LITR
4232: American Renaissance
University
of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2002
Index to Student Research Projects
Jennifer Laubach
Dr. Craig White
LITR 4232.01
April 14, 2002
Hawthorne’s
Angst
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most prominent Romantic writers in
literary history. Many of his
stories focus on the struggle between humanity/society and knowledge/science.
According to author Terence Martin, “For Hawthorne, humanity –
undeniably tainted and imperfect – incorporates all the virtues of home and
heart; from its great common bond of love come warmth, sympathy, and
understanding” (67). In
Hawthorne’s’ works, humanity is synonymous with innocence.
Those who take an active part in society and community are oblivious to
the evil that does exist within the society.
Romantic writers emphasize that science does
not have all of life’s answers. When
one begins to seek answers, it leads to self-destruction and segregates an
individual from society. Hawthorne
himself was a believer in the destructive nature of knowledge about his
neighbors. Terrence Martin writes, “The artist too is liable in his
own way to the danger of cutting himself off from humanity. Indeed one of Hawthorne’s most fundamental reasons for
mistrusting the value of his profession was that it encouraged him to observe,
to draw apart, to study mankind, to burrow with his ‘utmost ability’- as he
said in his preface to The Snow Image” (72).
In the short stories Young Goodman Brown,
Rappacinni’s Daughter, and The Minister’s Black Veil, Hawthorne
demonstrates how knowledge or science leads to the isolation of an individual
from society. During their quest for knowledge, the characters in these
stories commit the unpardonable sin; the exclusion or separation of one’s self
from society. Hawthorne identifies
this act as “violation.”
“Violation is psychological, having little to do with sin or theology.
It is a fiendish crime against human being, an obvious traduction of
individuality, or a rape of the mind” (Tharpe, 122).
Hawthorne’s short stories exemplify the act of violation or the
unpardonable sin. Terrence Martin
explains the ramifications of committing the unpardonable sin:
…for
Hawthorne, to lose touch with humanity is to destroy a necessary moral,
emotional, and psychological balance. The
great danger is abstraction, the indulgence of preference for idea, which cuts
one off – be it in pride, egotism, vengeance, or suffering – from humanity.
(68).
According to
Hawthorne, the ultimate crime against humanity is to isolate one’s self from
it. Hawthorne once wrote, “There
is a fund of evil in every human heart, which may remain latent, perhaps through
the whole of life; but circumstances may arouse it to activity” (Coale, 1).
He explores this concept his short stories as the evil of humanity verses
the evil of an individual.
The unpardonable sin illustrates Hawthorne’s concept of evil.
An example of this is encountered in his story, Young Goodman Brown.
Young Goodman Brown leaves his wife, Faith, to run an errand one night.
The “Faith” is not only his wife’s name, but also represents faith
in society, be it religious or one’s confidence in fellow mankind.
On his journey, Brown meets the devil and views a congregation
worshipping Satan. “At the word,
Goodman Brown stept forth from the shadow of the trees, and approached the
congregation, with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood, by the sympathy of all
that was wicked in his heart” (Hawthorne, Young 2214).
Here, Brown gains knowledge about the people in his community and feels
an unspoken connection with them. He
stands watching the service with Faith. The
ultimate piece of knowledge is conveyed to Brown when the devil says, “…Evil
is the nature of mankind. Evil must
be your only happiness. Welcome,
again, my children, to the communion of your race, “ (2215). In that statement, Brown learns that the people in his
community, who represent humanity, are evil.
Upon his discovery, he yells, “Faith! Faith!…Look up to Heaven, and
resist the Wicked One!” (2215). Later
it is said, “Whether Faith obeyed, he knew not,” (2215).
Brown knows that he has resisted the temptations of the devil, but is
unsure of whether or not his wife did. The
insight about the human race and his community that he gained in the woods
overnight tainted his outlook of humanity. The next Sunday, “when the congregation were singing a holy
psalm, he could not listen, because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear,
and drowned all the blessed strain” (2215). The knowledge that Brown obtained led him to the unpardonable
sin. Not only could Young Goodman
Brown no longer actively participate in his religion, but he would also wake
during the night and “shrink from the bosom of Faith”
(2216). His insight isolated
him from the community, as well as the relationship with his wife.
When he died, “…they carved no hopeful verse upon his tomb-stone; for
his dying hour was in gloom” (2216). Perhaps
Young Goodman Brown only imagined the satanic ritual in the woods, but to him it
was reality. Hawthorne would
identify Brown’s condition as a “violation.”
What he saw in his mind was real, and this caused him to separate himself
from society, to commit the unpardonable sin.
