Public Shaming In Hawthorne's The Price Of Shame By Nathaniel Hawthorne

In the article, "The Dark Side of Web Fame" by Jessica Bennett, posted online at http://www.newsweek.com/dark-side-web-fame-93505 and published on February 21, 2008, the author recounts multiple stories of when the power of the internet had not benefitted people, but had actually harmed their reputation. Bennett starts the essay by giving an example of a high school boy who made an unfortunately embarrassing video, that was never meant to be published. Sadly, another student found the video and released it online, where the video became a viral sensation and the teen was humiliated not only on a local level, but a global level too. Throughout the article Bennett gives other examples to show the reader that people, using the tool of the

Statistics show that public humiliation is one of the most common fears. As many admit to this fear, many also grasp to this concept and shame one another for absurd conditions. In the Puritan Era, many methods were used to publicly shame someone for their wrong doing. One of their common methods was to openly tell their “sin” to the whole community. One of their extreme approaches was hanging someone. This showed the public to follow the regulations of the town and do not do anything against them. Fast forward to modern times, the scheme of humiliating one another changed drastically. For instance, many occurrences pertain from social media. In 1994, the first site of social media was created. From this point on, millions of different sites

It’s common to argue that a perpetrator “deserves” to be shamed, but in fact human psychology doesn’t work this way. Many pedophiles, for instance, recognize that that they are inexorably—even biologically—bound to impulses that they themselves loathe. Does the shaming—through public registries for example—cause the pedophile to reform? Unlikely. Does it deter others from engaging in pedophilic acts, or does it drive them to darker corners and sneakier tactics?

When we hear shaming our minds quickly go to someone being embarrassed and humanized for their past actions. In public view for people to create judgments and uncertainty about a behavior seen from a certain person. This description falls under the common form of shaming known as stigmatization, found in our criminal system stigmatization is disrespectful shaming, “where the offender is treated as a bad person. The offender is left with that stigma permanently” (Braithwaite, 2000, 282) due to the forgivingness found in this form of shaming. Stigmatization shaming only tends to bring more shame than a resolution so crime tends to increase the crimes because the offender feels like there no way out, so I might as well

For example, Ronson says “A shaming can be like a distorting mirror at a funfair, taking human nature and making it look monstrous” (Ronson 237). Ronson shows how common human mistakes, such as posting things on social media without thinking can destroy someone. People take something an individual has said and makes them out to be someone they are not.

As an individual, it’s a part of life to make plenty of mistakes, but is public shaming the answer to solving it? 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 for her to be humiliated even more. This is a form of public ridicule, reintegrative shaming where attention can be drawn by wrong doing, and in order for you to learn in life you have make some mistakes . Public shaming is immoral in today’s society because as an individual that has done something wrong, you will start to feel like an outcast besides having to endure humiliation for your actions.

Shame clearly takes a toll on the emotions, thoughts and actions of the person affected, no matter how big or small the issue one dealt with is. Emotions can affect someone

Public shaming has happened to many people over the years. It is one of the worst feelings in the world. The painful, antagonizing, embarrassing shame that comes out of it makes people’s lives as miserable as getting tarred and feathered. Hester Prynne committing adultery, Monica Lewinski having sexual relations with Bill Clinton, Justine Sacco tweeting out an African-AIDS stereotype. These are all examples of people who have been publicly shamed. Because public shaming promotes the negative change in perspective towards a victim, long-lasting embarrassment, and regret, it should be left in the past.

Embarrassment is a human reaction that everyone experiences. The decisions that are being made in life are purely based off of the judgements of others and how they affect a person's image. These choices become completely misguided by a lack of morals and become improper. This does not solely apply to people in general, but corporations, companies, and large groups of people. The government attempts to use a good image in order to demand respect from its followers and from other countries. This image causes the government to make decisions that under normal circumstances would not be acceptable. In Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo uses anaphora to convey how an inability to compromise leads to audacious conduct that would exceed tolerable

As terrible as public humiliation may sound, the twenty-first century has manifested public shame to be a symbol of status. The theory is that there is no such thing as bad attention, the more people talk, the more recognition that person receives. The whole culture is centered around the people with the most attention, good or bad. As a result, many celebrities rely on exploitation in order to attract the attention of the public, for example Kim Kardashian’s leaked sex tape with famous rapper, Ray J, led to her ultimate rise in social status (Massey). This whole idea of benefiting from shame parallels to the Puritan ideals expressed in The Scarlet Letter.

She hath raised a great scandal” (Source A). This quote explains that Hester was publicly known by her mistakes, and has now built up the reputation of a sinner. In “The Price of Public Shame” by Monica Lewinsky, there is a similar effect on a person's social life. Monica was shamed publicly for having an affair with her boss. That boss just happened to be the president.

The book, “So You've Been Publicly Shamed” written by Jon Ronson, commences by disclosing his own experience with identity theft on social media. His story involves three educated men, who have taken over his identity by creating a twitter account. The men are careless and unashamed of their actions. Therefore, Ronson decides to meet with the three gentlemen to discuss shutting down the account. As they talked, Ronson is simultaneously recording them and realizes that the men lack empathy for his concerns and Ron’s portrayal on social media. Moreover, Ronson decides to post the video on Youtube, and later receives an abundant of supporting comments on the incident. Eventually, the account is shutdown and proves how publicly shaming someone

I watched two TEDtalks related to my book. The first one was called Listening to Shame. In the video Brené Brown, the author, talked about what people thought about shame and how it made them feel. She also explained what the definition of shame is and how it affected people. Brown told stories about shame and how everybody has a little built up inside of them. To help people coping with shame, she said it is good to practice resilience and to talk about it with people you trust. Also, I watched this video called The Power of Vulnerability. In this video Brown talked more on how shame and vulnerability are connected. She said shame is the fear of feeling disconnected and vulnerability

“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.

In every country in the world there are certain levels of shaming that every society has, where some countries have extreme shame than others. Shaming is form of criticism and judgement when an individual violates social or moral norms. Shaming fundamentally reacts our psychological need for acceptance and approval from either someone or the public. It is true that for centuries, shame has been given a negative name, but there is reason why shame has existed for a long time and why it will continue to exist in the future. Shaming should be part of society since it brings order and control, it causes people to reflect their wrong doing, and it creates a positive change that affects everyone. Shaming should be part of the society since shaming, most of the time, brings positive results.