Comparing Minister's Black Veil And Young Goodman Brown

There is a common truth found within the different communities of religion. Be it theories of creation or different social ideologies, but the one thing that doesn’t seem to change is one’s inability to understand and acknowledge one’s sins. In “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main idea presented within the two stories is the hypocritical and unstable nature of religion. In these stories, Hawthorne tests the moral ideas behind religion in the different settings presented. Along with the common theme found in both stories Hawthorne also depicts how the actions of the characters in the stories significantly impacted the course of the work.

First, in “The Minister’s Black Veil”, after the minister

Parson Hooper suddenly arrives to church in a black veil, everyone is so concerned about the reason behind why he is wearing the veil that they fail to understand the meaning of what the veil truly represents. Throughout the story the minister wears this veil and is ambiguous and vague about the meaning of it until he is lying on his death bed. The minister had wanted the people to come to realize their own sins and hypocritical nature, but because of everyone’s ignorance and avoidance of the truth, this led to nothing except driving him to the point of madness and the minister’s wishes were never really granted. The course of action displayed by the minister influenced the course the story was taken. If the minister had told the people behind the symbolism in the veil the people would’ve never fully understood the meaning behind it and wouldn’t have truly felt remorse for their actions. In reality, they would’ve succumbed to the social pressures brought on to them to act in a way where they look to be in favor to themselves. They would have done what was socially expected of them and pray out to their God for repentance and never truly understand the meaning behind the veil. The actions carried out by the minister led him to be shunned by the religious community as an outcast eventually leading to his lost in faith of the people around him. In the context, Hawthorne’s portrayal of the minister’s actions made sense for accomplishing his agenda in the story to show how ignorant the people choose to be.
In “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman brown leaves his home in the middle of the night. He leaves his young wife at home telling her "Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee,"(Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown” 1289). He then sets forth on his journey through the woods. In this text, the actions taken by Goodman Brown are very crucial to the story. First, he leaves for his excursion in the middle of the night and he goes to meet a man who is later revealed to be the devil. Through his conversation with the devil he comes across many people from his religious community that he knows and it is then revealed to him that they also walked with the devil. Throughout the text, it is clear how all the events that lead to the conclusion impacted the outcome. His decision to take his journey with the devil led to his mistrust of the people around him and also the loss of his innocence towards what he believed was true. Hawthorne showed this through the symbolism of the pink ribbon that his wife Faith often wore. Towards the end of the journey “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” (Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown” 1294). This loss of innocence is represented in the pink ribbon and along with it is his mistrust of the people around him and their true intentions. After his journey, Goodman Brown could not view the same people he saw in the clearing in the forest as good people of God and it all started with his first initial choice to go into the woods with the devil in the middle of the night.
The common theme found in both “The Minister’s Black Veil” and in “Young Goodman Brown” is the main character’s loss in faith of the religious intent of the people in the community around them and the portrayal of the hypocrisy of the people who practice the religion around them.

In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Parson Hooper wears the veil as a visible symbol of sin. It could be interpreted as a representation of his own sins or as a reflection of the sins of the people of the town. Although Parson Hooper tried to teach the people of their sinful nature the town failed to understand the meaning behind the veil and were only concerned with the reason for wearing the veil. They would gossip about him and “talked of little else than Parson Hooper’s black veil,” (Hawthorne “The Minister’s Black Veil” 1315) and they would make up rumors regarding the veil, or that “‘Something must surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper's intellects,’” (Hawthorne “The Minister’s Black Veil” 1314). In the end, he lived a life Hooper lived a life shunned while trying to show to the people the nature of their unavoidable sins and how they should accept their own sins to ask for repentance for their wrong

doings.
Although he had tried to warn them of their sins Hooper had brought out the hypocritical nature of the people into the light. The people were so concerned with the reason behind his veil that they failed to see their own sins. He was “irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved, and dimly feared; a man apart from men, shunned in their health and joy, but ever summoned to their aid in mortal anguish,” (Hawthorne “The Minister’s Black Veil” 1318). During his life, children would run away from him and the people would look at him in disgust even though they were the same; he just had the physical representation of his sins shown. When he was approaching the end of his life on his death bed, he said to the people in his chamber, “‘Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!’” (Hawthorne “The Minister’s Black Veil” 1320), telling them that although they have shunned him for an unknown sin, they are being hypocritical because they too have a black veil around their face which they choose to ignore.
In “Young Goodman Brown”, The hypocritical nature of humans can be found from the very beginning with the main character himself.

Goodman Brown tells his wife to pray and everything will be fine as he himself goes out in the middle of the night to meet with the devil. Then as the journey continues and the devil and Goodman Brown talk it is revealed that although Goodman Brown thought that no one he would know would’ve walked with the devil and he had a firm belief in what he believed to be right it is stated that, “‘shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept’… ‘I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip's war. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you for their sake’” (Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown 1290-1291). It is also shown as they go along as they meet different people from the church as they go and as they come into the clearing with the ritual being held that many people have walked with the devil. Many have taken this path and Hawthorne utilizes this to show how the people all around choose to sin just as

Goodman Brown is doing in that moment. He becomes aware of the sins of the people, but he himself is also a sinner and also becomes a hypocrite. Although his enlightening journey itself was a sin and he acknowledged and claimed that he would be the first to take this path he doesn’t do anything significant to repent for those sins. He also views the people around them as worshipers of the devil and becomes distrustful of those around him without truly realizing that he is also one of those amongst them. In both stories both the characters lose their faith in the people practicing this religion around them. As they see it, those people are not aware or refuse to acknowledge the sins which they have committed and they just hide underneath the mask that is their religion. They are also hypocrites as they try to show and put on their masquerade to appear to be the social standard of what it means to be a part of the religion when in reality they just fear to show their true self to avoid social shunning by those people in the religious communities.
It is difficult to admit to our own wrong doings. We choose to ignore the things we do wrong and go about our daily lives showing a mask while hiding away our true self and intentions. We refuse to acknowledge our mistakes and be hypocritical and judgmental towards the actions that others do, but if we reflect on our own actions instead of the actions of others we could live a less judgmental life. There are some things in life that are beyond our control, but the things we can control we should be able to acknowledge in order to lead a more truthful life.