Hawthorne and the Problem of Pride

Pride: it is one of the foremost characteristics of the human race. Pride inspires honor, it exuberates confidence and is a steady motivator for personal success. However, the problem with pride comes when the need for a balance with humility is ignored. When pride turns to arrogance lacking equilibrium with modesty, a whole slew of problems ensue. Throughout his stories, Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates this concept of the consequences of pride, warning that eventually one will either learn humility or else be destroyed by his own self-centered smugness. He illustrates this concept through three basic types of pride: intellectual pride, ignorant youthful pride and spiritual pride.

Intellectual pride is a major issue for Hawthorne, as he makes clear its consequences in "Rappaccini's Daughter". In this story, through the character of Dr. Rappaccini, he gives the reader a wonderful illustration of an extremely intelligent scholarly man whose pride in his own scientific and mental capabilities leads him to abandon all sense of ethics and humanity. As the reader sees, Dr. Rappaccini is the classic "mad scientist" who has become so absorbed in his works that he has lost sight of basic human ethics. Rather than using his intelligence for the greater good of the community, he uses it as a manipulative tool. He even goes so far in his ambitious pride as to make an experiment of his own daughter, Beatrice, causing her to become poisonous and thus isolated and unable to live a normal, happy life.

As is stated by professor Baglioni, a rival of Rappaccini, "...it is said of him- and I, who know the man well, can answer for its truth- that he cares infinitely more for science than for mankind. His patients are interesting to him only as subjects for some new experiment. He would sacrifice human life, his among the rest, or whatever else was dearest to him, for the sake of adding so much as a grain of mustard seed to the great heap of his accumulated knowledge," (Hawthorne 118).

This passage provides the perfect image of the lengths to which Dr. Rappaccini will go in order to add to his already bloated intellectual ego. Here is a man so unwilling to sacrifice the pride he carries in his knowledge, that he is willing to sacrifice his own daughter in its place. It is obvious that Hawthorne sees the lack of ethical balance in Rappaccini's work as a major problem. In a sense he cautioning society as a whole of the dangers and moral issues that arise when pride in science and knowledge takes priority over basic, natural human rights.

Hawthorne also uses "Rappaccini's Daughter" to illustrate the problem of youthful pride. Centering on a young university student named Giovanni, the story explores the naïve pride of a well-to-do youth in a city far from home. As he begins to settle in, he becomes acquainted with and eventually falls in love with the beautiful, but poisonous Beatrice. However, as he becomes more involved with Professor Baglioni (his mentor and Rappaccini's rival) his feelings toward Beatrice are challenged. As the professor articulates to Giovanni, "I know this wretched girl [Beatrice] far better than yourself. You shall hear the truth in respect to the poisoner Rappaccini and his poisonous daughter; yes, poisonous as she is beautiful," (132). Clearly, Baglioni's harsh words toward Beatrice have a profound impact on Giovanni's feelings toward her.

The final straw comes when Giovanni realizes that through his interaction with Beatrice, he too has become poisoned. Despite his feelings toward her and the truth he knows about her kind, loving and generally good character, his youthful pride gets the best of him. He goes to her shouting fiendish remarks about her poisonous nature and what he perceives to be evil in her spirit. However, his naïve pride forces him to refuse to acknowledge that it is he, not she, who is the true carrier of spiritual poison. If he would only move past his pride, the pride that tells him he is in fact better than Beatrice, he might be able to avoid the sadness he is about to experience. However, as it is, he must face the consequences of his prideful nature, which in this case is the self-inflicted death of his beloved Beatrice. The point Hawthorne is making in Beatrice's death is multi-faceted. In the category of pride, he is showing the reader the ramifications of being so prideful and self-absorbed that the opinions of others, or fear of ridicule, becomes more important than the bonds of human love. Just as both Rappaccini and Giovanni are too prideful to truly care for Beatrice, both are forced to suffer for her loss.

Another example of youthful pride in Hawthorne's works is the character of Robin in "My Kinsman, Major Molineux". This story involves the coming of age of a young boy, riding into town, hoping to ride the coattails of his "kinsman, Major Molineux." When he first arrives in town, it is clear that he puts on airs about his presumed kinsman, making such comments as, "This low hovel cannot be my kinsman's dwelling, nor yonder old house, where the moonlight enters at the broken casement; and truly I see none hereabouts that might be worthy of him," (238).

