Shame On You

"In their great mercy and tenderness of heart, they have doomed Mistress Prynne to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom." -The Scarlet Letter

First of all, never begin a sentence about civil discipline with the words "In their great mercy and tenderness of heart." Ugh, it just sounds wrong. Second of all, flickr and Google Image searches for "Scarlet Letter", "A", or even "embroidery" were very disappointing. I had to crop the above photo from a picture of an old book cover, and it doesn't even have the cool golden stitches described in the text.  (I'm not even sure if cropping and reusing that was legal or not. If not, I may be submitting my future posts from the penitentiary.) On to my real point, though. Behold the quote above. That is the punishment given to Hester Prynne for adultery. In a Puritan society where both "the Scripture and the statute-book" prescribe death, she seems to have gotten off easy. Right?

Here is the thing- Hester is doomed to wear that mark of shame FOREVER. Those puffy magistrates wouldn't have condemned her to it if they hadn't felt some sense of the real and agonizing punishment it would be. This is the power of shame, and of isolation (because that is what the symbol guarantees her, essentially.) This is perhaps the strongest example of social disapproval I've encountered in literature, and it makes me wonder about life outside the pages. Hester's punishment stems from the decree of a magisterial board of judges, and I think it is very fair to say that few of us will ever pass before one of those. What does remain the same, however, is the power of popular opinion. Its destructive influence (as well, I suppose, as its constructive power) lives on. My questions, then, is this: How does our modern society show its social disapproval?? We no longer impress scarlet A's over the hearts of offenders, but social media, internet resources, etc. must have some effect on how we define our modern mark of shame. Help me to nail this down?