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How Is Public Shaming Used In The Scarlet Letter

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Public Shaming was popular in the 17th century and is still used today to humiliate people for punishment. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne must stand on a scaffold for three hours and wear an A on her chest for her whole life because she committed adultery. Today some judges still use public humiliation as a punishment for criminals. Publics shaming should not be used anymore as a legal punishment, Punished by humiliation can be made into a joke and not taken seriously by the offender. Most public punishments are funny and would make one laugh. Such as one man who threatened a cop and had to wear a sign saying, “‘I apologize to officer Simone & all police officers for being an idiot calling 911 threatening to kill you…’”. …show more content…

Judges choose public shaming over going to jail because it makes room for worse offenders in the jail and allows more space for the ones who can not be out in public. Even though it makes room in the jail, a criminal is a criminal and they belong locked up for punishment. Judges are able to choose punishments and if they do not like the person any more than the next they could make the punishment more harsh just for personal reasons. The judge can choose whatever they want because, “ judges have so much power and discretion that creative sentencing could mean wildly and unfairly different punishments for the same crime between one courtroom and the next…”(Morrison). Judges can make one felons punishment way worse than another depending on factors like their mood or discrimination towards the person in court. Also the punishment could be different based on the type of person. The wealthy can get out of public shaming by paying the fine but poor people would not have the money and would have to serve the punishment. This makes the punishment biased on whoever enters the courtroom and has to have a

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