What Is The Difference Between The Scarlet Letter And The Price Of Shame
Through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Monica Lewinsky’s “The Price of Shame”, the two authors prove that society thrives on the shame and humiliation of others. Both pieces of writing show a person being overpowered by shame which is brought upon by society and their communities. Shame and humiliation from society creates no privacy for an individual. With people of society thriving on the shame of an individual, one has to live with their humalitation forever. Public shaming within society has the ability to push shame to the next level. Society can push shame to overpower an individual for one mistake. In Monica Lewinsky’s TedTalk, “The Price of Shame”, Lewinsky speaks about her own shame but also talks about the shame of …show more content…
In “The Price of Shame”, Lewinsky creates the image of being a private person to becoming someone everyone is talking about. She says, “I went from being a completely private figure to a publicly humiliated one”(TedTalk). Once the public learned about Lewinsky’s incident, society pushed its curiosity to create a new public life for her. The life of Lewinsky will be forever changed; she will never be able to live a private life again. Similar to Lewinsky, Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter also has to live a public life put upon her by society. Hester Prynne is a married woman whose husband has not been seen in two years. During these two years, Hester has an affair with the minister of her town resulting in Hester having a baby. Because the town knows that Hester is married she is charged with adultery, living with the public shame of the scarlet letter. Hawthrone writes, “was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom”(Hawthorne 37). With the scarlet letter Hester will always be reminded of her mistakes. Hester’s new mark is seen by everyone in the community making her now a public figure. Society sees this symbol and only sees the shame and humiliation of the person wearing it, not the real person inside. Society is able to take the shame of one person and change their life for the
Comparison Of President William Clinton And Monica Lewinsky Scandal
1538 Words | 7 PagesAshley Ross with TIME, also reveals from the Vanity Fair article that Monica Lewinsky never wants to be “celebrated” for the scandal, because she has “regrets”, although she thought she was being “pretty discreet, but too immature and didn’t have the foresight to see what the possible ramifications of this could be.” (2014). Monica Lewinsky should be commended for coming back into the public eye, because although she was a young intern during the time of the scandal, her recent presence demonstrates that she’s human and it’s ok to make mistakes and move on. With all of the social media humiliation in society, there are an abundance of young girls and women who are caught in the web of internet embarrassment. Monica Lewinsky’s story could be one of encouragement, and her strength to persevere proves Monica to be a wonderful ambassador for troubled
Summary Of So You Ve Been Publicly Shamed By Jon Ronson
939 Words | 4 PagesReading the book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson shows the reader how one-person life can transform into something they could have never asked for after being shamed. When a person is a victim of a shaming like Justine Sacco, Max Mosley, Adria Richards, and Jonah Lehrer each one of these individuals handled being shamed in a different way. When you are shamed it can either go two ways you lose everything you have worked hard for in life or you can make a comeback from your shaming after a while of hiding out. Many victims who are shamed first realize what they said or their actions were misunderstood by others and they did not intend for someone else to think of it in that perspective.
Comparing Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter 'And David Brooks' The Shame Culture
585 Words | 3 PagesIn the beginning of the book when Hester is recieving her punishment for her adulterous relationship, Hawthorne. Describes the situation by saying, “there can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature-whatever be the delinquencies of the individual- no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do” (Hawthorne 53-54). This portrayal of Hester’s punishment shows how shameful it was made out to be for her. She is forced own up to her sin and take the shame publicly upon the scaffold. And much like in Brooks’ The Shame Culture this begins to shape behavior.
Examples Of Adultery In The Great Gatsby
1557 Words | 7 PagesAdultery- In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne Commits adultery. Once she has committed she gets shamed for life. Adultery is also a very important point throughout the story. It shows how it can wreak havoc on anyone’s life.
