Shame And Guilt In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Shame and guilt, as demonstrated above, are products of society, and the experience of these emotions is subject to the society that the individual was raised and/or currently resides in, as shown by the accounts of Puritan society. Likewise, these emotions and the experiences thereof are subject to where the individual exists within such societies, especially in regards to profession and gender, as shown by the narratives of The Scarlet Letter. Perhaps even morality, the base of emotions such as shame, is subjective to society, because it is, in the words of Paul Gilbert in his article on shame and guilt, this competency of social morals and emotions “that give rise to the human capacities for shame and guilt and make their forms so open to