Ajax Reconsidered

Ajax sees no problem with the idea of becoming a murderer, but the shame of looking like a madman drives him to suicide. Ajax is one illustration of a common phenomenon: people either prefer being violent to feeling shame, or their feelings of shame are alleviated by acts of aggression. This chapter argues that neither the traditional view nor the naturalistic view can explain why people prefer violence to shame. A close examination of the connection between violence and shame will reveal important features of the experience of shame more generally. Two features of shame are present in the cases where shame and violence are linked: (a) people feel shame about some aspect of their identities that they do not control, and (b) that aspect of their identities makes them self-conscious about how they come across to others.