Branding, Labeling, and Public Humiliation Essay Sample
Throughout history. people have been labeled. branded. and tortured as a signifier of penalty and public humiliation. Humiliating the individual who committed a offense was meant to function as a warning and to frighten people off from perpetrating the same offense. Petty crimes that happen normally today received the worst penalty back when the stigmatization and labeling of felons was popular. The penalty felons received was frequently barbarous and agonizing. Early Puritan small towns had a rigorous jurisprudence and anyone who refused to follow was punished consequently. ( “Colonial…” 1 ) If a individual was caught stealing. “’T’ for stealer was branded on the nimble-fingered criminal’s manus. ” The Puritan jurisprudence revolved greatly around faith and it was frequently that people were punished for some offense against faith.
“In the early 17th century. Boston’s Roger Scott was picked up for ‘repeated sleeping on the Lord’s Day’ and sentenced to be badly whipped for ‘striking the individual who waked him from his godless sleep. ’” ( 2 ) Even kids were the victim of such pathetic charges. such as “Abiel Wood of Plymouth who was hauled before the tribunal for ‘irreverently acting himself by chalking the dorsum of one Hezekiah Purrington. Jr. . with Chalk. playing and animating himself in the clip of publick worship. ’” ( 2 ) Peoples were even punished for perpetrating “sodomy” or homosexual behaviour. “Edward Preston was sentenced to be publically whipped at both Plymouth and Barnstable ‘for his lewd patterns be givening to sodomy with Edward Mitchell…’” ( 2 )
In England. harlotry was widely punished with stigmatization. labels. and even public tanning. ( “Punishing…” 1 ) The adult females who were selling their organic structures were labeled as “Winchester Geese” . The work forces who employed cocottes were even punished by “…branding them on the face. ” ( 1 ) The cocottes themselves were besides punished. The “Branding Act” passed in 1623 said that “any adult female convicted on taking goods valued at more than twelvepence would endure in add-on to a tanning or other penalty the stigmatization of a T with a hot combustion Fe on her left pollex. ” ( 2 ) Branding was normally done instantly after the sentence so the adult female could non corrupt the punisher into utilizing a less hot Fe. When harlotry was legal. the adult females were still being labeled. They were non allowed to have on aprons. because an apron was the grade of a respectable adult female. ( 2 ) After it was outlawed. multiple penalties could be given to cocottes. Some had to shave their hair. have their ears clipped. or have their nose slit unfastened. ( 2 )
In Medieval times. anguish. penalty. and labeling were aplenty. The Anglo-Saxons were the first to trade name as a penalty. ( “Burning…” 1 ) In an ground forces. a apostate might be branded with the missive D. ( 2 ) Some of the common letters used to trade name felons were B for Blasphemy. F for Fray shaper. M for Manslaughter. P for Perjurer. R for Rogue. S for Slave. SL for Seditious Libeler. SS for Sower of Sedition. and T for Thief. In France. “Not merely did some Gallic felons have letters burned in them. but Numberss every bit good. These. one inch high. identified the section ( territory ) in which the inmate was imprisoned. and were burned in beneath and somewhat to the left of the missive or letters. ” ( 2 ) The Brazen Bull was a device made for public anguish. “Imagine a full-sized reproduction of a bull. made of brass. with a trap-door in its dorsum to let entree to its hollow inside. The victim would be locked inside it. and a fire so lighted beneath the abdomen of the ‘beast’… For the reeds he had installed in the bull’s anterior nariss would change over the shriek of the tormented into a musically delighting mooing sound. ”
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. the chief character Hester Prynne is labeled after she commits criminal conversation. She has to have on a ruddy missive A that stands for Adultery on the bosom of her gown. “On the chest of her gown. in all right ruddy fabric. environment with an luxuriant embellishment and antic flourishes of gold-tread. appeared the missive A. ” ( Hawthorne… 40 ) Through the narrative. people treat her otherwise because of how she is labeled. “Clergymen paused in the streets to turn to words of exhortation. that brought a crowd. with its mingled smile and scowl. around the hapless. iniquitous adult female. If she entered a church. swearing to portion the Sabbath smiling of the Universal Father. it was frequently her bad luck to happen herself the text of the discourse. ” ( 64 )
Hester doesn’t even feel comfy run intoing eyes with aliens in public because she is so broken about the vermilion missive. “Another curious anguish was felt in the regard of a new oculus. When aliens looked oddly at the vermilion missive. –and none of all time failed to make so. — they branded it afresh into Hester’s psyche ; so that oftentimes. she could barely forbear. yet ever didn’t chorus. from covering the symbol with her manus. ” ( 65 ) Labeling has been used as a signifier of penalty for centuries. Branding was used to torment and to penalize every bit good as to promote the populace to be sin free. Public humiliation was used so the felon was excessively abashed to perpetrate another offense out of fright of being humiliated once more. Peoples truly were punished in eldritch ways back so.
Plants Cited
“Burning & A ; Branding Torture. ” Darklair. dk. N. p. . n. d. Web. 09 Oct. 2012. “Colonial Williamsburg. ” Colonial Crimes and Punishments: The Official History Site. N. p. . n. d. Web. 09 Oct. 2012. Hawthorne. Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Needham: Prentice Hall. 1850. Print. “Punishing Prostitution. ” Punishing Prostitution. N. p. . n. d. Web. 09 Oct. 2012.
