Nathaniel Hawthorne's Critique of Christianity: A Dual Perspective

Throughout history authors of literature have offered a unique perspective on the values of their contemporary societies through their works. These perspectives can range from harsh critiques of wasteful aspects of society to perspectives that find positive meaning in the structures put forth in that society. In the case of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s perception of Christianity in the United States, Hawthorne is able to find that Christianity offers both morally outstanding qualities and qualities that should be warned against. Within several of his short stories, Hawthorne talks about Christianity, especially those of Puritanism, as having the ability to be morally wrong with its ability to be hypocritical in its teaching and its inability to find

respectability in nature and human entertainment. On the other hand, in many of his writings Hawthorne defends to a great extent the fortitude of Christianity’s ability to stand up to corrupt authority, its aptitude to provide strong moral conscience and its uniqueness in providing a way to deal with the struggles of human existence in a productive and venerable approach. He also discussed at length sciences’ inability to provide a morally just society and thus this perspective furthered the view that Christianity had something to offer Americans. When looking at the complete writings of Hawthorne during the 19th century it is often hard to determine his position clearly on American Christianity. However, this paper will set out to prove that Hawthorne both venerated certain aspects of Christianity and loathed other aspects of its character. All in all, this paper will discuss at length different aspects of Hawthorne’s short stories to prove that Hawthorne both accepted some parts of American Christianity as being important, such as moral fortitude, and other parts, such as restrictiveness of its views, as being detrimental to American society.
To begin, in his short story titled Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne goes on the attack of early American religiosity by calling into question its hypocritical nature.

In the story, a young man named Goodman Brown leaves his new wife Faith to enter into the wilderness to fulfill an undisclosed evil errand. When he enters the wilderness, Brown is approached by a figure he does not know, but one that he perceives to be evil by the walking stick that he possesses, which is shaped like a serpent. Within the woods, the two men begin their journey and it is revealed that Brown only came to the woods because he agreed to meet this unknown figure and now wishes to return to his wife Faith. Throughout Brown’s journey, Brown states several reasons why he wishes to leave this unholy place and return to his Christian society in Salem. One of the first reasons he gives is he believes that his family has been good and honest Christians. Hawthorne writes, “My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians, since the days of the martyrs” (“Young Goodman Brown”). However, this statement is easily dispelled by the mysterious man when he claims that he has known Brown’s father and grandfather as well as many important state and religious figures. This first revelation by the character that is later revealed to be the devil starts Brown on a path that exposes the hypocrisy of religion in the Puritan

community.
After receiving the first bit of news about the members of his community, Brown is in disbelief until the devil comes across an elderly woman in the woods who taught Brown catechism in his youth.

The women greets the devil and asks to borrow his walking stick so that she may move faster, which results in Brown becoming more aware of the hypocrisy of his community and furthers his loss in faith. Even though at this point Brown begins to question his community and the high moral standards they have set, Brown states that he still has faith because of his wife and her purity. At this point in the novel, the devil informs Brown to rest and gives him his staff as a present so that if Brown chooses to eventually join the devil he may reach him deep in the woods quickly. Brown then overhears the voices of his community all moving deeper into the woods and the voice of what appears to be his wife Faith, and this makes Brown appear at the unholy gathering in the woods. Once at the gathering Brown recognizes the faces of those in his community and this forces him to question the double standards of his religion. Hawthorne writes of the occasion, “…flashing over the obscure field, bedazzled Goodman Brown, or he recognized a score of the church-members of Salem village, famous for their especial sanctity” (“Young Goodman

Brown”).