Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter offers the reader an inside look at public shaming as a punishment. Throughout the book, Hester Prynne’s punishment requires her to wear a scarlet “A” on her bosom because she committed adultery and ultimately got caught. Similar to Hester Prynne and her community, judges today sentence criminals to public shaming as a reprimand for committing crimes. However, public shaming is unfair and should not be used in the United States court system.
Public shaming penalties cannot guarantee consistency between each punishment; therefore, public shaming is unconstitutional and unethical to use within the United States court system. Every year, millions of people pass through courtroom doors, and every year, millions
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Somebody who constantly endures ridicule from the public suffers greatly from decreased mental stability. Furthermore, bullying is a form of public abashment, and research has shown that both bullying and public shaming affect the victim’s mental health more than other major problems in the world. For example, recent studies conducted in the United States and Great Britain prove that “[a] victim of bullying [is] nearly four times more likely to suffer from mental health problems than a victim of child abuse” (Lewinsky 293). Victims of bullying often undergo persistent humiliation, much like a criminal who is sentenced to public shaming would; consequently, public humiliation is unacceptable in all areas of society, especially when research indicates that it affects a multitude of people. Also, if people consistently remind a person of their mistakes, the victim could always live in regret and remorse for their actions and they might be unable to overcome the amount of disgrace they experience. Public shaming not only affects the criminal, but also it can affect a faultless third-party. Humiliation affects innocent third-parties, such as family members, because the public mortification will promote the criminal to everybody in the community and possibly everyone on social media; therefore, guilt by association can accompany the family members. The extent of the punishment has the potential to be so significant that “[i]f a sign reading ‘A violent felon lives here’ [i]s posted in front of a man 's house, the felon 's blameless child ‘might get bullied because of the exposure and humiliation of the father’” (Morrison 3). Unfortunately, a simple sign that reads “a criminal lives here” can alter the life of an innocent third-party. Companies are also affected because public reprimanding would expose an employee who
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
People all over the world continuously commit sins some are bigger than others and some do more damage. In the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman, Hester Prynne, is publicly shamed and force to wear a scarlet A upon her bosom for committing adultery. Throughout the book, Hester and her daughter, Pearl, try to adapt to life as an outsider. The two are continuously judged for Hester’s sin, and humiliated, however, they overcome this judgment and are seen in a different way. Hester and Pearl have been publicly shamed, Pearl has been considered an elfish devil like child, and after all the humiliation they were able to turn their lives around.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, tells the story of a young adulteress named Hester Prynne and her bastard daughter, Pearl, as they endure their residence in a small town of the Massachusetts British settlement in the1600s. Pearl’s illegitimate birth is the result of the relationship between Hester Prynne and a minister of the Puritan church, Arthur Dimmesdale. Through public defamation and a perpetual embroidery of an “A” upon her dress, Hester is punished for her crime. Whereas, Arthur choses to suppress the secret over illuminating the truth and endures internal and self-inflicted punishment as consequence.
In ‘The Scarlet Letter’ Nathaniel Hawthorne has created a society in which “religion and law were almost identical” (Hawthorne 57). Just as in any other society, all the members within the limits must obey the law. Disobeying these laws result in punishment. One such character is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. After Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s affair with Hester Prynne, Hester is forced into a permanent state of shame when she is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest. Be that as it may, something isn't right about the Reverend’s retribution. Instead of being shamed publicly, Reverend Dimmesdale’s punishment is much different. Instead of living with the torments of others, Reverend
In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne's punishment was assigned to her by a highly prestigious panel of men from the Churches and Courts of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. All of the townspeople came to see Hester Prynne's punishment because of their loyalty to the court. They had to see what was going on with the court, because that is what they held in highest regard.
