How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Public Humiliation

Corruptness of Public Humiliation In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is publicly humiliated for committing adultery. Not only did she have to stand upon a scaffold and be scolded for three long hours by the strict Puritan community, but also she was forced to wear a token of shame, the scarlet letter A, embroidered on her bosom. When she was released, the townspeople looked at Hester as if she did not belong. Public humiliation is not as common as it was in the 19th century, even though some judges may think that enforcing this is fair punishment. In today’s society, judges should not use public shaming as a punishment for crimes people have committed. Judges, who seek attention from the public, assign creative sentences to criminals who
Not only is public shaming just used for publicity, but also in some cases, cruel or unusual. It seems as if the more creative the punishment, the more it catches the public’s eye, and notoriety the judge receives for his or her’s “alternative to incarceration.” In this case, judges prefer public shaming as punishment opposed to imprisoning. Furthermore, public shaming prolongs the punishment beyond criminals’ extended sentence. Even though “these are relatively small offences… but what these judges do is they impose very heavy sentences in order to force people to do what they want.” (“Some”). Social media is a huge contributor to extending it beyond the sentence. If a criminal is serving his or her sentence in public, and it catches onlookers’ or by passers’ eye, more than likely they’re going to take a picture or video of them. This may seem like it’s not a huge component, but if the post goes viral,