Robin is, however, naïve in his pride, realizing as he goes through town looking for his kinsman that he is, in spite of his economic status, not held in high regard. Repeatedly, Robin encounters a sense of mockery and hostility toward the mention of the name of Major Molineux. He is at first confused by the reaction of the townspeople but initially shrugs it off as jealousy, once again showing his youthful, though unfounded, pride. Nevertheless, when Robin is faced with the tarring and feathering of this character, Major Molineux, once thought to be a great hero, he realizes that he is going to get nowhere on his pride and family heritage; he learns that he must set aside his conceit and become part of the community.

At this realization he joins the crowd of vigilantes in the mockery of his kinsman, laughing louder at the misfortune of the Major than any of the rest of the crowd. As is illustrated in the following passage, Hawthorne examines Robin's state of mind as he views the demise of his kinsman:

"Then Robin seemed to hear the voices of the barbers, the guests at the inn, and of all who had made sport of him that night. The contagion was spreading among the multitude, when all at once, it seized upon Robin, and he sent forth a shout of laughter that echoed through the street- every man shook his sides, every man emptied his lungs, but Robin's shout was the loudest there," (254).

While this joining in on the mockery of one's own kinsman may be disturbing to many readers, it seems that Hawthorne is making a point through this passage about the value of humility. The reality is that although the reader is not directly told the reason for Robin's laugh, it is insinuated that his laugh is a sign of his realization of his own pride and arrogance. He now recognizes how immature his earlier egotism had been and begins to grasp the concept of self-sufficiency as a preferable choice over dependence on a rich relative. Hawthorne implies through this story, that humility and self-reliance, not pride, are the key to maturity.

A third type of pride Hawthorne examines in his writings is spiritual pride. A prime example of Hawthorne's commentary on spiritual pride is found in "Young Goodman Brown." This narrative tells the tale of Goodman Brown, a young Puritan man whose pride in Faith, his wife, as well as in his spiritual faith leads him down a long, sorrowful, frightening trail. The story commences with Goodman Brown's journey deep into the woods for what he appears to know will be a night of sinful indulgence. As Brown states after a conversation with his wife Faith, who begs him not to travel to the woods, "What wretch I am to leave her on such an errand...Well, she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night, I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven," (100).

It is clear by this passage that Brown is knowledgeable that the nature of the journey upon which he is about to embark will most certainly involve activities of an impure nature. He also obviously believes that once the night is over, his sins will be forgiven and forgotten simply by his ties to the presumably pure Faith. However, once he enters the forest, he comes upon the devil, who takes him on a frightening experience that, unfortunately for him, exposes the truth about sin, purity and spiritual faith.

What he sees in the depths of the woods is a life-altering revelation of the evil within even the best of human beings. Not only are such prominent figures in society as church woman Goody Cloyse and Deacon Gookin present at what appears to be a worship service for Satan himself, but his one rock, his foundation, his Faith is as impure as all the rest; she too dances with the devil. At this realization Brown agonizes, saying, "My Faith is gone! There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given," (107).

This exclamation by Brown not only speaks literally of losing his wife, Faith, but also points out his despair in losing his faith in society and humanity as a whole. He now sees humanity as evil and becomes extremely isolated, refusing to acknowledge that he too is part of society. His pride in his spirituality will not allow him to give in to the fact that he too was with the devil in the forest, and he too is plagued with sin. As a result of his spiritual self-righteous pride, he lives a sad and reclusive life. Hawthorne says a great deal about the consequences of Brown's pride with the following passage:

"At morning or evening tide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled and muttered to himself, 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," (112).

This passage undoubtedly shows Hawthorne's opinion of the problems of over-abundant spiritual pride. It seems that he is commenting on the pride in society, especially Christian society, which keeps people looking down on those presumed to be lesser beings. Just as Goodman Brown lived a miserable, isolated life of gloom due to his unwillingness to admit his own sins, the same goes for self-righteous, detached citizens of all walks of life.

Through his work Hawthorne exhibits clear apprehension about a society willing to sacrifice all humanity for its own pride. Through his examination of unwavering, arrogant and self-absorbing pride in aspects from science to religion, Hawthorne cautions the reader of the adverse consequences of out-of-control pride. However, he offers a small glimmer of optimism through stories such as, "My Kinsman, Major Molineux", that if one will repent from his overbearing, self-indulging pride and give humility and understanding a try, that there is indeed hope.

Work Cited:

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Edt. Alfred Kazin. Selected Short Stories of Nathaniel

Hawthorne. Random House Publishing Group. Toronto, 1966.