make them a better person because of
A big theme in "The Scarlet Letter" is the importance of reputations. Throughout the novel, Hester must learn to rebuild her reputation despite everyone knowing about her sin and making their own judgements. This theme is relevant in today's society as well. A persons reputation will play a big role in their future, even decades later. As much as we want to believe it, there are things about people that won't be forgotten. This is also why it's so important to be cautious about actions and accepting consequences. Yes, what someone does will effect their reputation but how we react and accept consequences will also effect their reputation. For example, the "A" originally stood for adulterer, a big sin but because of how well Hester owned up
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, everyone had some form of a secret they’d rather not share, but sometimes not telling can do more harm than good. At the end of the film, Hawthorne left us a quote saying, “Be true, be true, be true.” Hawthorne is trying to say keeping secrets isn't always the best because it only leads to someone getting hurt.
The Scarlet Letter is full of many psychological and moral aspects, and most of them relate very well to things that are going on right now in the world. They all go hand in hand meaning that the aspects that were explained in The Scarlet Letter, can also be explained in the same way as they can be explained now. Although times were very different in the times where The Scarlet Letter took place, they are all relevant for what people have to say about certain things in today's world. The moral aspects of the Scarlet Letter are almost the same as moral aspects of today.
Guilt and shame haunt all three of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, but how they each handle their sin will change their lives forever. Hester Prynne’s guilt is publicly exploited. She has to live with her shame for the rest of her life by wearing a scarlet letter on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, on the other hand, is just as guilty of adultery as Hester, but he allows his guilt to remain a secret. Instead of telling the people of his vile sin, the Reverend allows it to eat away at his rotting soul. The shame of what he has done slowly kills him. The last sinner in this guilty trio is Rodger Chillingworth. This evil man not only hides his true identity as Hester’s husband, but also mentally torments Arthur Dimmesdale. The vile physician offers his ‘help’ to the sickly Reverend, but he gives the exact opposite. Chillingworth inflicts daily, mental tortures upon Arthur Dimmesdale for seven long years, and he enjoys it. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all connected by their sins and shame, but what they do in regards to those sins is what sets them apart from each other.
The society in which she lives is legitimized such that people follow a certain moral code. Refraining or overlooking of such codes leads to punishment as revealed by the women “this woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die” (The Ugly Woman, 7). The narrator however, echoes concern against following strict codes of conduct. Hawthorne presents the idea that lack of compassion and forgiveness makes a society dictatorial, he believes the need to observe and practice grace is imperative. Ruling through grace was expressed by Hester when she is forgiven by a society that had once punished her for same mistakes as the young girl retorts “let her cover the mark she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart” (A Young Wife, 6). Reverend Dimmesdale finds adequate grace after seven years of not confessing his sins because of the repercussions that would come thereafter. He begs Hester to reveal his name so that he can as well reveal his sin “be not silent from any mistaken pity, and tenderness for him” (Reverend Dimmesdale, 26) YOur
I come from a small town where friendly shaming was normal among students and teachers. Most students were friends or even related to their teachers. So friendly shaming was common. The problem with this was students who did not have that direct relationship with teachers would feel left out or excluded from the group dynamics. Outside of friendly shaming, we have the type used to influence students. Such as calling out students for misbehaving in class or telling them off for poor work ethic. This itself does help create people who need to reflect on their own personal habits. But, students who are publically called out are more than likely to rebel more to create the same shameful atmosphere the teacher placed on them and make the teacher know the same feeling. The best way if at all to ‘shame’ a student is privately and publicly shaming should be reserved for those students who need to be made an example of. Such as a
At the beginning of the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is labeled as the “bad guy”. The townspeople demand the other adulterer’s name, but Hester denies this revelation. She does not reveal it because she knows that the information will crumble the foundation of the Puritan religion and the town itself. “‘But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?’ ‘Ask me not!’ replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his face. ‘That thou shalt never know!’(Hawthorne 52). Hester knows that finding out that the father of the child, the Minister that is leading the town, will diminish credibility for the church and for Dimmesdale, the Minister. During her punishment, Hester decides to move out near the woods and make a living as a seamstress. Hester is regarded as an outcast from Boston, but she still gives back to the society that shuns her. ‘“Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?’ they would say to strangers. ‘It is our Hester, —the town's own Hester, —who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!’”(Hawthorne 111). Her acts of kindness, helping the sick and comforting the afflicted, toward the society that makes her an outcast shows the inner goodness of a person. Throu...
In the story of the Scarlet Letter, the heroine Hester got punished by her sin of adultery. She was publicly shamed and she has to wear a scarlet letter throughout her life. Ann Hibbins, who was the wife of the governor, sentenced to death for witchcraft. 400 hundred-years later, with the development of the society, people are being intelligent, and they may not judge others like four-hundred years ago. But, the truth is public shaming and bullying still taking place in our civilized society.
