Medieval Politics Of Shame Analysis

Over the past 200 years sexual liberation and freedom have become topics of discussions prevalent within western culture and society. With the recent exploration of sexuality a new concept of sexual and gender identity has emerged and is being analyzed in various fields of study. The ideology behind what defines gender and how society explains sex beyond biology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale captures the limitations and social implications forced upon a set gender based on societal expectations. Gender is a social construct that limits the individual to the restrictions and traditions of a society, or if it’s an individually formed self-identification of sex and sexuality that is formed autonomously. Evidence of gender establishment can be seen within literary works and supported by various schools of gender and sexuality theory.

Honor is one of those concepts that is seldom defined. One’s reputation is based on his or her honor, integrity, honesty, and purity. William Shakespeare’s Henry IV is a one of his many plays that deal with the varying ideas of honor, as well as issues of courage, loyalty, and ambition, interposing examples of dishonor, weakness, and the deceitful plots among both the drunkards and noblemen. Shakespeare utilizes suggestive metaphors to create illusions, imagery, and to reinforce the different views of the major issues people were faced with in his time and in ours. His plays often focus on the imagery, either on some obvious important symbol, or some image pattern that recurs throughout the work. Readers are

To achieve this goal I have organized this paper into 3 main sections, which will each explain the sexual bias, sexual repression, and patriarchy in the Puritanical society and how it ties in

Pride can be defined positively and negatively, it can mean a sense of one's own proper dignity or value or self-respect, or an excessively high opinion of oneself or conceit, respectively. In the play which portrays both sides of pride we are transported to the late sixteen hundreds and introduced to the town of Salem in the province of Massachusetts Bay during the time of witch trials, and it’s excessively superstitious habitants. Some of the fictitious but notable habitants of the town are John Proctor, his wife Elizabeth Proctor and Reverend Hale, all of whom show various facets of pride, its benefits and its consequences.

In the 2007 film version of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, Grendel and the dragon represent shame and consequences to bad choices made by King Hrothgar and Beowulf. They do appear a bit monstrous but they are mostly there just for what they represent. You can tell Grendel represents King Hrothgar’s shame when he tells Beowulf, “Grendel is dead. That’s all that matters to me. He can bother me no more.” This shows that King Hrothgar and Grendel did not have a normal father-son relationship, since he wanted him dead. Also King Hrothgar was ashamed of Grendel and didn’t want people to know that he was his son. Since Beowulf fell into the same evil cycle as King Hrothgar did, he had the same feelings toward his son, the dragon. He referred to his

“[In 16th century European society] Marriage was the triumphal arch through which women, almost without exception, had to pass in order to reach the public eye. And after marriage followed, in theory, the total self-abnegation of the woman.”

In The Tale of Heike, the way in which the Japanese viewed defeat and dying is revealed to the reader through various incidents covered during the time of the novel. To be defeated was shameful but to prevail was a way to gain respect and honor. The accounts in Heike tell us that one could defeat an opponent by exiling him, insulting him, or even taking revenge upon him. Because being defeated was shameful, warriors would kill themselves before being killed by the opponent. If a warrior failed in his duty, suicide would be the necessary measure taken to regain honor. Not only could suicide be a way to gain honor, it could also be a way to shame someone. If you prohibit your enemy

In Henry IV, Part One Shakespeare revels in the opportunity to suggest the idiosyncracy of character through his command of a wide range of both verse and prose. As a result the play is full of rich and different character parts (Wells 141). Two in particular, Falstaff and Hotspur, hold diverse beliefs concerning the main theme of the drama, honor. In Shakespeare’s time, honor was defined as the special virtues which distinguish those of the nobility in the exercise of their vocation–gallantry in combat with a worthy foe, adherence to the accepted code of arms, and individual loyalty to friends, family, and comrades in arms (Prior 14). Throughout the play, honor plays an important role in

Dick Gregory’s “Shame” raises two important issues – first unrequited love and experiencing shame. Though both conditions are familiar to me and I can understand the feelings of the author, I would not say that my experience is rather similar to the author’s. Even though my first love was unrequited and there were cases when I felt ashamed in front of my classmates, I have never been exposed to exactly the same situations and have never experienced exactly the same feelings as the author.

“Women’s honor, something altogether else: virginity chastity, fidelity to a husband. Honesty in women has not been considered important. We have been depicted as generically whimsical, deceitful, subtle, vacillating, and we have been rewarded for lying.” 413.

The Characters of both Oedipus and Jocasta are similar in that they both live in guilt and shame, and are both very caring people because they protect their loved ones. Jocasta and Tiresias are similar because they both advise Oedipus to stop looking for the truth, and both believe Oedipus is stubborn because he will not listen to them. I believe that the purpose of the play is to show us that ignorance is bliss or that you cannot fight fate. Sophocles uses both guilt and shame as two main themes in Oedipus the King. He uses the theme of guilt when Oedipus finds out that he killed his father and is married to his mother.

This construction reinforces control over young women’s sexual expression. Faus highlights how it forces women to partake in this patriarchal culture where women’s bodies are under control

President Benson’s message is extremely powerful on the subject of Pride. There have been a plethora of general authorities referring to his infamous talk. I previously thought I understood “pride”. It is quite evident that I have misunderstood the message and ‘sinned ignorantly’ as President Benson stated I am astonished of the real examples and definition of pride as found in the Book of Mormon. This talk is monumental and a great example of how we should liken the scriptures unto ourselves. The Book of Mormon authors lamented that we are to beware of the many faces of pride and catalogues the evident results of impending doom to the Nephites who ignored the prophets.

“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change”(Brené Brown). In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman is publicly shamed for having a child with a man who is not her husband. Another example of public shame can be seen in modern day articles “Florida ‘Scarlet Letter’ Law is Repealed by Gov. Bush,” by Dana Canedy, and “Houston Couple Gets ‘The Scarlet Letter’ Treatment.” Both talk of public shame that people have had to endure in the present day. Public shaming is not an effective punishment because it is a cruel and unusual punishment, it does not deter crime, and it can emotionally traumatize the one being shamed.

The future conditions of the woman’s potential marital worth were much poorer than any punishment the violator could have received. Once a woman was raped, her virginity was no longer available for her husband to have. “‘Virginity is the ornament of morals, the sanctity of the sexes, the peace of families and the source of the greatest friendships.’ Its existence was a precondition for marriage. To publicly breach it was to compromise honor, rank, even life; a ‘deflowered’ girl inevitably became a ‘lost’ girl. . . ‘The ravishing of virginity was the worst rape of all.’” (Cite Book 1) An innocent woman had now completely lost her worth to society and her own dignity due to a man’s egocentric and merciless actions.