Weaks - Hawthorne Bolg

It is not by accident that Hawthorne chose Salem Village, home of the infamous 1692 Salem Witch Trials, as the setting for Young Goodman Brown. Though written in 1835, the story is set in late 17th century Salem, a time when Puritan beliefs were largely unquestioned and almost 100 years before America’s Bill of Rights granted religious freedom to all Americans. This was a time when America’s wilderness represented evil to the Puritans and was considered by them to be the abode of the Devil. Hawthorne, reveals his Puritan background in Young Goodman Brown and the “Devil in America’s Wilderness” serves as the catalyst for this story.

Young Goodman Brown opens with Brown preparing to embark upon a journey. A journey that will carry him from the arms of his lovely new wife, Faith, and deposit him at the doorstep of the Devil. Faith having faith in women's intuition, feels something is amiss and begs Goodman not to go. Faith begins her plea, “Dearest heart…prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeard of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year."

Goodman’s reply is civil and loving, but Faith’s plea falls on deaf ears and off Goodman goes to seal his fate and in doing so will also seal the fate of his lovely wife, Faith. Not far into the journey, Goodman is approached by a man that exclaims, “‘You are late, Goodman Brown,’ said he. ‘The clock of the Old South was striking as I came through Boston, and that is full fifteen minutes agone.’”

This man is clothed similar to Goodman, has similar mannerisms as Goodman and, “as nearly as could be discerned, the second traveller [sic]was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in expression than features. Still they might have been taken for father and son…[and] he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world..” He carried a cane in the shape of a serpent and is viewed by most, as Hawthorne’s embodiment of the devil or possibly Goodman’s alter ego.

As the journey continues, Goodman sees on the same trail he travels, “a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth…, jointly with the minister and Deacon Gookin.” He wonders what she is doing so deep in the woods so late at night.

Goodman finally arrives at the designated satanic site only to find his wife, Faith, already there. Goodman now realizes he made a fatal mistake; he underestimated his wife, and in doing so left her to the temptations of the devil, temptations she was not strong enough to resist.  Goodman, an ordinary man, a Puritan man, believed that, “after this one night [of evil] I'll cling to her [Faith’s] skirts and follow her to heaven.” Now he realizes that the devil has Faith and he must, himself, fight the Devil.

“Faith!’ shouted Goodman Brown, in a voice of agony and desperation...The cry of grief, rage, and terror was yet piercing the night, when the unhappy husband held his breath for a response. There was a scream, drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter… But something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon. ‘My Faith is gone!’ cried he…” 

At this juncture of the story, most analysis feel compelled to acknowledge the symbolism associated with the pink ribbon; pink a combination of white for purity and red for blood. However, pink is also a pleasing color associated with the female gender, therefore I’ll leave my readers to their own interpretation.

Returning to the story we find that after what seemed like an eternity to Goodman, the ceremony continues and Goodman and Faith approached the altar, as they do so,  a shadowy figure emerges, then commands, “and now, my children, look upon each other.’ They did so; and, by the blaze of the hell-kindled torches, the wretched man beheld his Faith, and the wife her husband, trembling before that unhallowed altar…And there they stood, the only pair, as it seemed, who were yet hesitating on the verge of wickedness in this dark world.”

Goodman intent on protecting his wife, albeit for selfish reasons, “after this one night [of evil] I'll cling to her [Faith’s] skirts and follow her to heaven.” However, by his actions, instead of protecting his wife, exposed her innocence to the Devil and caused her to fall from grace.

The next day arriving home, Goodman himself, a man changed forever, “turning the corner by the meeting-house, he spied the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy at sight of him that she skipped along the street and almost kissed her husband before the whole village. But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.”

“Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? Be it so if you will; but, alas! it was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown. A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream.” Goodman’s one night of sin, the “unpardonable sin” set in motion his destruction and the destruction of his wife, Faith.

 The narrator continues, “Often, waking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith; and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away. And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession, besides neighbors not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.”

