O’Brien
Hawthorne Blog
“Young
Goodman Brown,” “the Minister’s Black Veil,” and “The Birthmark,” are stories
of people who need to know something: the true nature of his community, the
shape of a face hidden from view, and the power of science to conquer nature’s
imperfections, as minor as the imperfection may be. These three stories share a
common element among them: each has a married couple that experiences some kind
of internal strife as a result of an outside element. Hawthorne himself perhaps
puts it best when—in “The Birthmark”—Georgina exclaims, “You cannot love what
shocks you!” Strangely enough, in both “The Birthmark” and “The Minister’s
Black Veil” the aberration in one member of the pair is a minor physical
change. For Georgina, her imperfection is, “a crimson stain upon the snow,” a
small mark that would otherwise go unnoticed. Her husband Alyger fails to note
its existence until after the pair is married. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,”
the eponymous veil drives Father Hooper’s wife Elizabeth away. For Goodman
Brown of “Young Goodman Brown” the point of contention is something much more
nebulous. He wanders into the forest and night. In the night, he comes upon a
gathering of townspeople worshipping the Devil, his own wife among them. The
visible imperfection of one reveals an emotional imperfection in the other. In
Goodman Brown’s story, the events of the narrative (the congregation gathering
in the forest to worship the devil) leave a negative impression on Brown’s view
of Faith, his wife. This follows into Brown’s old age: “when the family knelt down at prayer, he
scowled and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned
away.” Brown has seen what evil lurks in the heart of his fellow man and the
price for that knowledge is an emotional and mental isolation even from his own
family.
The
grand unifying theme in all of these stories is one of perception. Everything
is fine until a character attempts to discover the truth of something, to
perform the Unpardonable Sin of violating the human heart. The character sees
something and it changes them, much like an event would cause a sudden change
in one of Poe’s characters. “The Birthmark” ends with the line, “he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of
time, and, living once for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the
present.” Alymer loses his love because of his need to know the limits of his
own scientific prowess. To
possess knowledge in the universe of Hawthorne’s stories is an invitation for
isolation. Ignorance of the true workings of the world is the only recipe for a
happy life. “The Minister’s Black Veil” has a subversion of this idea from the
other stories because Elizabeth is driven away by the knowledge of her own
ignorance. Even when Hooper implores
her to stay, telling her, “how lonely I am, and how frightened, to be alone
behind my black veil.” She abandons him because knowing there is a secret in
his heart, something he cannot tell her, is too much to live with. For
Hawthorne, the truth lies within the human heart is a terrible thing, no matter
what the truth is.
The line we’re you said, “To possess knowledge in the universe of Hawthorne’s stories is an invitation for isolation. Ignorance of the true workings of the world is the only recipe for a happy life.” was an interesting interpretation of Hawthorne’s work. Although, it seems to be more of a generalization stemming from the main characters in The Birthmark and The Minister’s Black Veil, and I’m not sure that it’s has enough foundation to be attributed to all of Hawthorne’s stories since there isn’t really another case of knowing too much causing an eventual downfall. It could also be argued that it wasn’t the knowledge of the world these characters had that drove them into unpardonable sin; it was the depravity of their heart. That is a concept that carries over from story to story, whether it’s because Reuben’s lack of care for his vow or the Major Monileux’s selfishness, they are all presented as having flawed or absent compassion, and therefore an evil heart. The mental understandings a character possesses doesn’t necessarily condemn them (as seen with the lab assistant who appreciated the birthmark), it’s more about a flaw in their heart.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important that you point out that each married couple faces an external element which results in the violation of the union in one way or another. In "The Birthmark," I think it is also important to note that the birthmark tortures only the husband by nature, and it is his influence which causes the anxiety within Georgiana. You note that Aylmer fails to notice this mark until the two marry, and it raises the question why the mark went initially unnoticed. What about the marriage causes the mark to become an aberration for the husband? In a similar way, the character in "Young Goodman Brown" does not face the evils lurking within his community until he is married. The driving force in the story is Brown's desire to resist evil for his wife, Faith. Brown ultimately is left with a newfound evil associations with his wife, as you point out. For both characters, the evils lurk unnervingly close to them in the forms of the women that they are bound to by marriage. Perhaps this acknowledges the degree of mental and emotional isolation, which for both characters is not able to be shaken.
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