The Supernatural Encounters in the Short Fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne

The 1770's ushered in a new literary genre that changed the world. Known as Romanticism, the literature produced in Europe between 1775 and 1830 was marked by strong cultural achievement and enthusiastic experimentation. In the early nineteenth century, Romanticism crossed the Atlantic and settled in America, where the genre continued to flourish. Characterized by an emphasis on the supernatural, imagination, and nature, American Romanticism stressed faith and emotion over reason and logic. The Romantic literature rebelled against the formal traditions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Perhaps one of the greatest American Romantics is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Revered for his use of allegory and symbol, Hawthorne is known for his ability to intertwine religion and nature with the supernatural. In his short fiction, Hawthorne uses the supernatural encounters of his characters to lead them to self-discovery and overall understanding.

In the literary world, many critics have referred to Hawthorne as a dreamer. He himself described himself as a dreamer "dissatisfied with dreaming." He wanted to "test his dreams against a reality he could not control, to determine their truth" (Waggoner 31). He tried to dismiss the meaningfulness of his own dreams, however he also contemplated their validity. Hawthorne battled with his belief in dreams in comparison to his religious beliefs. Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Heavily influenced by his hometown and religious upbringing, many of Hawthorne's stories are set in Puritan England and involve his views on the Puritan church. The church was very strict and conservative in its views. In the eyes of the Puritan church, the supernatural world was seen as evil. This belief manifested itself in the Salem witch trial in which those thought to be witches were persecuted and killed. Hawthorne uses many tactics to display his views and criticisms of the church and other occurrences of his time.

One device that Hawthorne uses is the dream. Throughout his literary career, Hawthorne used dreams to give his readers insight into the hidden truths in the worlds of his characters. He gave great consideration to the importance of dreams and there interpretation. In a notebook journal Hawthorne stated:

To write a dream, which shall resemble the real course of a dream, with all its inconsistency, its strange transformation, which are all taken as a matter of course, its eccentricities an aimlessness-with nevertheless a leading idea running through the whole. Up to this old age of the world, no such thing ever has been written. (Gollin 1)

Hawthorne believed that that ability to write a realistic dream was of paramount importance in his career. Through the use of dreams, Hawthorne sought to reveal the interior of his characters, their inner fears and desires.

In Hawthorne's work " a dream may take shape as a spectral procession, a preternatural hallucination, or simply a mystifying episode imperfectly recalled when awake" (Gollin 94). In many of his short stories, Hawthorne follows his characters into a dream state where they encounter phantoms of loved ones and friends. In the end, they return to consciousness with a startling and sometimes disturbing view of their society. Through the dream, the character is allowed to come to terms with the reality of their existence. And, the reader is invited into the dream world, and into the innermost thoughts of the character.

One way in which Hawthorne deals with these things is through the physical journey of a character. In "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (1831), Robins embarks on a quest that introduces him to a number of peculiar occurrences in which he tries to decipher their purpose. His adventures occur in a dream like manner in which Robin goes from innocence to experience. In the story, Robin is looking for his kinsman, but on the way, he essentially finds his true self.

Robin wanders through the town as if "a spell was on him" (). He encounters a two-faced man who encourages him to wait for his relative at the church. Robin then allows his imagination to get the best of him. He imagines that his kinsman may might be dead and "glide through yonder gate, and nod and smile to him in passing dimly by" (12). To combat his negative thought, he thinks of family to create a more positive feeling. However, soon another negative enters the mind of Robin. He slips into a dream in which his family is gathering in the house and he is mysteriously locked out, excluded from the rest of his family. Unable to deal with this prospect Robin immediately awakens. Like many dreamers, Robin is confused by his dream and is unsure of how it relates to his quest for Major Molineux.

The dream is symbolic of Robin's journey, because it reveals what Robin does not yet know, or want to know. Being cut off from his family forces Robin to grow up and be independent. He is alone and must learn to rely on himself. He has left his youth behind, and will be unable to retain it. He has entered into an adult world that he must embrace. In the end, Robin has another encounter that although it is real, it seems rather dreamlike. He comes face to face with the kinsmen that he originally sought to find. However, he realizes that he does not need Major Molineux to "rise in the world" (17). Of the stories that incorporate dream and journey, "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" is the most hopeful. In the end, the reader is left with the impression that Robin will achieve great things in life.

