LITR 4232 American Renaissance 2008
Web Highlight

Tuesday, 4 November: Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1272-76 introduction +  1311-20: “The Minister’s Black Veil.”

Intro

In the Minister’s Black Veil, as well as in Young Goodman Brown, sin, morality, and virtue are ambiguous and plague the main characters.  There is also particular emphasis on the dark or fallen minister and church officials.  While it is usually apparent that the drunks of the town are morally corrupt, it seems particularly upsetting when those whom we think good are not completely good, but human beings whom wrestle with right and wrong.  While there are gothic themes heavily laid in both works, I focused on the questions of morality on the final exam and feel this adds depth to objective three.   

Answers to Question 2 on Moral Complexity
in American Renaissance Literature

2006 final exam

  In their works, classic writers such as Melville and Hawthorne show that morality wears many shades of gray and is not easy to judge. Instead of dictating the right and the wrong, they explore the truth “in a story as complicated as reality” (BP).

            In Hawthorne’s, Minister’s Black Veil, Mr. Hooper dons a veil to cover his face in shame, attempting to hide his secret sin. Because Hooper’s sin is never revealed, like his face behind the veil, the reader is prevented from tainting the text with their own moral absolute and relativist biases... Perhaps this was the question Hawthorne was trying to explore – do we judge others without even knowing their sins? Perhaps the question is not whether their sins are right or wrong, but whether our judgments as a society in response to these actions are right or wrong. Thus, Hawthorne leads us to think and reconsider moral complexities which hide behind each man’s invisible veil, as multifaceted as the truth itself. [ND]

2004 Final

Just as the truth in life is difficult to grasp, so to, is the exact meaning of the veil difficult to understand. The initial ideal conceived by the church is that a symbol of some hidden sin within his life. Indeed this ideal is validated, even by the minister who replies “and if I cover it for secret sin, what moral might not do the same?” Yet the meaning often changes; it turns into a “dismal shade” used to “separate' the minister from the world. It even changes to represent the minister’s sorrow. The purpose of continually changing the meaning of the veil is to keep the reader thinking of things it could represent, perhaps even in their own life. [BP]

2006 Final

Brown, in Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, becomes that seer who is able to peer into society’s most secret sins. This knowledge, however, only leads him to moral absolution, causing him to develop a judgmental attitude which hurts him most in the end. Hawthorne, now invites readers to consider the consequences of such harsh criticism, without thorough consideration. Also, he illustrates that we often find repulsive in others what we embody in ourselves. For instance, Brown, too, has been lured into the forest and heeded the call of the devil, but when others do the same, he is revolted. After his return from the forest, he shrinks from Old Deacon Gookin and Goody Cloyse as though from “the grasp of the fiend himself.” [ND]

            To examine moral issues, Hawthorne uses qualifiers or stylistic idiosyncrasy in his stories. By qualifying his statements of morality, he doesn’t judge, but rather presents his thoughts in a “dream-like state of which the reader has to concoct her own meaning” (lecture notes). By leaving the entire tale of Brown as an ambiguous question mark, he is leaving the reader accountable to figure out what happened to Brown in the forest. If everything that night was a dream, can we pronounce judgments on dreams – on illusions? In this case, then Brown, who thought he saw the sins of all had only seen a dream. How do we, then, be sure of what we see? Even when we see the sins of others, how do we know we aren’t seeing a mirage as Brown might have seen? …[ND]

When Goodman decides not to participate, he seems to do the right thing, however he saw his wife and other townspeople participate and was not willing to accept them.  “My Faith is gone!”  cried he, after one stupefied moment.  “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name.  Come devil! for to thee is this world given.”    Everyone is guilty of sin, even Faith. [ND]

     Hawthorne mixes light and dark colors to form shades of gray.  This is a new state of mind where no one is all good or all bad.  We see clearly the shade of gray with Faith’s pink ribbons.  Goodman idolized and presumed the townspeople pure, yet after that night he considers them all bad or evil.  He cannot accept Faith and the townspeople with their sinful nature.  In turn, he does not accept his own sinful nature.  For Goodman you are either good or evil and no in between.  However, Faith and the townspeople represent morality in that they accept that they struggle with sin and exercise humility when it comes to judging others. [SB]

Conclusion

Each of these essays concentrated on a slightly different issue of morality, but most agree that judgment and shades of gray are major themes in Hawthorne’s works.  I found the student’s questions and analysis helpful in my readings.  For instance, after my initial reading, I was focused on Goodman Brown’s apparent hypocrisy but completely missed that his wife, Faith, was symbolic and aptly named.  Hawthorne presents questions that all readers have asked themselves at one time or another.