Lavender's AP Lit Class Blog
Monday, October 22, 2012
Scarlet Letter Essay
HELLOOOOO EVERYONE. I want to talk about private versus public shame. Im going to link this to the big idea of conformity and how when you are publicity shamed you end up looking at society from the "outside" which changes your view of it. Because you are pushed away from society through public shame you are forced to think on your own and not through others. This makes you rethink society and you stop conforming with it. You develop your own ideas. When you have shame but it is private you are forced into the inward outward change in yourself. Inside you are a sinner, but outwardly people view you as something different. You live within society conforming with everyone else trying to hide your secret of sin. Hester has the public shame because she couldn't hide a baby. I am going to talk about how her views of society and the town she lives in change and how she has no laws anymore because she broke them. Dimesdale on the other hand experiences the shame inwardly and this makes him crazy. He has physical changes from his inward attempt to hide his sin. I will compare these two characters and also talk a little about how heater's public shame affected Pearl as a child.
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Erin,
ReplyDeleteThis is a rich post that contains not one, but a number of potential good approaches to this novel. I think your going to have to narrow your focus (for example, I don't think that a short analytical essay can exhaustively address the issue of public versus probate shame AND address the effect of this shame on Pearl). Indeed, does Pearl even feel shame? I was interested when you mentioned that conformity is a particularly important component in experiencing shame--be it public or private. Can a non-conformist feel shame if he or she doesn't give a hoot about public standards of morality? Does Hester feel shame? If so, what is the character of that shame? How is the private shame that Dimmesdale experiences a consequence of his conformity, and how is his experience of shame differ from Hester's? Start by looking to the text for answers to these and other questions that you might generate.
I like this idea, it's very origional to me. I really dont have anyhthing else to say. It seems like you will have enough information to make 3-4 pages, maybe go through the book and highlight some specific quotes.
ReplyDeleteyou should mention how Dimmsedale doesnt have to face shame at all because he doesnt show anything that he hasnt done something wrong unlike Hester does with a baby bump....hope that helps
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