This sense of hopefulness is not the case in "Young Goodman Brown" (1835). In the story, Hawthorne addresses one of the seven deadly sins and the hypocrisy of the Puritan church. In "Young Goodman Brown" Hawthorne chronicles the disturbing dream of a young Puritan man in Salem. In the dream, Goodman Brown comes face to face with his fears and is forced to examine the nature of evil in man. He is disgusted by the evil he encounters, not realizing his own involvement. Goodman Brown is too consumed with spiritual pride to recognize his own flaws.

The story begins with Goodman Brown leaving his wife, Faith for an overnight errand. She begs him not to go, but he does so anyway. During his errand, he enters the forest and his mental journey begins. His first encounter is with a "fellow-traveler" with a staff in his hand (66). The traveler's staff eventually leads Goodman Brown one a journey that ultimately concludes at the Devil's ceremony, which destroys his faith in his man. During the journey, he encounters several church members consorting with the devil. Throughout the journey, he is unsure of the things he sees and hears. His mind vacillates between further pursuit of the evil and complete rejection. Near the end of his journey, Goodman believes that he hears his wife call him. At this moment, Goodman Brown loses all faith in the world and declares that there is "no good on earth" (71). The suggestion that the woman he hears is Faith causes him to lose his personal convictions. He then allows the staff to lead him again: "with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil" (71). Because of his complete loss of faith, Goodman Brown had nothing to keep him from evil.

The climax of the journey occurs when Goodman Brown witnesses a ritual of evil. When the ceremony begins, he steps forward: "He had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought" (74). Goodman Brown at this point seems to be in a trance and he loses control of his body as he is unconsciously entering this service of converts to the devil. After the sermon, Goodman Brown comes face to face with Faith. The leader declares that "Evil is the nature of mankind" and he welcomes the converts to "communion of your race" (74). Brown then snaps out from his trance and yells "Faith! Faith! Look up to Heaven and resist the wicked one!" At this, the ceremony ends and Brown finds himself alone. He does not know whether Faith, his wife, had kept her faith, but he finds himself alone that leads him to believe that he is also alone in his faith.

The ordeal that Goodman Brown experiences completely shatters and devastates him when he awakens from his dream. As he walks the streets of Salem in the daylight, he his unable to separate his dream from reality. His dream reveals to him that the capability for evil resides in everyman. Goodman is unable to cope with this discovery. What makes the experience worst is that everyone that is important to Goodman Brown is in the dream. They are not the people that he thought them to be. The rest of his life is destroyed because of his inability to face this truth and live with it. Although Hawthorne does attempt to reveal knowledge to his characters through their dream, in the case of Goodman Brown, Hawthorne takes it a step further. Hawthorne also shows what can happen if one misinterprets this knowledge. The dream, has planted the seed of doubt in Brown's mind, which consequently cuts him off from his fellow man and leaves him alone and depressed. The truth is that Goodman Brown despises these people because he sees that same traits in himself. Like the people in his dream, he questions his own religion. However, he projects his own fears onto those around him. The dream is a manifestation of all of the insecurities he has about himself and the choices he has made in life. However, he is too proud to acknowledge his own faults. His life ends alone and miserable because he was never able to look at himself and realize that what he believed were everyone else's faults were his as well. He is completely isolated from his society. Hawthorne uses the dream to reveal Goodman Brown's inner thoughts and fear. In "The Celestial-Railroad" (1843) the narrator takes a journey through a "gate of dreams" (131). His intended destination is the Celestial City. However, his journey, which he has no control of, takes him on a different path. As the story begins, the narrator is on a train traveling by train with a gentleman named Mr. Smooth-it-away. Although he is seemingly calm, the narrator soon realizes that something is wrong. He observes that the engine looks as if it would send its passengers "to the infernal regions" (134). His foreshadowing lets the reader know that the destination of the train is not heaven.

