Punishment over the ages
It has been well established in human history that not following social norms can lead to various forms of punishment. Today we’ll be taking a look at the different forms of said punishment over five different periods of time throughout human history.
The Middle Ages were defined by ridgid feudal systems held together by sworn loyalty. Feudalism requires strict rules in order to function and anyone who broke established rules faced harsh punishment. A knight was expected to follow a code of honor. This code of honor required them to follow a set of established rules in combat and in normal life. These rules were created by society to preserve established morals and societal norms. Any knight who broke their code of honor could lose their position as a knight, effectively lowering them to the lowest social class, and could even face further punishment from their lord. A knight breaking the code of honor would have their life ruined if they weren’t executed first. Because of this, the majority of knights followed their lord’s word, as it was considered law for a long stretch of history, and were rewarded well for doing so. An example of this would be the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket. Thomas Becket was a friend of King Henry and was appointed as Archbishop of the Roman church in England so he could give the English king more influence in order to compete with the Pope in Rome who was effectively the overlord of the English king. However, the newly appointed Archbishop did not always follow the wishes of the king but took the side of the Pope in many disputes. The king, eventually infuriated by this, asked, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” But, because the king’s word is often considered law, this passing remark was interpreted literally by four of the king’s knights who traveled Thomas Becket’s chambers and murdered him. When word had gotten out about soon to be St. Thomas the Martyr the king faced fierce backlash and the English monarchy would be weakened in its power struggles with the Pope allowing the church to be powerful and wrought with corruption. Simply, Thomas Becket’s lack of loyalty to King Henry led to Thomas’ death and this betrayal to the Roman church on King Henry’s part caused a weakening of the English crown for generations to come. This series of events is just one example of how not having loyalty to your liege, something expected by society, will lead to punishment in one form or another when you live in the Middle Ages.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s book was written in and is set in the early nineteenth century. Pride and Prejudice an exemplary example of a novel of manners and satire. Satire being the literaterical genre where shortcomings, wrongs, and human follies are critiqued and ridiculed through methods like sarcasm and irony. A novel of manners is a type of story which is realistic and focuses the reader's attention to customs, values, and the perspective of the society at the time. Jane Austen utilized both types of writing to perfection giving her commentary and casting light on the injustices she beheld. This is with particular emphasis on the consequences of people not following the path set by society.
Jane Austen cast light on the intolerance of her time, particularly towards those that were different. A chief example of this would be the Bennet family, their practices or way of living had a starch contrast between what would be considered proper society and good society. A character and prominent example of proper society would be Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Throughout the novel the Bennets suffered due to this starch difference, most notably in social standing. This social standing was a great deal of importance for the time, impacting every aspect of life. Examples for the Bennets’ misfortunes include the period of time that Jane and Bingley were separated and not speaking. Due to Mr.Darcy recommending this to Mr.Bingley because he deemed the Bennet family less than good society. As they were loud and improper, with the younger Bennet sisters being incredibly audacious on top of the fact that it is improper for them to be out in society in the first place according to societal normalities. Even Elizabeth and Darcy suffered similar misfortunes in the journey towards their love, they had to first surmount the same issues as the ones that caused Mr.Darcy, himself, to recommend against Bingley pursuing a relationship with Jane. The entire Bennet family faced shame at one point in the novel when Lydia Bennet ran away with George Wickham. A horrific act for the time period that can ruin and taint an entire family and this is what the Bennet’s faced because it was so unacceptable in this society. The level of severity can be seen within Lady Catherine’s quote, “I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister's infamous elopement...Heaven and earth! —of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"
The Middle Ages were defined by ridgid feudal systems held together by sworn loyalty. Feudalism requires strict rules in order to function and anyone who broke established rules faced harsh punishment. A knight was expected to follow a code of honor. This code of honor required them to follow a set of established rules in combat and in normal life. These rules were created by society to preserve established morals and societal norms. Any knight who broke their code of honor could lose their position as a knight, effectively lowering them to the lowest social class, and could even face further punishment from their lord. A knight breaking the code of honor would have their life ruined if they weren’t executed first. Because of this, the majority of knights followed their lord’s word, as it was considered law for a long stretch of history, and were rewarded well for doing so. An example of this would be the martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas Becket. Thomas Becket was a friend of King Henry and was appointed as Archbishop of the Roman church in England so he could give the English king more influence in order to compete with the Pope in Rome who was effectively the overlord of the English king. However, the newly appointed Archbishop did not always follow the wishes of the king but took the side of the Pope in many disputes. The king, eventually infuriated by this, asked, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” But, because the king’s word is often considered law, this passing remark was interpreted literally by four of the king’s knights who traveled Thomas Becket’s chambers and murdered him. When word had gotten out about soon to be St. Thomas the Martyr the king faced fierce backlash and the English monarchy would be weakened in its power struggles with the Pope allowing the church to be powerful and wrought with corruption. Simply, Thomas Becket’s lack of loyalty to King Henry led to Thomas’ death and this betrayal to the Roman church on King Henry’s part caused a weakening of the English crown for generations to come. This series of events is just one example of how not having loyalty to your liege, something expected by society, will lead to punishment in one form or another when you live in the Middle Ages.