Once again, Goodman Brown ultimately bears the sole responsibility for committing the “Unpardonable Sin” and the commission of that sin led to the compromising of his wife’s innocence and her fall from grace. In addition to destroying his wife, his violation of the human heart also led to his destruction.  Throughout his career, Hawthorne wrote many other short stories such as, The Minister’s Black Veil, that deal with the “Unpardonable Sin.” These short stories have provided fertile ground for generations of academics, analyst and students such as me, to attempt to explain the inner workings of the mind and the meanings of the complex symbolism used by this master of his art, Hawthorne.

 Using the aforementioned story, The Minister’s Black Veil, as an example, what can be said that has not yet been written about that story. Well, one thing, the first thing that struck me when I was reading The Minister’s Black Veil, was that the forename of Mr. Hooper is never revealed. Throughout Hawthorne’s narrative, Mr. Hooper is referred too as just that, Mr. Hooper and later when he becomes revered, Father Hooper. Even Elizabeth, his betrothed, early in the story, never speaks his forename. This lack of a forename gives Mr. Hooper an air of aloofness that further separates him from people. This air of aloofness is exactly what Mr. Hooper did not seek, but something saddled on him by his creator, Hawthorne. Was Hawthorne consciously denying Mr. Hooper part of his humanity by not giving him a forename or did Hawthorne do this just to further entangle his readers? I don’t have the answer to that question; however, I do feel it is time to move on to the issue at hand and that is the black veil and its effect on Elizabeth and Mr. Hooper.

There are varying opinions as to what is the significance of the black veil. To some it is seen as Mr. Hooper taking on the sins of his entire congregation as his own and the fact that they revile at its sight signifies that they have dark sins.  In Milford, the town in which the story is set, some view it with horror, some say Mr. Hooper is hiding a dark secret, an “unpardonable sin,” children sometimes flee upon his approach.  One person in Milford is only mildly affected by its presence and that is his love interest, Elizabeth, “But there was one person in the village unappalled [Sic] by the awe with which the black veil had impressed all beside herself.” Though only affected mildly, Elizabeth is justifiably concerned. She is witness to the rumors circulating in town and she decides to have a conservation with Mr. Hooper about it, “After he had seated himself, she fixed her eyes steadfastly upon the veil, but could discern nothing of the dreadful gloom that had so overawed the multitude: it was but a double fold of crape, hanging down from his forehead to his mouth, and slightly stirring with his breath.”

If we lend credence to the theory that Mr. Hooper is taking on the sins of the entire congregation by wearing the black veil, then Elizabeth, only mildly affected by its presence, could be the only one without sin.  Moving on, Elizabeth voices her request for Mr. Hooper to remove the black veil. To which he replies, “There is an hour to come,’ said he, ‘when all of us shall cast aside our veils. Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crape till then." With those words, one could  interpret this passage as confirmation that Mr. Hooper does indeed believe the black veil, either represents his sins or the sins of the entire congregation. The remainder of that dialogue leads to the end of their marriage plans and their relationship.

Mr. Hooper continues to wear the black veil for the remainder of his life; it is eventually accepted by the congregation and people come from miles around to hear him preach and dying sinners seek him out on their path toward salvation. While the black veil eventually made Mr. Hooper a more effective preacher it had the exact opposite effect on his personal life, “All through life that piece of crape had hung between him and the world: it had separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman's love, and kept him in that saddest of all prisons, his own heart…” Mr. Hooper became a prisoner of his own heart, and in doing so, also made Elizabeth a prisoner, a prisoner of her own heart for Elizabeth never married and visited Mr. Hooper on his death bed. “There was the nurse, no hired handmaiden of death, but one whose calm affection had endured thus long in secrecy, in solitude, amid the chill of age, and would not perish, even at the dying hour. Who, but Elizabeth!” In addition to the destruction of his own life, he destroyed the life of Elizabeth, the one he loved. Again, Mr. Hooper obsession with the black veil, in addition to ruining his life led to the “Unpardonable Sin, the sin that also ruined the life of Elizabeth.

His final words, “I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!’ While his auditors shrank from one another, in mutual affright, Father Hooper fell back upon his pillow, a veiled corpse, with a faint smile lingering on the lips. Still veiled, they laid him in his coffin, and a veiled corpse they bore him to the grave.”

Father Hooper went to his grave, an effective preacher, but a broken man, with the black veil in tack. The ultimate fate of Elizabeth is not revealed, but one is to believe she died a lonely, bitter woman. Father Hooper died a lonely man, and that black veil, “kept him in that saddest of all prisons, his own heart…” If we look at yet another of Hawthorne’s short stories, The Birthmark, we are again confronted with Hawthorne’s, “unpardonable sin, the violation of the human heart.”

In The Birthmark, the birthmark itself leads to the “unpardonable sin,” it symbolizes nature’s inability to produce perfection and the inability of some to accept nature’s inability to produce perfection. In Aylmer, Hawthorne creates a character that feels he can improve on nature, and he is indeed successful, successful at the expense of the life of his wife, Georgiana. But wait, we’re getting ahead of our story.

Soon after Aylmer and Georgiana are married Georgiana’s birthmark becomes an issue, an issue that begins to consume Aylmer and therefore consumes Georgiana too. At this juncture of the story the reader is not quite sure of Hawthorne’s intent, but it soon becomes clear. In the following passage, Aylmer strips Georgiana of her defenses and her last remaining bit of humanity with simple glances and subtle actions, “Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face and recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek…Georgiana soon learned to shudder at his gaze. 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…”

With that passage, one gets the feeling that Hawthorne himself hates Aylmer.  Georgiana was the perfect woman in every way and Hawthorne was probably in love with the character he created. 

Hawthorne then gives his readers a glimpse of what’s to come in the form of a dream that Aylmer recounts, a dream that will rain prophetic later in the story. In the dream, “he [Aylmer] 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.”

The dream should have been interpreted by Georgiana as a warning but instead, it has just the opposite effect, it convinces Georgiana that she wants the birthmark removed regardless of the risk. Georgiana says to Aylmer, "If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, "let the attempt be made at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust--life is a burden which I would fling down with joy.”

Did Aylmer cleverly maneuver his wife to willingly risk removal of the birthmark or was she acting of her own free will? Regardless of the answer the dye has been cast and Georgiana is set to become victim of the “Unpardonable Sin.” She allowed her heart and love of a man to cloud her judgment and again, she will pay the ultimate price for her mistake, death. With the help of his aide, Aminadab, Aylmer mixes the fatal potion and Georgiana mildly drugged by Aylmer, and after a convincing demonstration of the potion’s effectiveness, willingly consumes it. “There needed no proof,’ said Georgiana, quietly.” Then Georgiana makes the fatal mistake and request the goblet. “Give me the goblet I joyfully stake all upon your word.” A few minutes after Georgiana consumes the potion the birthmark begins to fade, ‘but then her eyes sought Aylmer's face with a trouble and anxiety that he could by no means account for.” She utters the following, “My poor Aylmer!” Seeming somewhat genuinely perplexed Aylmer replies, ‘Poor? Nay, richest, happiest, most favored!’ exclaimed he. ‘My peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!”

At this moment Aylmer elation is unbridled, his joy euphoric, unfortunately that joy is to last only momentarily as Georgiana utters her last words, “my poor Aylmer,’ she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, ‘you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could offer. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!”

Through his narrator, Hawthorne provides his readers an ominous warning and that is human perfectibility is impossible to achieve, and attempts to achieve it can lead to disastrous results. I quote, “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 this story Aylmer, commits the ultimate violation, the violation of the human heart and his wife, Georgiana, pays the ultimate price. Unlike in the Minister of the Black Veil, Hawthorne leaves doubt in the readers’ mind as to whether Aylmer was also destroyed or did he get away with murdering wife. The true defect was not on Georgiana's face but in Aylmer’s mind. 

  

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