Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay

Excessive self-pride and arrogance, often recognized by the term "hubris," seems to play a significant role in the main characters of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories, "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and "The Birthmark." Hubris is often recognized as a fatal flaw. A fatal flaw, also known as a tragic flaw, is a flaw in the character of the protagonist that eventually leads the protagonist to sorrow or tragedy. When we think of hubris we can often relate it to many well-known stories, movies, and/or people and characters. Examples may be Achilles' treatment of Hector's corpse in "Homer's Iliad," or Victor Frankenstein stepping beyond the boundaries of man to create life in Mary Shelley's, "Frankenstein." The three main characters of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories, goodman Brown in "Young Goodman Brown," Reverend Mr. Hooper in "The Minister's Black Veil," and Alymer in "The Birthmark," all portray a degree of hubris identifiable in their characters and used by Nathaniel Hawthorne to relate messages to us readers.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown," seems to center on the discovery of the self and mankind's tendencies towards sin. The story seems to be one of a dream, and displays hubris in the main character goodman Brown. In the story, goodman Brown seems to have dreamed that he kisses his wife Faith goodbye, and sets off into the forest by a dark path accompanied by the devil where he finds his fellow citizens, converts and worshippers of the devil. This dream is merely a test of faith. The term faith is used by Hawthorne in this story as both a word (his wife's name) and concept. He eventually overcomes evil and returns to Salem village. After this "dream," goodman Brown seems to think that everything that happened the night before, everything he saw, was in fact, real. At this point, hubris, begins to play a role in actions of his character. He begins to avoid the citizens, "The good old minister was taking a walk along the graveyard, to get an appetite for breakfast and meditate his sermon, and bestowed a blessing, as he passed, on goodman Brown. He shrank from the venerable saint, as if to avoid an anathema." (1297) After his evil dream, goodman Brown begins to doubt human race and their religious insincerity, because of his manifestation of paranoia. He believes himself to be the only righteous, sincere one. His distrust and doubt is displayed in this quote from the story, "On the Sabbath-day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen, because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear, and drowned all the blessed strain." (1298) This self-righteousness is a display of hubris. It is an over-confidence in his character that he is the only moral one. Hawthorne seems to warn that if one does not believe in oneself, then one cannot have faith in others.

The next short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil," displays hubris in the main character Reverend Mr. Hooper. The story is about a minister who lives behind a black veil. The veil isolates him from everyone by instilling fear and mistrust in those who see him. Whether he is wearing this veil to do penance for a sin, or just to make a point that everyone has secret sins, this difference is not accepted by the community. Is he trying to play the role of God, by punishing himself for a sin he may have committed? Or maybe he wears this figurative veil for a reason - to enlighten others - "If it be a sign of mourning," replied Mr. Hooper, "I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil." (1316) Either way, the wearing of this veil is indeed hubris. Reverend Hooper may believe that he can serve to enlighten everyone that he is not the only sinner, that everyone wears a secretive veil hiding their sins, separating themselves from others and God. Maybe this hubris makes him believe that he is superior to humanity. Maybe this hubris makes him believe that he can change others - that he can open their eyes to realize that all of them carry sins, in which they are hiding under their own secretive veils. Or maybe the sin of hubris is committed by him thinking he can wear this veil to judge and punish himself. Isn't that supposed to be the role of God? It may seem that it is God he is trying to play.

Hubris also plays a role in the story "The Birthmark," by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this story, the scientist Alymer is married to a beautiful woman, Georgiana. He considers her to be perfect except for one flaw, the "crimson hand" birthmark on her left cheek. Because of past successful experiments, Alymer's excessive pride and arrogance fools him to believe that he can remove this birthmark from her cheek. He assures Georgiana by saying "Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," hastily interrupted Alymer--"I am convinced of the perfect practicability of its removal." (1323). He gets her to believe that the birthmark is indeed horrible. Georgiana agrees to become part of Alymer's experiment in order to please her husband. Alymer sets off to start his experiment and try to "perfect" his wife. It is a sin in itself, just by believing he could do this. No human being is perfect. Everyone has flaws. A person is only perfect when their journey of life is at an end, and this story perfectly illustrates that meaning. At the end, Alymer's wife, becomes perfected as the scientist wished, but then passes away, only to prove that "perfection is completion" - it's the finishing of the journey of human life. His overwhelming pride in his knowledge causes Alymer to believe he can help his wife, by doing her a favor, by perfecting her. Once again, another character of Hawthorne's trying to take on the role of God. This story displays hubris, the most "fatal flaw" of all flaws, in attempting to perfect what nature created. When in fact, he was the only one really "flawed" in this story. This scientist's hubris leads to tragedy, to fatal retribution - "Alas, it was too true! The fatal Hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame." (1331)

Hawthorne displays a lot of symbolism in his stories to deliver meanings to his audience. These symbols are often effective. They help to display the hubris in the characters of his stories, therefore, delivering the messages intended by Hawthorne. His themes are often of social isolation and/or fatal retribution. These two themes often accompany the role of hubris in stories. The main characters mentioned in each of these short stories prove Hawthorne's use of hubris and the unfortunate outcomes/tragedies that follow. That young goodman Brown died a lonely, miserable man, that old Reverend Hooper lived a lonely life behind a veil, and that scientist Alymer destroyed a perfect human being because of his own perfect arrogance.