For Hawthorne, the affections, the identity, and the very soul of a person resides in the heart. For this sacred place to be violated in any way is the most unforgivable or "unpardonable" sin. This kind of sin not only affects the one being violated, but also the violator. In Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown," these roles get blurred. It is clear that Goodman Brown is the one who has been violated. As he tries to resist the advances of his companion, he repeatedly gets betrayed by those whom he admires and respects. The level of betrayal progresses throughout the story. First, he finds out that Good Cloyse, "a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser" has been secretly having rendezvouses with the devil, and that she knows him personally. This revelation shocks him and his resolve to return home, "'That old woman taught me my catechism,' said the young man; and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment." This is the initial crack in Brown's foundation of faith. Instead of turning around, like he was just planning to do, Goodman Brown continues with his dark companion. The blows keep coming, as every time he tries to return home, another betrayal is revealed to him, until he ultimately finds himself at his destination deep within the forest: "Either sudden gleams of light flashing over the obscured field bedazzled Goodman brown, or he recognized a score of the church members of Salem Village famous for their especial sanctity...irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes." Everything he knows has been completely shattered at this point, for even the deacon and the minister were in the company of these "fiendish worshipers." The crushing blow comes, though, when it is Goodman Brown's own wife, his own stronghold of support and resistance, his Faith, is brought among the crowd to be initiated. However, Hawthorne writes that this is all a dream, leading the reader to believe that none of the good, pious people of Salem have really partaken in these heinous acts. Goodman Brown, though, sees this as "a dream of evil omen," and "a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not desperate man did he become fromt he night of that fearful dream." After the dream, he looks upon every person with distrust and wariness, and refuses to even greet his own wife at the door. So it could be argued that though the entire story up to the end leads the reader to believer that Brown has been the victim of the unpardonable sin, the dream stemming from his guilt for taking the meeting in the first place is the perpetrator, and therefor he is the victim of himself. He violated and betrayed his faith, and his Faith - though the two are really one in the same, as his wife is an allegorical character - and his guilt manifested itself in the form of a dream, which led him to lead a sad, lonely, distrustful life. Hawthorne ends his story with "they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was filled with gloom." The "omen dream" followed him for the rest of his life, causing him to lose his own identity, but to mistrust the identities of those around him, and to lose the affections for his wife and neighbors.
In Hawthorne's story "The Minister's Black Veil," the "unpardonable sin" is much more difficult to decipher. It seems as though the sin itself is never revealed to the reader. The only information given is that Mr. Hooper's veil is reminiscent of another New England clergyman who wore his because "in early life he had accidentally killed a beloved friends, and from that day till the hour of his own death, he hid his face from man." No such insight is available for Mr. Hooper, as the story starts already in progress, and his congregation is surprised to see him outfitted in such a way as he approaches the pulpit. It is speculated by the people of the town that he wears it as atonement for some scandalous sin, but that is pretty unbelievable given the innocent and "gentlemanly" nature of his character. So as is the case in "Young Goodman Brown," the main character is both the violated and the violator. However, there could be another explanation. Upon his first appearance, Mr. Hooper is described as "a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor...dressed...as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday's garb." As a bachelor minister, it is customary for him to have Sabbath dinner with people of his congregation, namely Old Squire Saunders. He acts as a bachelor would, mingling with the congregation and not running home to his wife and family - or he did before the veil. But Hawthorne makes clear that there is no woman in Mr. Hooper's life, as he writes that Mr. Hooper "returned, therefore, to the parsonage," having no where to go for Sabbath lunch. Later, though, Hawthorne writes that "there was one person in the village unappalled by the awe with which the black veil had impressed all beside herself...As his plighted wife, it should be her privilege to know what the black veil concealed." This is contradictory to the picture given of the minister at the beginning of the story, which leads one to wonder if the veil is to atone for the marriage he has concealed from the community. If this is the case, his refusal to remove his veil and confide in his wife betrays her heart, violates it. Furthermore, he allows her to leave him instead of admitting his reasoning behind his wearing of the veil. He has become the violator of not only his heart, but his wife's as well. And he must live forever with not only the sins behind the veil, but with the betrayal of his wife as well. No matter what his secret is, it is clear that Mr. Hooper's identity has been covered and skewed by his veil. His heart, his soul, has been violated in some way, and perhaps it is by his own doing, which leads to his eternally covered face.
Unlike his other two stories, Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" has a clearly defined sinner and victim. Aylmer's single-minded, scientific vision forces him to see the only fault on his wife's otherwise immaculate person, and obsess about it night and day. Georgiana, his wife, at first does not seem bothered by it, "To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that i was simple enough to imagine it might be so." Georgiana, so beloved by all, has been content to have this small blemish upon her face for the majority of her life. However, her husband's constant obsession and revulsion has turned her own complacency into utter loathing. A woman so happy and secure in herself has been made insecure and repulsed by her own reflection, thanks to Aylmer, "It needed but a glance with the peculiar expression that his face often wore to change the roses of her cheek into a deathlike paleness, amid which the crimson hand was brought strongly out, like a bass-relief of ruby on the whitest marble." He as committed the Unpardonable Sin - he has violated her heart and her soul; he has destroyed her self-worth. Instead of loving her as she is, he has not only insulted her, but warped her mind to believe that true acceptance of one's lover is the more evil, less preferred to a lover who demands perfection: "Her heart exulted...at his honorable love -- so pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than perfection nor miserably make itself contented with an earthlier nature than her had dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was such a sentiment than that meaner kind which would have borne with the imperfection for her sake, and have been guilty of treason to holy love by degrading its perfect idea to the level of the actual.." He has completely twisted her mind, her now believing that it would be an "unpardonable sin" to love itself if he did not seek to correct her imperfections. He has brainwashed his so called beloved, and in his attempt to rid her of nature's scar, he became compulsively obsessive, going mad with power. However, Aylmer not only ruined his wife, but also himself. For in his quest to get rid of Georgiana's birthmark, he also got rid of her life. He destroyed the one thing that could truly have brought him joy in this life, "had Aylmer reached a profounder wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness which would have woven his mortal life of the selfsame texture with the celestial."
Great pics once again and thoughtful blog.
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