Summary Of So You Ve Been Publicly Shamed By Jon Ronson
595 Words | 3 PagesIn the Book, So You've Been Publically Shamed, by Jon Ronson he shows many aspects of peoples lives that have been affected by public shaming; including himself. What Ronson is trying to do is persuade people into believing that public shaming is a terrible thing for a person to endure. But what needs to be recognized is that, is public shaming really something people must do to get their point across? In some peoples mind yes it is, in others not so much. So that's what Ronson is wanting us to see, that public shaming is something that shouldn't be used in our society
Scarlet Letter Human Condition Essay
723 Words | 3 PagesThe Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals a lot about the human condition. A theme that is consistently expressed throughout this novel is the drastic effect of committing a sin, or something that is considered immoral in society. Specifically the book focuses on how secrets can weigh on a person’s mental state and lead to a heavy toll on their daily livelihoods. Hester Prynne, and Arthur Dimmesdale both have to pay a hefty price for the toll that keeping secrets has caused and that is what the novel reveals about the human condition.
Examples Of Shame In Huckleberry Finn
707 Words | 3 Pages“Shame should be reserved for the things we choose to do, not the circumstances that life puts on us.” Ann Patchett, american author. Throughout the stories we have read this semester shame is a common feeling amongst the characters. They are all seen as shameful for different reasons but still are clearly connected, in all three books society is a large reason they are feeling shameful. In Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck feels ashamed that he wants to help Jim escape.
Essay About The Mistakes Hester Prynne Ever Made
599 Words | 3 PagesIn the beginning the scarlet letter represented adultery and shame, but then the A represented “able.” Hester Prynne showed people that greatness can come out of huge mistake. One bad chapter does not mean your story is over. Willingly, Hester wanted to pick herself up again and move on with her life and eventually people noticed that. They began to respect her and think of her as strong and commendable
Similarities Between The Scarlet Letter And The Price Of Shame
908 Words | 4 PagesIn the Scarlet letter, Hester is first viewed as just an adulterer to the Puritan community but she turns out to be more than just that. She provides food to the poor, and helps the sick making her such an asset to her community that many of the townspeople refused to “interpret the scarlet A by its original signification.” (Hawthorne 134) Monica Lewinsky is also viewed as a home wrecker but everyone forgets that she is just an intern at the White House who happened to fall in love just like any other person. Overtime, people around the world have grown to understand her and some even look up to her. Lewinsky turned her shame into a lesson for others and she uses it to create awareness about public humiliation.
Shame In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien
963 Words | 4 PagesIn the book “The Things They Carried” two stories show that shame is a strong feeling that human beings experienced and can make humans do things that they wouldn’t do. In the story "On The Rainy River '' By Tim O’Brien the example below shows what the feeling of shame can do mentally to a person “my conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame.
The Cost Of Error In The Scarlet Letter By Bill Clinton
1086 Words | 5 PagesIn Lewinsky´s case, her private affair caused her to receive extreme harassment. Lewinsky stated, ¨Overnight I went from being a completely private figure to a publicly humiliated one worldwide. I was patient zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously¨ (the price of shame TED talk by Monica Lewinskey). Lewinsky admits that the scandal between her and Clinton had shamed her reputation and humiliated her. Under the belief that her potential career was over, Lewinsky admitted that she had
Shame In The Crucible
1391 Words | 6 PagesIt’s funny to think that shame could be a worse punishment than death or prison, but it’s quite true. Our nation is over 200 years old and we are heavily influenced by those who originally came to the new world, the Puritans. Puritan society was the foundation for many things, punishment being no exception and shame as a method of it included. Through the analyzation of literature and media, we can see just how much the Puritans influenced and continues to influence our modern day society.
Analysis Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlet Letter
896 Words | 4 PagesThis act caused the meaning of the letter to change and Hester became a legend in the society. Publicly wearing the letter caused Hester much suffering, but her inner strength raised above the sin as she was able to turn the meaning of the symbol
How Hester Prynne Changes In Scarlet Letter
941 Words | 4 PagesWhile her punishment changes her physical appearance, it has a far more profound effect on her character. Hester seems much older and worn down with the scarlet letter on her bosom. To Hester, the scarlet letter is a
Hester Prynne Punishment In Scarlet Letter
791 Words | 4 PagesAlthough the community originally knew Hester as a disgrace, the town’s opinion of her changed over time as she began to do work for the poor and needy. After this shift in the town’s view of Hester, “many people refused to interpret the scarlet [letter] by its original signification” (111). Instead of Hester’s scarlet letter serving as a reminder of her scandalous sin, her peers “ had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as a token . . . of [Hester’s] many good deeds” (111). She became known for her charity and generosity, which caused the civilians to overlook her sinful behavior.
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