Throughout the train ride, the narrator becomes increasingly fearful and worried about the sights and sounds of the ride. As the train enters the "treaded Valley," the narrator acknowledges is own heart palpitations. On one occasion the narrator almost comes face to face with his fear:

I almost thought, that they were my own sins that appalled me there. These were freaks of imagination-nothing more, certainly,--mere delusions, which I ought to be heartily ashamed of-but, all through the Dark Valley, I was tormented , and pestered, and dolefully bewildered, with the same kind of waking dreams. (138)

Once the train emerges from the valley and enters into the daylight, he once again gains control and dismisses the seriousness of his experience.

Like Goodman Brown, when the narrator emerges from his dream when he can no longer face the truths of his dream. Although he was on a journey to hell, he is spared. When he awakens, he remembers the event, but is unable to acknowledge and recognize his own faults. In the end he states "Thank Heaven, it was a dream" (144). This final comment is ironic because the narrator thanks heaven, but will never reach heaven either. However, he is so deluded that he does not realize this fact. This story is perhaps one of Hawthorne's most pessimistic. Until the narrator faces the truth he has no hope of ever reaching the Celestial City, heaven.

Like most dreams, the journeys of these characters all stopped abruptly without a final conclusion. Hawthorne allows his characters to reject his own involvement in the horrors he encounters. However, the encounters break down the self assured individuals who set out on these journeys. As a result, the characters are revealed to be vulnerable and human. Each of the characters is changed by his experience, some for the better and some for the worst.

In "The Birth-mark" (1843) the dream depicted stems from the obsessions of the main character. In the story, Hawthorne combines his affinity for dreams with his curiosity of science. The first story written after Hawthorne's marriage, "The Birth-mark" focuses on the relationship between a newlywed couple (Newman 29). In the story, Aylmer, a scientist, puts aside him passion for science to marry Georgiana, a beautiful woman. Shortly after they are married, he becomes obsessed with a tiny birthmark on Georgiana left cheek. The slight imperfection consumes Aylmer and he dreams that he is cutting away the birthmark on his wife's face. However, at first he does not recall the dream. When he is able to recall the details of the dream he is somewhat ashamed. The narrator explains " Truth often finds its way to the mind close muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks uncompromising directness in regard to which we practise an unconscious self-deception during our waking moments" (121). Hawthorne believed that even when the conscious mind tried to forget the truth, the subconscious knows only the truth. At this moment both Aylmer and Georgiana realize Aylmer's inability to live with the scar.

In addition to the use of dreams, Hawthorne also exhibits his beliefs about science. In the story, Aylmer perceives the birthmark as a sign of imperfection. Instead of accepting that nothing in life is perfect, he sees the birthmark as a test to his power as scientist. Aylmer "reads it as a sign of the inevitable imperfection of all things in nature. And sees in it a challenge to man's ability to transcend nature" (Fetterley 165). He accepts the challenge, but soon realizes the consequences of his actions. The dream serves as a foreshadowing prophecy for the actions that follow. In his dream he surgically removes the birthmark that haunts him. The dream "hides a guilty secret" that Aylmer is unable to tell his wife or admit to himself. He knows that the removal of the scar will prove to be fatal to Georgiana (Gollin 113). Despite this revelation, he attempts to carry out his desire and remove the scar. Aylmer concocts a drug that will make the birthmark disappear. He administers the drug to Georgiana, and like his subconscious knows is true, she dies as a result of the drug. In the end, Aylmer gets his wish; Georgiana is perfect, however she is also dead. This is a common theme in Romantic literature, the death of a beautiful woman.

"The Wives of the Dead" (1832) tells the story of two recent widows. Mary and Margaret are sisters-in-law who, within days of each other, have been informed that their husbands have died. The sisters-in-law try to console each other and help the other cope with the pain of their loss. During the night, both sisters receive news that their husband is alive. Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the story stems from the fact that both sisters seem to be in a dream state when they receive the wonderful news that their husbands are alive. In the story, Hawthorne "brings us to a profound awareness of just how indistinct the boundaries between inner and out life can become, especially in times of crisis" (Friedlander).