As an individual, it is a part of life to make plenty of mistakes, but is public shaming the answer to solving it? “A vital art of growing and developing as a human being, is learning from ones’ mistakes. Although this is expected, many today resorted to public shaming which is morally wrong. In todays’ society, punishment for people is completely different from back in the Puritan days. For example, in the novel the Scarlett Letter, Hester Prynne commits adultery, which leads her to having to wear the letter “A” on her chest, which is a form of public humiliation but in this sense, it’s not right. This is Hester Prynne’s sin that she committed that she lives with forever and it shouldn’t be any of the public business
The way Hester and Dimmesdale approached their sins has a direct correlation with how they lived the rest of their lives. Hester confessed her sin because she had no choice she already had incriminating evidence in the form of a child and had to confess or be expelled from the community. In this sense, Hester had no choice but to confess or leave the community and she chose to confess. Although, we may not know why she made this choice, but we know she made it and she decided to stay with it and not leave the community in order to possibly confess her sins. Arthur Dimmesdale did not confess his sins for all the wrong reasons. He didn’t confess for mostly two reasons those being: his belief that man did not judge other men but only God can do that or that he will better serve his people with a sinful heart and not a sinful appearance. Arthur had to deal with all the pressures of a life of sin but also the pressure of his own conscience to confess those sins. The pressures on his body were worse than that of Hester who had confessed her sins. One of the main reasons that Arthur was in poor physical condition was that the wise Doctor Chillingworth had poisoned him, and kept poisoning him until he had confessed of his sins at the end of the book. This and the fact that his grief and guilt had led him to totally decimate his body both spiritually and physically he had just driven himself too far. Farther than any person should take this kind of self-mutilation. His social life also suffered as a result of this physical and mental torture because he had turned into a walking zombie and had not been very responsive to anything but his terrible torment. In this way, he was degrading himself and thought it necessary to do so for repentance. Although, he had not voiced his sin publicly he had preached about himself not being pure and being a sinner. In spite of this, the unknowing congregation worshiped him all the more for his self-proclamation of sinfulness without telling what his sin was.
Hester ultimately rejects the intended meaning of the scarlet letter as a symbol of sin and shame. She is “so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty...” (Hawthorne 140). Puritans are strongly rooted in their religious duty to help thy neighbor; Hester embodies this essential value despite the symbol of ignominy attached to her. Her physical presence in the community allows others to see her as more than a symbol of shame. Society veiws her as a three-dimensional person. Eventually, these charitable deeds succeed at redefining her status as the letter takes on a dual meaning when the townspeople note “that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 141). Hester does not allow her public shaming to control all aspects of her life and consciously works to reformulate how she is viewed, something Monica Lewinsky did not do until after she had been silenced for over a decade. When the story first broke, the shameful component of Lewinsky’s life was quickly made “public without consent, public without context, and public without compassion” (Lewinsky 8:31). The world was invited to view the scandal and when the entire world is involved, it is exponentially more difficult to redefine a reputation. Where Hester’s philanthropic actions are easily noticed by the tightknit Puritan community, the media is removed from their content which causes a lack of
Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in their society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the struggle to shake off the past is an underlying theme throughout the novel. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with actions that lost them their honorable reputation. Particularly, Hawthorne shows the lasting effect that sin and guilt has on two of the main characters in the book: Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale.
Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is publicly recognized as an adulteress and expelled from society. Alongside the theme of isolation, the scarlet letter, or symbol of sin, is meant to shame Hester but instead transforms her from a woman of ordinary living into a stronger person.
As we read the novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” we were acquainted with the manner the Puritan society branded their sinners contingent on the immoralities they have committed. They believed that punishing these sinners by humiliation was the prominent way for them to bear the cost of their debauchery. Resembling this past our present has been subject to this same form of branding and labeling. We judge the way the Puritan society strictly punished its citizens by putting them on scaffolds where they were publicly humiliated. We hypocritically judge this form of punishment when we are practicing these same immoral acts. Although we are not putting them on scaffolds or literally branding people we are causing them the same kind of degradation and bestowing on them labels that will hurt them the same way.
Public humiliation supposedly enforces people’s behaviors to change but does shame really influence people to change? Most people have their different opinions on public humiliation but either way Hester is a victim of this cruel well-known Puritan punishment. On the other hand, as a result of Reverend Dimmesdale withholding his sin, a hard-hitting sickness secretly hits the reverend. The scarlet letter located on Hester’s chest is a constant reminder of her wrong decision. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses the effects of sin in many ways, including public humiliation, Hester and the scarlet letter and Dimmesdale’s sickness. Maria Stromberg, who wrote the article “Hawthorne’s Black Man: Image of Social Evil” expresses the danger of breaking laws through her writings about The Scarlet Letter. Olivia Taylor’s article “Cultural Confessions: Penance and Penitence in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and The Marble Faun” indicates that with every sin one commits there are consequences.