Bloody Painful: Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan EnglandThe purpose of this article is to express the danger of breaking the law in England. Most punishments today are considered cruel and unusual. The death penalty can no longer be imposed in cases of theft or highway robbery. The following paragraphs will describe the different instruments of punishment (torture) of the time. One of the unusual punishments of this era was the drunkard's cloak. It is a punishment for public drunkenness; its name is somewhat misleading. The flaw in the name comes from the fact that the cape is less of a cape and more of a barrel. The drunkard was forced to put on a barrel and walk around town while the villagers mocked him. Holes were drilled in the barrel for the person's hands and head, making it look like a heavy, bulky shirt. Another punishment is handjob, also known as bride's scolding. Brank is a punishment given to women who gossiped or spoke too freely. It consisted of a large iron frame placed on the offender's head, forming a sort of cage. There was a metal strip on the branch that fit into the mouth and was either sharp or covered in spikes, so any movement of the tongue was sure to cause serious injury to the mouth. The woman was then led by a city official through the city streets by a chain, then usually tied to a whipping post or pillory to stand in full view of the cruel and verbally abusive public. Another punishment for criminals is the pillory. The pillory is a wooden post topped with a block of wood pierced with holes to place the person's hands and head. The heads and hands were then locked in place while the person was forced to stand in public for the sentence to be handed down. . In some cases, the pillory was combined with a whipping post and stocks to provide a one-stop public punishment device. Also among the list of Elizabethan methods of punishment are stocks. Crooks were similar to the pillory in that part of the body was enclosed between two wooden plates, but in the case of crooks the feet were locked into the device instead of the hands and feet. Stocks were a proposed method of punishing drunkenness. The offender will be fined five shillings or detained for six hours. Stocks are often used as a method of detaining a criminal until a harsher punishment can be...... middle of paper...... they dyed their hair blonde, which was their favorite shade. Women spent entire days sitting in the sun because they believed the sun added a golden glow. Women who bleached their hair dried it from the terraces of their houses. When dyeing their hair, women wore hats without crowns and with a brim over which the hair was spread. The brim protected the wearer from the sun. Women also wore many false hair pieces, usually made from peasant hair or formed from white and yellow silk. All of these things that women did to their hair were roundly condemned, and some women were denounced for "ungodly exploitation" of themselves. Women wear many accessories in their hair. The most popular of all accessories is the hairnet. Women wear nets made of silk thread, but poor women who also want to follow fashion wear nets made of crepe. Sometimes the hair is worn loose, filling the pouch-like bag. The fillets are then decorated with trimmings and..