In their attempts to protect one another, the sisters-in-law suppress their own feelings. Mary first sets her grief aside to focus on Margaret, but Margaret also exemplifies this later. When she believes that her husband is alive, Margaret's first impulse is to share her wonderful news with the one who understands her most, Mary. However, her excitement is quickly replaced with sorrow for Mary:

Joy flashed into her heart, and lighted it up at once; and breathless, and with winged steps, she flew to the bedside of her sister. She paused, however, at the door of the chamber, while a thought of pain broke in upon her. 'Poor Mary!' said she to herself. 'Shall I waken her, to feel her sorrow sharpened by my happiness? No; I will keep it within my own bosom till the morrow.' (66)

Margaret is unable to hurt Mary. She feels guilty for seemingly having her prayers answered while her sister-in-law is still hurting. She "felt as if her own better fortune had rendered her involuntarily unfaithful" (66). She cannot bear for her happiness to show while she knows her sister is still in pain. She suppresses her own happiness to protect the feelings of Mary. Mary makes the same sacrifice for Margaret. When she believes that her beloved husband is alive, she too thinks first of sharing the news with her dear sister. However, when thoughts of her sister's unhappiness arise, she decides otherwise: " [S]he remembered that Margaret would awake to thoughts of death and woe, rendered not the less bitter by their contrast with her own felicity" (68). Just like Margaret, Mary is unable to pour salt into the wounds of her sister-in-law by expressing her overwhelming joy and happiness.

Margaret also has a similar encounter. After deciding not to tell Mary of her good news, Margaret thinks, "Happy is it, and strange, that the lighter sorrows are those from which dreams are chiefly fabricated" (66). She believes that the look of "motionless contentment" (66) on Mary's face is nothing more that the result of a wishful fantasy. Mary also displays these thoughts. As Mary watches Margaret's "rose-tinted" cheeks, "vivid smile," and "expression of joy," she thinks to herself, "My poor sister! You will waken too soon from that happy dream" (68). Mary believes that Margaret's joy exists only in the delusions of her dreams. Both women are convinced that the other is dreaming.

Through their thoughts and actions, Hawthorne reveals that although Mary and Margaret care about each other and would never intentionally hurt one another, deep inside, they subconsciously want the happiness that they think they are hiding from one another and are unable to believe that they both can have this happiness. Hawthorne's perception of the relationship between these two women seems contradictory. Although they seem selfless and caring, they have secret desires that are selfish. By showing Mary and Margaret torn between their own feelings and each other's feelings, Hawthorne exemplifies the torment women face by trying to stifle their true feelings in order to protect the ones they love. Hawthorne is saying that women are sometimes false in the appearances they portray because they do not want to hurt the other's feelings.

By the end of his career, Hawthorne's fascination with supernatural began to manifest itself in other ways. He abandoned use of dreams as a means of revelation. This transformation probably occurred out of his own fears. Because of his self- proclaimed status as a dreamer, he never knew what he might reveal about himself. Hawthorne used his writing to sort out all of his ideas. Perhaps because he feared what he might learn about himself through the process of writing, Hawthorne changed his focus.

Works Cited

Fetterley, Judith. "Women Beware Science: "The Birthmark." Critical Essays on Hawthorne's Short Stories. Ed. Albert J Von Frank. Boston: GK Hall and Co., 1991.

Friedlander, Benjamin. "Hawthorne's 'Waking Reality." The American Transcendental Quarterly. 13.1 (1999) 51-64.

Gollin, Rita K. Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Truth of Dreams. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1979.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Birth-mark." Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales. Ed. James McIntosh. New York: WW Norton and Company, 1987. 118-31.

- - - "The Celestial Rail-road." Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales. 131-44.

- - - "My Kinsman, Major Molineux." Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales. 3-17.

- - - "Rappacini's Daughter." Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales. 186-208.

- - - "The Wives of the Dead." The Oxford Book of American Literature. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992. 62-7.

- - - "Young Goodman Brown." Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales.65-75.

Newman, Lea Bertani Vozar. A Reader's Guide to the Short Stories f Nathaniel Hawthorne. Boston: GK Hall and Co.,1979.

Waggoner, Hyatt. Hawthorne: A Critical Study. Cambridge: Harvard OP, 1963.