History has underrepresented females throughout countless centuries. In contrast, Hawthorne allows them to take on essential roles in “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “and “The Birthmark.” The way he presents them distinguishes his stories from others at his time. He proves all of his female characters almost flawless, deeply connects the male protagonists to them, and uses them to reveal the males’ hidden sides.
Faith, with her pink ribbon, is an irrefutable symbol of innocence. Goodman Brown calls her “a blessed angel on earth” (380). When he faces the forest’s wickedness, she is his only symbol of faith. So much so that when he sees her ribbon falling, he assures himself that his “faith is gone,” and that “[t]here is no good on earth” (384). This powerful representation extends to “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Even though Mr. Hooper denies her request to withdraw the Black Veil, Elizabeth’s “calm affection [endures]… in secrecy, in solitude, amid the chill of age, and would not perish, even at the dying hour” (396). Hawthorne’s feminism grows even further in “The Birthmark.” Georgiana sacrifices herself to the success of her husband. Hawthorne describes her as perfect, except for the birthmark laid upon her cheek. It is almost astonishing how Hawthorne goes as far as to send her to
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heaven, once her birthmark vanishes. Hawthorne shows a profound belief, connecting all the female lovers, that they are the closest to perfection. The central male characters in all three stories are greatly affected by their female lovers. They seem to target all of their care and attention to them. Goodman Brown proves his loyalty to Faith, as he hesitates in going on his errand. He remembers her all throughout the forest. Even after he reveals the village’s evilness, he ceases to leave her. Similarly, the minister cannot afford to depart Elizabeth, even while he sees everyone as sinners. Although he continues to wear his black veil in her presence, he talks to her with his old amicable side, which his townsmen used to swear by. He begs her, “[h]ave patience with me… Do not desert me… Be mine… Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity for ever!” (395). Aylmer, too, reveals deep affection to Georgiana. While some believe his desperation for success caused her death, it was rather his attempt to make her perfect. A lover does anything to keep his love ones flawless; Aylmer loved Georgiana. Thinking that his love is lost, Young Goodman Brown becomes a “demonic” beast (385).
Without Faith, who also symbolizes his faith, he is more hideous than the devil himself. Mr. Hooper tries to hold on to Elizabeth, showing his weakness, which is otherwise hidden by his veil. Without Hawthorne showing their meeting, it would have been inevitable to believe that the minister has become a darker figure. Georgiana’s death causes Aylmer to lose his only “happiness which would have woven his mortal life of the selfsame texture with the celestial” (409). The effect of female characters produces a different side of the male protagonists, either a better one or a
worse. The three main females of Hawthorne’s three stories are similar in their perfection, and power of affect on the male protagonists. He enables his lovers to connect so strongly that in all three stories they never depart, until death. If Hawthorne were to write history, women would have most certainly been shown greater gratitude.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are both 1700s Puritan works of literature with similarities, as well as differences, from their theme to tone and to what type of literary work they are. Edwards and Hawthorne are both expressing the topics of how people are all sinners, especially in regards to their congregation and that questions their congregation’s faith.
Both of these stories revolve around a lot of symbolism. These stories, since they really don't make a lot of sense on their own, force the reader to look deeper in an attempt to understand the ideas that Hawthorne tries to get across.
...t to acknowledge that fact than to live your life a lie. By keeping sin secret from the world like Dimmesdale, your conscience eats at your spirit until you are no longer able to live a healthy, normal life. Hooper's demeanor and sermons scared everyone into seeing their own sins and when looking at his black veil, they saw their own faults, which petrified them for they knew they were pretending to be one of the elect, and that none of them could be perfectly sinless. The horror and the hate people felt towards both the black veil and the scarlet letter was an outward manifestation of the horror and hate they all had for their own sins. Thus it brings us back to the theme that Hawthorne makes so clear in both the Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil," that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
portrays is one of uncertainty and one which has a lack of self control. Faith is a good example of how Hawthorne uses a woman to symbolize a deeper significance, in this case, is to evoke the hypocrisy of the Puritan people. that is, Puritans are really not as pure as we all think, they also contain evil. characteristics, in this case, exploited at night. We cannot justify Hawthorne's usage of Faith as misogyny, in that women were not considered equal in status.
Hawthorne incorporates symbols into his story in a powerful way, however Irving’s symbols are not equally powerful. Hawthorne uses Faith’s pink ribbon to symbolize her purity. The ribbon is fitting because the color pink is associated with virginity and purity. The color is commonly worn by young girls when they are young and pure. The ribbon allows the audience to assume that Faith, like her name, is a religious young woman who lives her life by the holy bible. The action of the ribbon can even change it’s symbolism. While Brown is in the woods he sees Faith’s pink ribbon soar through the sky, symbolizing her loss of purity and entrance into the devil’s dominion. The second powerful symbol that Hawthorne incorporates is the staff that the old man offers Brown in the woods. The staff symbolizes Brown’s temptation o...
