Public Shaming and Power Shifts in Salem

Open Access

Abstract

Public shaming has long been used in societies to maintain order in communities, and to enforce not only laws, but unspoken rules or societal constraints. However, while public shaming can be a valuable tool for communities, it can also lead to unjust rule – some might even call it mob rule. While many citizens of the United States tend to glorify democracy and the effects of democracy, the democratization of the justice system through public shaming has resulted in disastrous consequences in American history and promises dangerous repercussions if it continues to be used in the future. This claim is evidenced by an analysis of literary works from the seventeenth century and later which reveal a trend of bullying through public shaming. After a long absence from society, these unsettling trends seem to be reappearing in the twenty-first century.