Shaming The Mob / Literature

• Eric Flint's 1632 series:
  • Inversion: when a Powder Keg Crowd is prevented from turning into a mob by Mike Stearns. He does this by turning it into a political rally, starting with "People of Germany, rejoice!" and keeps giving speeches until the air force shows up for a flyby.
  • Another novel has a priest ineptly attempt this, failing miserably, and then having soldiers violently disperse the mob. The fact that he was haranguing a mob of Italians in Spanish was the first of many things the priest did wrong in his efforts to defuse the situation.
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Colonel Sherburn shames (and bullies) a lynch mob into dispersing. It's not entirely heroic, though: Sherburn really had shot an unarmed drunk in the street, in broad daylight, and the drunk may have threatened his life, but it was clear he had no intentions to actually go through with it (so the lynch mob was attempting to implement a sort of very rough justice). And although Sherburn does shame the mob pretty effectively (calling them out as a bunch of cowards), he's not exactly appealing to their sense of justice and fair play. Also, in addition to his speechifying, the fact that Sherburn is holding a shotgun clearly has a lot to do with convincing the mob to disperse.
• The Bible shows several instances of this trope and shows that it's Older Than Feudalism. The origin of the term "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" is in the New Testament where Jesus convinces a group about to stone a supposed adulteress by pointing out that they are no saints themselves.
• One chapter of The Buddenbrooks takes place while a wave of revolutionary uprisings sweaps over Germany and an angry mob of workers gatheres in front of the council building. The council members decide to hole up and wait for the crowd to disperse, but when it gets close to nightfall, two of them go outside to see what the protesters want. When one of the workers shouts that they want a republic, he is reminded that the autonomous city has been one for centuries. When someone blurts out "then we want another one!", the protest pretty much instantly falls apart and everyone quietly returns home.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In the Buffy and Angel crossover Monster Island, benevolent Eldritch Abomination Gar'thraxus the Elder (aka Garth) interrupts an invasion by Nazi-like demons who see his neighbors as impure and makes a Breaking Speech about how if someone with his powers and pedigree doesn't view the half-demons as unworthy and impure, then the so-called Coalition of Purity has no right to that mindset. Whether or not his words move all of the villains is unclear, but the ones who are unmoved are too terrified at the idea of fighting Garth to press the matter.
• Twenty pages into the first Commissar Ciaphas Cain novel, Cain marches into the middle of a riot in the mess hall on his troopship and promptly starts yelling at the participants about the abominable state of the room and orders them to go get mops. It's also a Bavarian Fire Drill.
• Carrot in the Discworld novels does this a lot.
  • As does Vimes, with an especially poignant example in Night Watch.
  • There is also the vicious tongue lashing Lady Ramkin gave to the mob who were attempting to lynch the stunned dragon when they threw rocks at the Night Watch (who were trying to arrest it). She delivered it dressed in a torn nightdress and a pair of rubber boots and cowed the entire mob:
    Lady Ramkin: Who did that? I said, who did that? If the person who did it does not own up I shall be extremely angry! Shame on you all!
  • There is also a villainous example when the vampires do it in Carpe Jugulum.
• In the Doctor Who New Adventures Milestone Celebration novel Happy Endings, when malfunctioning Holographic Disguises result in the people of Cheldon Boniface learning some of the guests at Benny's wedding are aliens, they become convinced this is some kind of invasion and pursue the aliens into the church ...where the vicar, who knew this all along, is able to defuse the situation by pointing out none of the aliens have done anything except prepare for a wedding, and also makes some pointed comments about how this is the first time she's seen some of the villagers inside the church.
• In The Good Earth, when a starving, angry mob attacks Wang Lung's home in hopes of taking its non-existent food, O-lan shames them for trying to steal from someone equally as poor as them.