Moreover, cyberbullying has longer effects through a child’s life, leading the victims to turn into victim-bullies (Donegan 1). Victim bullies take their own frustrations on bullying others as an escape to help them cope with their pain caused by cyberbullying. In addition, it’s been reported that bullies commit at least one crime as an adult whereas victim-bullies commit a 23 percent higher than of the bullies (Donegan 4). Konnikova doesn’t mention that bullies also need help as much as the victims, but not all bullies are born that way. In fact, most of them have been bullied before or they have psychological problems (Donegan 5). Indeed, people should take this statistics as a wakeup call to help cyberbullies to cope with their frustrations to lower the numbers of victims, to create a better childhood, and a healthier adolescence for a better
In the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, the letter is understood as a label of punishment and sin being publicized. Hester Prynne bears the label of “A” signifining adulterer upon her chest. Because of this scorching red color label she becomes the outcast of her society. She wears this symbol of punishment and it become a burden throughout her life. The letter “produces only a reflection of her scarlet letter; likewise, the townspeople's image of Hester revolves around her sin. The evil associated with Hester's actions and the letter on her chest consume all aspects of her life, concealing her true beauty, mind, and soul” (R. Warfel 421-425). Society pushed blame upon Hester Prynne, and these events lead to the change of her life. The Puritans whom Prynne is surround by view the letter as a symbol from the devil, controversially some individuals look upon the letter, sigh and fell sympathy towards her because they have or are involved in this same situation. Nonetheless the haunting torture Hester Prynne battles daily drags on, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows this torture “of an impulse and passionate nature. She had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely wreaking itself in every variety of insult but...
Authors of the Puritan era, including the writers of The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, and The Minister's Black Veil criticized society's use of punishment, intolerance, and hypocrisy. The dealings of sin in the 1620-1720's contrasts greatly with the components of punishment executed by modern authorities. Defense lawyers, probation, and the phrase, "Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law," have replaced public humiliation and social isolation. Unalienable rights are now mapped out by the constitution, as well as other components of a democratic government. In The Scarlet Letter, a townsman said, "It must gladden your heart…to find yourself, at length, in a land where iniquity is searched out, and punished in the sight of rulers and people" (Hawthorne, 43).
Suicide due to bullying has been given the name of bullycide. One example of bullycide would be Jon Carmichael from Texas who was bullied so harshly that “one day they stripped him naked, tied him up, and stuck him in a trash can, and they taped it with their cell phones and put it all on You Tube” per his mother’s account (Texas Monthly, Hollandsworth). A few days later Jon was found hanging by a rafter from their barn after committing suicide. The perpetrators of this abuse were his fellow classmates and it is reported that “60% of boys who bullied others in middle school had at least one criminal conviction by the age of 24; 40% had three or more convictions” (van der Valk, 41). Bullying behavior not only negatively affects the victims that are singled out and tormented, but from a legal perspective can lead to long term criminal
School shootings and suicides result from continuous bullying. As a result, after time some side effects of...
Shame punishments should be implemented in the Justice system. Because we waste so many tax dollars for locking up small-time offenders, we should use shame to save money and make the system more helpful for those who are in it. Punishing by shame can be effective through many forms, such as, community service or participating in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to overcome drinking problems. Shame makes the punishment more personal to the offender and creates a solution that is best for society. If a graffiti painter had to clean up all of the graffiti in the city, he would be sick of it. Shame is a way we could solve the problem in the Justice system.
Public shaming is much more than just a punishment for people, they either learn nothing from it or hate themselves because if it. It should not be considered appropriate under any circumstances. A crime is a crime no matter how big or how small, people should do the time for what they did. They should not be placed in public and made a fool of. They should be placed somewhere where they can learn from their mistakes and get the help they need to better themselves as a human being.
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.
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.
...attery. Far away from the days of the stockade and the whipping post, now signs in front yards, cleansing of public roads, and other modern forms of shaming have now been implemented in modern day probation. Along with the change in eras, comes a whole new course of legal issues that have been raised by offenders. Does shaming violate an offender's constitutional right and does shaming serve its intended purpose? There are many individuals that feel shaming violates a persons 1st and 8th amendments in the United States Constitution and this same question has been brought up in the courts. But every time, the courts have ruled that there is no violation of constitutional rights and the idea of shaming offenders has been upheld. Until there has been the implementation of a better plan or concept, I for one feel that the concept of shaming is a warranted and just act.