Ory Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories offer a view into the heart of his characters, where he believes a person’s identity hides. Because Hawthorne views the heart as such a sacred place within an individual, he believes the violation of the heart to be the gravest of sins. Not only does this violation destroy the individual whose identity is in question, but also the violator himself, in less direct ways.

In The Birthmark, Hawthorne writes of a character tormented by a hand-shaped mark on his wife’s cheek. Because she is otherwise perfectly beautiful, the marred spot tortures Aylmer, whose “sombre imagination was not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing him more trouble and horror than ever.” The wife, Georgiana, worries about the birthmark and overhears her husband mentioning it in his sleep. The dream reveals that the mark is deeply rooted in Georgiana’s heart:

“Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied himself with his servant Aminadab, attempting an operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana's heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away.”

Much more than a simple blemish on her face, Georgiana’s birthmark seems interwoven with her identity, which Hawthorne believes exists within the heart. Therefore the Aylmer desires to remove not only the flaw, but with it part of Georgiana’s identity as well. At this point, it becomes clear that the operation will be an instance of violation of the heart, and the consequences will be shared by Georgiana and Aylmer both.  When Aylmer finally acts to fade the mark from his wife’s face, he succeeds in destroying the flaw but also destroys his wife’s soul as well:

“The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the birthmark--that sole token of human imperfection--faded from her cheek, the parting breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere, and her soul, lingering a moment near her husband, took its heavenward flight.”

            In Young Goodman Brown, the character suffers from a similar violation of his heart and therefore his identity as well. As a descendant of Puritans, Goodman Brown views nature as entangled with evils. As he enters into the forest, “’There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree,’ said Goodman Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him as he added, ‘What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!’” Though despite his young wife and Puritan morality, Brown enters into the forest and betrays his own identity by accompanying the Devil on his journey. At the ceremony, Brown is confronted with the idea of natural depravity, “Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race."

When Brown finally returns to Salem village, his heart has been forever violated by evils, whether through dream or reality. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream.” Evil’s violation destroys Goodman Brown’s identity, but also those of Faith, Deacon Gookin, and Goody Cloyse, all who Brown believes now to be evil. Hawthorne makes apparent the severe consequences of violating an individual’s heart, as it holds their fragile identity.