Essay On Scarlet Letter Shaming

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the common punishment for a range of crimes is shame, inflicted by forcing the “criminal” onto the town scaffold and having them face the judging stares of the whole town. Shame is a feeling of self loathing, in a way, and makes one feel like a bad person, when truly, most of the time, they’ve only done a bad deed. This often leaves the shamed feeling hopeless, especially if their actions ruined their reputation. Today, judges are beginning to sentence minor criminals to shame punishments instead of jail time. While some may argue that shame is a cheaper and simpler alternative to jail time, it doesn’t have the intended effects on the criminal, but instead have terrible, unpredicted effects.

A major argument for supporters of shaming is that shaming is extremely fiscally

However, this argument is completely false and unreasonable. When a person is made to feel shame by a judge, jury, or any other authority figure, the true effect is resentment of authority, possibly leading to further disobedience of laws. For example, when a person is a convicted sex offender and moves into a new community, they, by law, have to personally go door to door, introducing themselves to their new neighbors as a sex offender. Having to repeatedly go through saying such a thing and dealing with whatever reaction is given certainly has strong effects of shame. With each horrified look and each terrible first impression, especially if the crime was much more minor than most people would assume, the offender would feel more shame, but also more and more hate for the authority that requires them to have to go through such a shameful and likely ostracizing experience. As that hate grows, the likeliness for disobedience of law increases, the opposite of the intended