Rappaccini’s Daughter is another one
of Hawthorne’s short stories in which knowledge leads to the unpardonable sin.
In this tale, three of the main characters remove themselves from society
due to their insight. Rappaccini is
the most obvious of these characters that have been separated from society.
Baglioni states, “But as for Rappaccini, it is said of him – and I,
who know the man well, can answer for its truth – that he cares more for
science than for mankind” (Hawthorne, Rappaccini 2241).
Rappaccini’s love for science and experimentation can be seen in his
poisonous garden. Beatrice,
Rappaccini’s daughter, is another character who has removed herself from
society. On the subject of Beatrice, Baglioni says to Giovanni,
“…You have heard of this daughter, whom all the young men in Padua are wild
about, though not half a dozen have ever had the good hap to see her face”
(2241). This statement reiterates
the fact that Beatrice does not associate with society.
Instead, she relates to science and her father’s experiments.
Beatrice does not connect with other humans, but openly talks to a shrub.
She states, “Give me thy breath, my sister, for I am faint with common
air! And give me this flower of
thine, which I separate with gentlest fingers from the stem, and place it close
beside my heart” (2242). Rather
than form human connections, Beatrice connects with the garden and even goes as
far as calling the shrub “my sister”. Eventually,
a third character, Giovanni, breaks away from humanity because of knowledge and
science. In his exchanges with
Beatrice, he too has become inoculated with the poisons of the garden.
In the end, scientific knowledge leads to the demise of these characters.
Bagloni concocts an antidote. Giovanni
administers the antidote to Beatrice, and it kills her.
The knowledge obtained by these characters leads them to the unpardonable
sin, as well as Beatrice’s demise. Baglioni
best summarizes the negative effects of science and knowledge on humanity by
yelling, “Rappaccini! Rappaccini! And
is this the upshot of your experiment?” (2255).
In a third short story, The Minister’s
Black Veil, Hawthorne again displays the effects of knowledge leading to the
unpardonable sin. In order to prove
a point about “…secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our
nearest and dearest…” (Hawthorne, “Minister’s” 2217), Reverend
Hooper conceals his face with a black veil.
Even after his sermon about secret sin, Reverend Hooper continues to wear
the veil. Not only does he
ostracize himself from his congregation, but also from his love, Elizabeth. When Elizabeth asks him to remove the veil, he responds:
…I am bound to wear it ever,
both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and
as with strangers, so with my familiar friends.
No mortal eye will see it withdrawn.
This dismal shade must separate me from the world: even you, Elizabeth,
can never come behind it! (2221)
Hooper’s insight into the weakness of humanity causes him to break away from society. The veil serves as a symbolic, as well as physical wall between Reverend Hooper and the rest of the community. He reiterates his knowledge about mankind on his deathbed by saying:
…when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and lo! On every visage a black veil! (2224)
By shielding himself from society, Reverend Hooper lives a lonely, unhappy life. Hooper’s scrutiny of society exemplifies Hawthorne’s own concern with his profession, which requires him to “draw apart [from society] and study mankind” (Martin 72). Through Reverend Hooper, Hawthorne demonstrates how the unpardonable sin has an effect on the life of the individual as well as the community.
Author Samuel Chase Coale writes, “The battle between mind and matter, moral imagination and dark void, spirit and substance provides the basic pattern of Hawthorne’s fiction” (3). This observation holds true in Hawthorne’s short stories Young Goodman Brown, Rappaccini’s Daughter, and The Minister’s Black Veil. Perhaps these stories are a means for Hawthorne to experiment with the effects of society on the individual, as well as the individual on society. In each story, the characters are forced to deal with their moral obligations to humanity and their psychological evaluations of humanity. They must choose between the innocence of belonging to a community and knowledge that isolates them from society. Hawthorne’s insight into human nature and his ability to write about it has made him one of the most well-known, well-respected writers of all time. Edgar Allen Poe once wrote, “The style is purity itself. Force abounds. High imagination gleams from every page. Mr. Hawthorne is a man of truest genius” (Poe 335).
Works Cited
Coale, Samuel Chase. In Hawthorne’s Shadow. Kentucky:
University Press of Kentucky, 1985.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Heath
Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. (2216-
2224).
---.”Rappaccini’s Daughter.” Heath Anthology of American
Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1998. (2236-2255).
---. “Young Goodman Brown.” Heath Anthology of American
Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1998. (2207-2216).
Martin, Terence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Twayne
Publishers, Inc., 1965.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “A Book to Make America Proud.” Twice
Told Tales. Pleasantville, New York: Reader’s Digest
Association, Inc., 1989.
Tharpe, Jac. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Identity and Knowledge.
Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967.