• Gone with the Wind: Played With. When the Yankee Army reaches Tara with the intent to destroy it, Gerald O'Hara informs them that they'd be burning the house over the heads of three sick women. The Yankee officer not only keeps Tara from being burned, he also sends for an army surgeon to care for the women. On the other hand, he decides to use Tara as his army headquarters, and they do considerable damage to the rugs and furniture, as well as steal any possessions they can find, along with the food and the livestock and destroy the vegetable crops in the process. They also burn all the cotton the family needed to sell for money.
• Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff elaborates on the "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" scene by making note of what Jesus was doodling on the ground before he said the famous line — namely, a documented list of every mob-goer and their sins (a common theory from some time before). One involved doing something unmentionable with a goose.
• Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South has a scene where a mob attacks a freed black man and gets shamed by Robert E. Lee, who calls them out on assaulting a man who broke no laws and, in fact, did his part to help the Confederacy win The American Civil War. He aims extra scorn at a couple of former soldiers, saying he'd rather have lost the war and lived under Northern rule than have no laws whatsoever.
• The fourth Holmes on the Range novel features an example that's only clear in retrospect. the heroes have been Wrongfully Accused of murder and tossed in jail. It quickly becomes clear that a mob is forming to attack and lynch them once it gets dark. From a distance, they observe Brother Landrigan who they've had several clashes with earlier in the novel adressing the mob. At the time, they speculate he's helping stir them up. Later, they're told that the verse he was reading was John 8:7, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." It fails to break up the mob, but later Landrigan (and several other supporting characters) do it more successfully (and with a little physical force added in) when the mob is literally on top of the main characters.
• In I, Claudius, Germanicus uses this to put down the mutiny of his troops on the Rhine. It helps that he has sent away his young son Gaius, whom the troops have come to view as their mascot and good-luck charm. The precious tyke walks around the camp in a miniature legionary's uniform complete with miniature caligae — army sandal-boots — so the soldiers have affectionately nicknamed him "Little Boot", or, in Latin, "Caligula". Yes, that one.
• Judge Dee does this often. It's even used in the original Van Gulik based his on, where instead of defeating the highwaymen, he gives them a Rousing Speech on the virtues of justice, and they're so moved they join him.
• To Kill a Mockingbird: Set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, in both the book and the film, is about six to eight years old when she follows her father out while he goes to protect his client, African American Tom Robinson, from a lynch mob wanting "justice" because Tom is accused of raping a white woman. Her appearance is shocking to all present as she walks out onto the scene in front of the County jail where Tom is held. Upon recognizing one of the men as a client of her lawyer father, Scout singles him out as an individual that she knows, speaking to him personally and talking about his son who goes to school with her. She doesn't actually mean to break up the mob - she doesn't even really seem to be fully aware of the danger it posed - but this appeal pulls the man back down to earth and the mob disperses.
• In Kristin Lavransdatter, Kristin is outside her parish church, accused by Jartrud of adultery with Jartrud's husband, Ulf. This makes an angry mob assemble, because many of the townspeople were secretly thinking the same thing. The visiting bishop, seeing that things are getting out of hand, reminds everyone that weapons are forbidden in the church yard, and sends everybody home to cool off while he starts an investigation. When the crowd assembles again later that day, most of them are regretting listening to Jartrud and are now willing to hear evidence of Kristin's innocence.
• A silly example in The Lions of Al-Rassan, in which the merchant-turned-warrior and the legendary assassin together defuse an angry mob with humor and then tell them off for fighting amongst themselves with enemies approaching the city.
• Waco does this in the short story "A Man Called Drango Dune" in Arizona Ranger by J.T. Edson.
• One chapter of Janet Kagan's Mirabile deals with mysterious forest fires, and at one point the townsfolk want to leave a man they think has been setting the fires to die in them. Susan puts herself between the mob and the man and tells them off, personally calling out a couple she thinks should know better. She doesn't stop them, but she does hold them long enough for Annie to get there and break things up with force of personality and a "persuader" full of rock salt.