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s book was written in and is set in the early nineteenth century. Pride and Prejudice an exemplary example of a novel of manners and satire. Satire being the literaterical genre where shortcomings, wrongs, and human follies are critiqued and ridiculed through methods like sarcasm and irony. A novel of manners is a type of story which is realistic and focuses the reader's attention to customs, values, and the perspective of the society at the time. Jane Austen utilized both types of writing to perfection giving her commentary and casting light on the injustices she beheld. This is with particular emphasis on the consequences of people not following the path set by society.
Jane Austen cast light on the intolerance of her time, particularly towards those that were different. A chief example of this would be the Bennet family, their practices or way of living had a starch contrast between what would be considered proper society and good society. A character and prominent example of proper society would be Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Throughout the novel the Bennets suffered due to this starch difference, most notably in social standing. This social standing was a great deal of importance for the time, impacting every aspect of life. Examples for the Bennets’ misfortunes include the period of time that Jane and Bingley were separated and not speaking. Due to Mr.Darcy recommending this to Mr.Bingley because he deemed the Bennet family less than good society. As they were loud and improper, with the younger Bennet sisters being incredibly audacious on top of the fact that it is improper for them to be out in society in the first place according to societal normalities. Even Elizabeth and Darcy suffered similar misfortunes in the journey towards their love, they had to first surmount the same issues as the ones that caused Mr.Darcy, himself, to recommend against Bingley pursuing a relationship with Jane. The entire Bennet family faced shame at one point in the novel when Lydia Bennet ran away with George Wickham. A horrific act for the time period that can ruin and taint an entire family and this is what the Bennet’s faced because it was so unacceptable in this society. The level of severity can be seen within Lady Catherine’s quote, “I am no stranger to the particulars of your youngest sister's infamous elopement...Heaven and earth! —of what are you thinking? Are the shades of Pemberley to be thus polluted?"
Jane Austen used satire to call out all these things, which we would now deem as absurd or bizarre, and poke fun at the fact that the Bennets suffered because of them. It is important to note that Jane Austen wrote this novel in the same time as the story takes place and ergo grew up with these values. It is easy for one nowadays to call out these things, having grown up with present values but Austen uses a novel of manners’ method to cast light on her own society saying people should not suffer in social standing and therefore all aspects of prosperity within life for being different.
Britain colonized and enslaved the West Indies in the mid 1600’s. This led to years of slavery for the West Indians, and it wasn’t until the early 1800’s that Britain ended slavery. Due to the feeble state of the nations, many from the West Indies moved to Britain and started their lives there. What they often found was hardship and prejudice due to the color of their skin. As exemplified by the poem “XXIII from Midsummer,” written by Derek Walcott, many were not allowed to participate in public events and/or activities. In the poem, the protagonist who is thought to be Walcot, goes to Brixton, London, UK with the intention to participate in the theater’s production of Shakespeare. In the words of the poem, “I was there to add some color to the British theater.” While asking if he could join, he was told, “But the blacks can’t do Shakespeare, they have no experience.” He followed this in the poem with a sarcastic, “This is true.” He knew that he was a good actor, but due to the color of his skin he was denied. Furthermore, the poem makes it out to seem as though the theater did not even give him a chance to perform for them before getting denied.
This exemplifies the fact that not following the social norms in Britain during the 20th century lead to punishment in prejudice and discrimination. “What was the social norm that he wasn’t following?” one might ask. He wasn’t white. Not being white in England, especially in 1952, was something that was commonly discriminated against. One might refute that he can’t change the color of his skin, and should therefore not be considered a social norm. But as defined by Google, a social norm is, “a standard or pattern that is typical or expected of a group.” One of the many social norms in England at the time was to be white. Due to the protagonists skin tone, he was not following the social norms and was, along with many other colored people in England at the time, being discriminated against due to prejudice.
