Shame and Guilt: Is There a Difference? Essay

Macbeth, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare and edited by Maynard Mack and Robert Boynton, displays the many ways in which guilt manifests itself and the effects it has on its victims. Throughout the play, characters including Lady Macbeth are deeply affected by guilt in ways they had never expected. Macbeth takes its audience on a journey through the process in which guilty gradually eats away at Lady Macbeth and forces her to do what she thinks is best. Though Lady Macbeth may have initially seemed unaffected by the murders she had been involved in, her desires eventually faded and were replaced with an invincible feeling of guilt which eventually took her life.

In her article, “Condemn the Crime, Not the Person,” June Tangney argues that shaming causes more harm than good. She focuses on alternatives to traditional sentences instead of shaming and incarceration. As a more recent trend, officials are using shaming sentences more and more. Tangney states that it is important to know the distinction between shame and guilt. Tangney states, that research has shown feeling of guilt “involve a sense of tension and regret over the bad thing done.” Guilt makes people feel bad. It makes them want to change their behavior whereas shame does not motivate people to feel better and they are less likely to stop their wrong behavior (577). She also states that scientific evidence suggested publicly shaming a person makes a problem instead of creating a constructive change in them and individuals may hide and escape the shameful feelings and try to blame others (577). In conclusion, Tangney suggest community service as a sentence for offenders to pay their debt to society for their wrongdoing, been linked to the crime they did. Her tone is informative and innovative and keeps the reader interested while reading. However, this article displays weakness in term of the evidence the author presents, it is one sided and does not provide evidence her suggestion for community service as a sentence option works. Therefore, it fails to persuade the reader.

Unacknowledged Shame Theory is seen in a perspective that shame can cause a destructive emotion and can promote crime instead of preventing it if it is not managed positively. By using apology in return for forgiveness symbolises that reparation can commence (Braithwaite, 2004).

In the article “Condemn the Crime, Not the Person,” June Tangney argues that shaming causes more harm than good. She focuses on alternatives to traditional sentences instead of shaming and incarceration. As a most recent trend, officials are using shaming sentences. Tangney states that it is important to know the distinction between shame and guilt. She explains that feelings of shame involve painful focus on the self, the humiliating sense of “I am a bad person,” and guilt impacts a specific behavior, the sense of “I did a bad thing” (570-571). She also emphasizes in evidence suggesting that publicly shaming make a problem instead of creating a constructive change in people. Even thought, the tone of her essay is informative and innovative, it is one sided, ineffective

A college athlete, known as Brock Turner, age 20, raped an intoxicated woman in a public setting; he was arrested in 2015. There were two witnesses who caught Turner in the act. The victim came before the jury to express how Turner took advantage of her. The sex offender was convicted of 3 felony counts and the prosecutor ruled for him to serve a minimum 6 years in prison. Turner’s father made a statement to the judge saying, "This is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of actions out of his 20 plus years of life". The judge sentenced Turner to 6 months in prison, but he only completed 3 months as he didn’t serve his full initial sentence in prison.

When the Judge announced the verdict “Guilty” there was a slight murmur in the court room as was expected. Then the Judge began to announce the sentence “Life in prison without the possibility of parole”, the words cutting through the air like an arrow through a paper target. The courtroom was an arena of mixed feelings, half cheering in a celebratory manner, the other half crying and shouting in disbelief. Someone’s 13 year old son was going to prison for the rest of his life without any chance of parole. Children should never be sentenced to life without parole, making the sentence in

One of the many reason victim’s right advocates are for truth in sentencing laws is because “with probation, indeterminate sentencing, parole, and good time, the average time spent in prison by someone who wrongfully takes a human life is 7 years”

“The court finds you guilty on all accounts. You are sentenced to 35 years in federal prison. Court dismissed.” If only justice in America was the same as a hollywood movie, where, in the end, each and every person put on trial receives a true and just verdict. It would be nice if America’s justice system was designed so that “you couldn’t be the next victim of corruption - innocent and sent to prison, or strapped to a table and put to death; or robbed of your life savings by American lawyers” (Sachs, America’s Corrupt Legal). Welcome to the new America, where all it takes is pockets as deep as the Pacific Ocean to be innocent and poverty to be found guilty, thrown in jail, and not given a second thought. Although America often prides itself on its just ways of governing and dealing with potential criminals, the justice system is often corrupted because of social issues, ethical issues, corrupt officials, and control of the press.

Imagine yourself as a teenager rotting away in a jail cell your whole life. More importantly, imagine that the reason your are there is because your were trying to protect yourself. Erik Jensen, 17, and Nathan Ybanez, 15, were sentenced to prison for life without parole. Nathan struck his mother with fireplace tongs; then he, Erik, and their friend, Brett Benson, destroyed the evidence. Brett took a plea bargain. Some say they deserve life because of their crime, but they were not in the right place of mind. Therefore, justice was not served in either case.

The Fall by Colleen Nelson: The effects of guilt after a friend’s death When physic defenses move in to deny, repress, and ultimately suppress any awareness of shame, it usually shows that one is experiencing guilt. In the novel, The Fall, Colleen Nelson elaborates on the effects of guilt that the main characters Taz, Cory, and Ben face, due to the unfortunate death of their friend. Throughout the novel, Colleen demonstrates how people can feel guilty after their friend’s death through its negative effects such as depression and conflicts in relationships. To begin, depression is a clear effect of guilt.

“Community Service is important for many reasons. Taking part and volunteering teaches compassion and understanding. You can volunteer for something you really believe and have an interest in, and can volunteer as much or as little as you'd like or have time for.” Community service is really easy to get into. I mean, it is not like you have to put out an application and have an interview in order to do it. It is really easy to get into, and is really fun. It is things you wouldn’t even think are considered, like:

Abstract:     Guilt has physiological and psychological effects. The psychological effects can include something bad, such as feelings of worthlessness or inferiority. Guilt can also serve in a positive way as a motivator. A person may suffer physiological effects such as insomnia and physical pain.

Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale," a relatively straightforward satirical and anti-capitalist view of the church, contrasts motifs of sin with the salvational properties of religion to draw out the complex self-loathing of the emasculated Pardoner. In particular, Chaucer concentrates on the Pardoner's references to the evils of alcohol, gambling, blasphemy, and money, which aim not only to condemn his listeners and unbuckle their purses, but to elicit their wrath and expose his eunuchism.

On average, when people think about community service, they assume that volunteering is just ‘hours we need to be able to graduate’ and that is it. Community service is more than just hours; community service is based on the acts performed by someone with the purpose of helping or bringing benefits to his or her community. People frequently compare community service as a punishment since it is often offered to small-time offenders as an alternative to fines or jail time. However, community service is the vital force to many communities since they depend on the service made by the volunteers

“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.