• A Necklace of Fallen Stars: Instead of getting angry at the valley folk, Malni of "The Colors of the Wind" instead tells them how much she pities them for their small-mindedness. When she walks away, they don't follow her.
• A Charisian Guard manages to do this to a mob forming outside a church in Manchyr in the fourth Safehold novel. Unfortunately, he didn't manage to do it to the people who had organized the mob, who manage to restart it.
• Septimus Heap: Averted Trope. Jenna's speech to the RatStranglers doesn't stop them at all from hunting down the rats in Spit Fyre's kennel.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Sir Jacelyn Bywater tries to employ this (offstage; we hear about it from another character) in the Battle of the Blackwater, when the men of the City Watch are abandoning their posts. He has almost shamed them into going back and fighting...when someone shoots him in the throat with a crossbow.
  • The dwarf Tyrion Lannister uses the same technique successfully in the same battle, when trying to organize a sally. Tyrion's forces are outnumbered, and while his masterful military tactics have levelled the playing field somewhat, they've also turned it into a fiery hell for all combatants. When the Hound returns from the battlefield and refuses to go back into the fire, Tyrion announces that he personally will lead the next sally. The soldiers are either too rattled by the Hound of all people being too scared to go back, or hold Tyrion in complete disdain. Tyrion gets on his horse, looks at the soldiers, and tells them, "They say I'm half a man. What does that make the lot of you?"
  • The Hound calls out the Kangaroo Court he's been subjected to by the Brotherhood Without Banners, arguing that he's being held responsible for actions he had no part in and simply being executed because he's on the opposite side of the conflict. Arya Stark interrupts, accusing him of murdering Mycah the butcher boy, but Sandor counters that as far as he was told, the boy was guilty of attacking his prince. After failing to shame them into letting him go, Sandor finally demands a trial by combat and does manage to shame his opponent into taking off his armor so that they'll be evenly equipped.
• An odd variation occurs in the first book of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, the hero attempts to shame a mob who are out to Burn the Witch! - literally, as their target is The Mentor of the series, who happens to be a wizard. His speech fails to convince anyone. It's followed up by the mysterious woman openly threatening them, but not knowing what she is, they aren't impressed. Instead, The Mentor manages to scare the mob into backing down, by threatening them with the magic powers they are going to burn him for having. As he says to the others, "Too cold *points at Richard*, too hot *points at Kahlan*, just right *points at himself*."
• In Treasure Island, Long John Silver's men are getting tired of waiting for the treasure he says he's leading them to, and are prepared to kill him. He manages to turn the situation around by asking which of them had desecrated his Bible to make the Black Spot, the traditional declaration of impending death.
• In C. S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when they find the last of the lords they are looking for, the sailors are of the opinion that they should stop going on. Caspian tells them that they are assuming that he will let them all go.
• The War Prayer: The angel tries to do this by explaining that the people's prayer for victors entails all manner of horrors brought down on the enemy, but it doesn't work. They just say he was a lunatic, going on like he never spoke at all.
• In Phyllis A. Whitney's novel Willow Hill, an African-American player is accused of throwing a basketball game. A mob threatens to lynch him, or at least beat him up. Then his white teammate claims to be the one who actually threw the game. They calm down, giving another character a chance to shame them into dispersing. In fact, nobody threw the game. Their team just lost.
• In A Witch's Burden, Elke Schreiber, a teacher who was never welcome in the insular town of Waldheim, finally tells the townspeople what she thinks of them after the Margrave and his household are murdered. Fools cannot be shamed, however, and she is jeered and thrown in jail for her trouble.
  Elke: And your only justification for it amounts to an agreement among fools. Zero plus zero equals zero. The full number of you times zero equals zero. You people are in need of a most fundamental teacher...But I see now what the Count meant: one cannot teach a fool at gunpoint.
• Xenocide: Grego shames the living hell out of a mob of his fellow villagers after they had already accomplished most of the damage they'd intended. After all, was his mob in the first place.

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