Similarities Between The Scarlet Letter And The Price Of Shame

The Reality of Shame

Shame is a self-conscious emotion that arises from the perception that one has done something dishonorable or something is wrong about oneself. In the Scarlet Letter and The Price of Shame, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Monica Lewinsky depict the effects of shame and public embarrassment on the mortified victim and humanity as a whole. Their arguments project various themes such as humanity thriving on public humiliation, people deserving redemption, being upstanders and not bystanders, and labeling shame victims with objects.

In both texts, the reader notices an overlap with the theme of humanity thriving on public humiliation. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is placed on a scaffold to be sentenced and “townspeople assembled

In the Scarlet Letter, Hester is given an embroidered letter “A” (Scarlet Letter) which stands for “adulterer”, and is fastened on the breast of her dress. The scarlet letter was taking “her out of the ordinary relations with humanity” (Hawthorne 46) and isolating her while also spotlighting her and reminding her of her mistake everyday. Quite similar, Monica Lewinsky was greatly identified by a “particular image of [her], say, wearing a beret” that was all over the internet, newspapers. She later regretted wearing it because it brought shame to her and it acted as a sign of her shortcomings. This proves to the reader that the public can use anything against you, even a simple beret or letter to expose one's

In 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. In her Ted talk speech, she talks about her cruel experience after the scandal and asks that “Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop.” In short, the theme of mistakes not defining an individual also relates to the theme of humanity rushing to judge individuals because the public did not wait to hear Hester and Lewinsky’s side of the story before rushing to the conclusion of labeling them as