Keeping Appearances
When analyzing the topic of adultery (or infidelity), Joy Davidson, a NYC psychiatrist, made a bold statement: “As a society, we are privately more forgiving and publicly often more judgmental. . .” How many people hide their true identity or ideologies? Many times throughout The Scarlet Letter, emotions and actions completely contradicted one another. Not only does this happen extensively in the book with Arthur Dimmesdale, but the same can be said about modern day. Arthur Dimmesdale, the celebrity many admire and hope to live up to, attempted to hide many secrets, the most obvious being his relationship with Hester; in modern society, people hide secrets in a similar fashion in both time periods. Hypocrisy runs rampant in our world, and many of us act differently depending on whether or not we are in public.
A past Detroit mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, had an affair with a fellow worker of his during his time in office. He chose not to back out of office, and people flamed him for it. Seeing so many high profile individuals committing unfaithful acts against their spouses raised eyebrows and rose a question: how many people actually break the special monogamy two people share in marriage? Perhaps, however, this is not the question that needs …show more content…
For example, one may think that yes, Hester committed adultery, but it isn’t as big of a deal. When questioned about it in a group setting, they may answer something far more extreme than their actual belief because they want to conform to the standards of the group. This is considered Group Polarization. Group Polarization involves groups of people who all enter with an idea, but after time together, the discussions often lead to a major fluctuation of their opinions on the subject. To explain this in layman's terms, they enter tipping the scale slightly to the right,but by the time they are done, the scale tips more excessively than
When analyzing the topic of adultery (or infidelity), Joy Davidson, a NYC psychiatrist, made a bold statement: “As a society, we are privately more forgiving and publicly often more judgmental. . .” How many people hide their true identity or ideologies? Many times throughout The Scarlet Letter, emotions and actions completely contradicted one another. Not only does this happen extensively in the book with Arthur Dimmesdale, but the same can be said about modern day. Arthur Dimmesdale, the celebrity many admire and hope to live up to, attempted to hide many secrets, the most obvious being his relationship with Hester; in modern society, people hide secrets in a similar fashion in both time periods. Hypocrisy runs rampant in our world, and many of us act differently depending on whether or not we are in public.
A past Detroit mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, had an affair with a fellow worker of his during his time in office. He chose not to back out of office, and people flamed him for it. Seeing so many high profile individuals committing unfaithful acts against their spouses raised eyebrows and rose a question: how many people actually break the special monogamy two people share in marriage? Perhaps, however, this is not the question that needs …show more content…
For example, one may think that yes, Hester committed adultery, but it isn’t as big of a deal. When questioned about it in a group setting, they may answer something far more extreme than their actual belief because they want to conform to the standards of the group. This is considered Group Polarization. Group Polarization involves groups of people who all enter with an idea, but after time together, the discussions often lead to a major fluctuation of their opinions on the subject. To explain this in layman's terms, they enter tipping the scale slightly to the right,but by the time they are done, the scale tips more excessively than