Meaning & Analysis
People may feel embarrassed or ashamed when their actions are described or discussed publicly, even if they felt no shame when they were actually performing those actions in private.
Insights
Hypocrisy and Social Performance
The proverb exposes the gap between one's private self and public persona. It suggests that morality can be performative, with individuals feigning shock or modesty to conform to social expectations, regardless of their true behavior.
The Power of Naming
It highlights the powerful role of language in shaping social reality. An act may exist without consequence in private, but naming it brings it into the public sphere, subjecting it to judgment and making it a source of shame.
Critique of Social Taboos
The proverb critiques social codes that condemn the discussion of certain acts more harshly than the acts themselves. This creates a culture of silence and secrecy around common human behaviors, particularly those related to pleasure and desire.
Psychology of Shame vs. Guilt
The proverb taps into the psychological distinction between guilt (a private feeling of wrongdoing) and shame (a public feeling of exposure). It suggests that social judgment, rather than an internal moral compass, often governs outward expressions of remorse. The blush is a physiological reaction to public exposure, not a sign of private regret.
Gender and Social Mores
Historically, this observation has often been aimed at women, who were held to stricter standards of public modesty. The quotations from Webster and Shakespeare's 'King Lear' highlight a cynical perception of female virtue as a performance, where women feign shock at hearing about acts they readily engage in privately.
Literary and Cultural Resonance
This proverb resonates with literary explorations of hypocrisy, particularly in works that critique social puritanism. Characters who maintain a facade of virtue while indulging in secret vices, from Molière's Tartuffe to Hawthorne's characters in 'The Scarlet Letter', embody the proverb's central tension.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
The proverb is built on the stark contrast between 'hearing' and 'acting', and between 'blushing' (shame) and being 'not ashamed'. This opposition creates a memorable paradox that encapsulates the core idea.
Irony
It employs situational irony by highlighting the absurd contradiction of feeling shame for the description of an act, but not for the act itself. This underscores the illogical nature of many social conventions.
Parallelism
The balanced structure—'blush to hear' versus 'not ashamed to act'—gives the proverb a rhythmic, parallel quality that enhances its rhetorical impact and memorability.
Transcription
Quotations
And even the modest wives, this know we too, Oft blush to speake what is no shame to doe.
Yet why should Ladyes blush to heare that nam'd, which they do not feare to handle?
What kinde of men are these? true reason soone will prove them mad Which will not speake the words, but do the deedes, which is as bad.
That which is dishonest to do, believe not that it is honest to speak.
Shakespeare Citations
Yond simp’ring dame . . That minces virtue, and does shake the head To hear of pleasure’s name. The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to’t With a more riotous appetite.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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