Nathaniel Hawthorne short stories, “The Birthmark” and “Young Goodman Brown” tell an intriguing story. In “The Birthmark” we are introduced to a newly wedded couple. Aylmer is a misguided yet accomplished scientist who is married to the beauty Georgiana who is an example of perfection except for her one flaw, a birthmark. Nathaniel uses Aylmer to explore the obsession with human perfection, as he struggles with the ‘birthmark’ that decks his wife’s face. Aylmer obsession and struggle to achieving physical perfection is achieved through the usage of symbolism, foreshadowing, and allusion. In “Young Goodman Brown”, our protagonist Goodman Brown is exposed to the evil among his puritan town and struggles to remain a ‘goodman’ as he tries to keep
Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print. The. Bailey, Carol. "
"All within hearing immediately turned about, and beheld the semblance of Mr. Hooper, pacing slowly his meditative way towards the meeting-house. With one accord they started, expressing more wonder than if some strange minister were coming to dust the cushions of Mr. Hooper’s pulpit·" Working in the realm of the Gothic, Nathaniel Hawthorne hits upon psychological points that few of his readers are willing to explore. Of course, one may not be able to relate to an example involving such an "eccentric" display as Mr. Hooper’s. There is a sudden hush throughout the audience, followed by a rush of low whispering. He walks past them, oblivious to the goings-on and proceeds to the front. Something has changed, and everyone is aware. It is painfully obvious that he wanted everyone to know, for the wounds of the change were self-inflicted· Putting the scenario this way helps to give an anonymous and general view to the former example. This method is used to show how realistic, even common, this somewhat absurd event may actually be. In a psychological analysis, this is a necessary element in both de-personalizing a situation and giving it potential for universal application. In Hawthorne’s "The Minister’s Black Veil," many interpretations by way of psychological analysis are possible, and, once exposed, quite apparent. Once revealed, there are many routes for understanding the story in a psychoanalytical context. The main approaches this essay will take involve a "Jungian" analysis, that is, one involving the use of some of the theories and conclusions of German psychoanalyst and pioneer, Carl Gustav Jung, a former student and friend of Sigmund Freud, in interpreting the actions of the characters in the story. Jung’s discord with Fr...
Hawthorne’s Romantic writing ability allures his readers into deep thought of the transforming characters creating himself as a phenomenon. His ability to transform Puritan society in a dark world “attracts readers not only for their storytelling qualities, but also for the moral and theological ambiguities Hawthorne presents so well” (Korb 303). In “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Romantic characteristics such as artificiality of the city, escape from reality, and the value of imagination.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegorical story “Young Goodman Brown” is set in Salem, Massachusetts during the late sixteen hundreds in a time of religious hysteria and only a few generations after the infamous witch trials. Although "Young Goodman Brown" is a fictional tale, it is based on the cynical environment of Salem during this time period. The short story is filled with many literary elements, leading you to question what did exactly happen to the main character at the conclusion. When analyzing a story like "Young Goodman Brown", one must recognize that the story is at whole symbolic. In the text, symbols are used to uncover the truth of the characters. The role of Faith as both a character and a spiritual element are crucial to both the story and the character of Young Goodman Brown.
In the short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the Mr. Hooper’s black veil and the words that can describe between him and the veil. Hawthorne demonstrates how a black veil can describe as many words. Through the story, Hawthorne introduces the reader to Mr. Hooper, a parson in Milford meeting-house and a gentlemanly person, who wears a black veil. Therefore, Mr. Hooper rejects from his finance and his people, because they ask him to move the veil, but he does not want to do it. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper’s black veil symbolizes sins, darkness, and secrecy in order to determine sins that he cannot tell to anyone, darkness around his face and neighbors, and secrecy about the black veil.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne conveys to readers a seemingly highly religious Puritan town. However, this town appears to be holding a devious truth. Throughout his work Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to convey the corrupt and evil truth behind the otherwise highly religious Puritan town. Through his main symbol usage of Faith’s pink ribbons, Faith’s name and appearances throughout the story, and the woods in which the story is set, readers see the façade slowly fade through the story and reveal the truth about the town.
Throughout time women have been written as the lesser sex, weaker, secondary characters. They are portrayed as dumb, stupid, and nothing more than their fading beauty. They are written as if they need to be saved or helped because they cannot help themselves. Women, such as Daisy Buchanan who believes all a woman can be is a “beautiful little fool”, Mrs Mallard who quite died when she lost her freedom from her husband, Eliza Perkins who rights the main character a woman who is a mental health patient who happens to be a woman being locked up by her husband, and then Carlos Andres Gomez who recognizes the sexism problem and wants to change it. Women in The Great Gatsby, “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wall Paper” and the poem “When” are oppressed because the fundamental concept of equality that America is based on undermines gender equality.
Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.