The Pillory in Nathaniel Hawthornes Scarlet Letter Essay example -- S

The Scarlet Letter - The Pillory The nail stands tall as the very ideal of ignominy amongst the prudes (52). Its method of punish involves the convicted criminal standing upon a scaffold, in some cases with their heads confined, for the rest of the macrocosm to gaze upon with disdain. It is an outrage against common nature for the culprit to be nix to hide his face for shame. By definition, the term ugly means virtuously reprehensible or at fault consequently, ugly best describes this proficiency of public humiliation as a sort of punishment. Just as the pillory blatantly defies human nature, so too do the Puritans oblige nature by upholding such a practice. Thus, the pillory embodies the ugliness of Puritan society. The Puritans sense of justice consists of making those they deem sinners an object of public raillery and a shameful example to the rest of the people. The pillory is portrayed as a contrivance of wood and iron constructed in such a way that it was fashioned as to confined the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold...