Sin and Community in Hawthorne's Stories: Part 2

The Minister's Black Veil

In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Hawthorne shows us a man who bears an outward sign of hidden sin. Hooper dons a veil that represents the man’s hypocritical concealment of his sin from others. Whereas the revelation of hidden sins is destructive for Goodman Brown, the intentional exposure of man’s hypocrisy serves as a didactic tool for Reverend Hooper. However, even this willful confession of sinfulness cuts him off from relationships. As he says to his fiancé Elizabeth, “This dismal shade must separate me from the world: even you, Elizabeth, can never come behind it!” Elizabeth stays loyal to Mr. Hooper to the end of his life, but it is unclear as to whether they actually marry, and she never again sees his face. Although Hooper hopes for the removal of his veil in eternity, he offers no solution to the problem of hiddenness and isolation for the present life, and his participation in community is forever shrouded by the horrific veil upon his face. Men and women look upon him with dismay and children flee him with fright. While looking hopefully heavenward, Hooper neglects to seek sanctification in the present life. Instead, he continues to bear the sign of hypocrisy upon his face. It seems that Hooper, like Goodman Brown, offers no means of sanctification from sin during the present life, and hence loses his ability for unobstructed community with those around him.

Sin and Community in Hawthorne's Stories: Part 1

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories, there is a recurring theme of sin and hypocrisy obstructing human relationships. Again and again, sin destroys the characters’ images of one another and their ability to relate. It seems that Hawthorne’s characters lack an ability to deal properly with sin in community because they lack an adequate concept of sanctification.

In a brief series of posts, I will explore this concept in “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “The Birthmark,” and then give my own reflections based on Scripture.


Young Goodman Brown

In “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown’s exposure to his community’s depravity causes him to retreat from the community, from his family, and ultimately from his Faith. Having based his Christianity on the perception of others’ righteousness, Goodman Brown’s trust is shattered when he realizes that the people he had looked up to are imperfect (this statement assumes some interpretation, which I’d be happy to defend if requested). During Brown’s chilling and mysterious experience in the woods, he realizes that “Evil is the nature of mankind,” and he quits hoping that virtue “were not all a dream.” All that Brown now sees in people is depravity, and he lives the rest of his life avoiding them “as if to avoid an anathema,” seeing no hope for their redemption. He is hopeless even to his death, and “they carved no hopeful verse upon his tomb-stone.” Goodman Brown’s problem is that he sees only sin and has no concept of sanctification – his realization of sinfulness is the end of his faith, rather than a motivation to seek purification. Because of his inability to see the process of sanctification that fallen man is in, Goodman Brown is unable to live with the imperfections of those around him, and he withdraws from community.