The Significance Of The Scaffold In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Mankind has taken it upon itself to be the judge in all aspects of morality and truth, for from the very beginning, we have been known to punish those who went against what we believed to be right. A significant example of our hypervigilance is the scaffold, a common shaming practice that belonged to America’s Puritanical forefathers. The scaffold’s purpose was made infamous in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and decades past its role in the novel, the significance and symbolism of the scaffold is still widely discussed, even by Hawthorne’s son himself. As [Julian] Hawthorne expresses, the significance of the scaffold, and public shaming itself, goes far beyond humans simply wanting to serve justice; Hawthorne believes the chief reason …show more content…
It is unreasonable to believe that everyone participating in public shaming has the wrong motives, for there are many people who truly shame, to a lesser degree, to try and correct what is known as incorrect behavior. Regardless of the fact that there are people who actually shame with the proper purpose in mind, it is still evident that the most prominent reasons for public shaming are rather selfish and have less to do with helping the shamed individual improve, but are instead to benefit the shamers’ lives in some personal way. Because of the tendency for online communities to band together and shame individuals, there is another factor at play in the role of public shaming; maintaining conformity within a society. Since shaming itself manages to outcast the shamed individual, the only other way for the society to remain uniform is for all the other members to fit in the community, and this is done by participating in the shaming so you are not left out. Shaming has become a glue that holds a community, particularly the online community, together, because establishing and enforcing the rules of society is a “commonly-held standard the …show more content…
By not participating in the act of shaming, you are in danger of becoming the next target of the social justice warriors of the internet. You are hooked into this perpetual cycle of shaming, because there is simply too much at stake; your own reputation, your community’s morals, and how you see yourself as a good individual. With all these factors coming into play, it is no surprise that public shaming has ceased to die out. The integrity of the act of shaming no longer intact, for we are not helping the individuals being shamed, we are simply looking to place blame and eradicate them from our society. In doing so, we regain faith in the fact that our society remains spick and span, and that we are good enough citizens to recognize when there is wrongdoing in our