Jamacia Kincaid grew up on Antigua, an Island colony of England. In her essay “On Seeing England for the First Time” Kincaid talks about her childhood. She talks about how England had forced itself upon her society. Her education centered around England, learning about their history, geography, and lifestyles. Her family was named after famous English figures, and the street she lived on was named after the man responsible for opening the slave trade, the same trade that would lead to the eventual creation of the colony she lived in. She was forced to groom herself by English standards and to eat a big breakfast even though neither she nor anyone else there wanted too. At first, Kincaid saw no problem with this. It was just her society working as it had always worked. But as she grew up she realized that this was all being done to make her feel lesser than England, to force her to look up for something greater, and to only see her parent country. This subjugation would slowly lead to her society becoming more and more like that of England, until nothing of her own society was left.
The most important form of subjugation Kincaid brings up is being forced to draw a map of England every time she took a test. Her hatred for this custom comes from what it stands for. Drawing this map was meant to signify that everyone who lived on Antigua was beneath England by demonstrating the complete power England had over the island. This power can be seen in the way Kincaid’s people act. Many of them comment about how they hate eating a big breakfast, but they do it anyway because it’s what the English do. Kincaid says she hates eating with a fork, but her mother makes her because that’s what England deems “right”. The English didn’t just want the people of Antigua to know that they were beneath England, they wanted them to forsake their own culture and society in favor of England’s. Kincaid and her people were forced to live life like the English do, to think of themselves as lesser than their parent country, and to desire to be just like the English in hopes that, one day, they would be taken to the promise land.
All of this was done as punishment for being different from what was seen as “the norm”. England found the society of Antigua to be different, and concluded that “different” meant “wrong”. In order to “correct” this mistake, England forced their own society upon the island. Their punishment for not being “normal” is to be forced into conformity, to become “normal”, because being different isn’t okay.
In Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville, the theme of crime and punishment is very much apparent. This is especially true in the Season 1, Episode 7 installment of the show, entitled “Majority Rule.” The episode focuses on a future society on a planet named Sargus-4 that is said to be near in development to 21st century Earth. Researches sent by the Planetary Union, a fictitious future government comprised of multiple planets including Earth, are arrested on Sargus-4 for receiving too many “downvotes.” The Orville’s crew goes down to the planet to find the researchers.
While on the planet, Lt. LaMarr, a member of the crew is arrested after being videotaped dry-humping a statue and receiving over a million downvotes. It is important to note that the “crime” involved here is not humping the statue, but rather receiving over a million downvotes. Because of his supposed transgressions, LaMarr is forced to go an an “apology tour,” in which the public decides on whether or not he is guilty based on how sincere his apology seems. LaMarr is voted as guilty and is sentenced to be effectively lobotomized, practically turning him into a vegetable [1].
Though the examples portrayed in this TV show are rather extreme, its social commentary on how modern society punishes people is clear. The US Constitution might enshrine the idea of being “innocent until proven guilty,” but the public behaves in a completely different matter. Social media allows opinions to be spread quickly, widely, and freely. Take, for example, the case of Kyle Quinn, an assistant professor from the University of Arkansas [2]. His face was placed in an Instagram photo next to a white nationalist at a rally who happened to look like Quinn. Within hours, he had received everything from vulgar hate messages to death threats, all despite not being the same individual in the photos. It didn’t take long for Quinn’s address, where he lived with his wife and children, to be posted online. At this point, Quinn was living in fear of his life for something that he did not do because some nameless face behind a screen decided to send out a single photo to the masses. In The Orville episode, this is similar to the “masterfeed,” which is where the video of LaMarr is uploaded. Though modern society in the US has a justice system based on laws and judicial precedent, another system is quickly developing on the side. How society punishes people is rapidly changing, and the title of judge, jurry, and executioner is quickly transitioning from the state and judiciary to the court of public opinion.
As seen in all of the examples, people have been punished in many different ways, but all are meant to discipline. Whether these forms of punishment are just or fair is up for debate, but the fact that these forms of punishment are real in some ways is just that, a fact.
Sources:
http://mycampus.nationalhighschool.com/doc/en/English%2012/iText/iText/products/0-13-165164-1/ch6/ch6_s21_1.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/internet-shaming-when-mob-justice-goes-virtual/
http://www.matermiddlehigh.org/ourpages/auto/2013/9/19/57929882/SB%201_13-%20OnSeeingEngland-Kincaid.pdf
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1342/1342-h/1342-h.htm
Sources:
http://mycampus.nationalhighschool.com/doc/en/English%2012/iText/iText/products/0-13-165164-1/ch6/ch6_s21_1.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/internet-shaming-when-mob-justice-goes-virtual/
http://www.matermiddlehigh.org/ourpages/auto/2013/9/19/57929882/SB%201_13-%20OnSeeingEngland-Kincaid.pdf
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1342/1342-h/1342-h.htm