Nathaniel Hawthorne and Loneliness

In the various pieces I've read of the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, there were numerous different examples of loneliness, from “The Minister’s Black Veil” to “The Birthmark”, his prose exudes solitude.

This is not terribly surprising considering Hawthorne’s personality and life’s story. For his whole life, the author was a shy and introverted individual, and for over a decade, he was better described as a hermit. A short biography with quotations from the author himself characterizes this period with the following:

“… After graduation [from Bowdoin College], [Hawthorne] returned to Salem and a life of seclusion that lasted for twelve years. Although he was writing and publishing during this time, he was keenly aware of his unusual existence. In 1837, he wrote to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a Bowdoin College Classmate, ‘I have been carried apart from the main current of life … I have secluded myself from society … I have made a captive of myself and put me into a dungeon; and now I cannot find the key to let me out … ‘“

In two of the selections we read, “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown”, were stories of loneliness brought on by the guilt of a transgression hidden from the world. The isolation of the main characters in each of these tales is caused by some perceived sin that causes them to feel bitter and separated from their communities.

For Reverend Hooper, his sin is not known to us, but he donned a black veil for many years of his life, refusing to show his face to those he spoke the word of God to. The Reverend said of his adornment “’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.’” This veil put an unreachable distance between him and his congregation as well as the love interest, Elizabeth.

For young Goodman Brown, his secret sin is his interaction with the devil, in Hawthorne’s partially Faustian/partially Garden of Eden tale. He is forever changed by his night of visions with the dark figure. He was once loved and revered by his community of Salem as a nice young man but by the time of his death, the village could not even think of anything positive to put on his headstone. It remained only with a name. “They carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom,” to quote the tale itself.

The difference between these two stories lies in the author’s disclosure of each character’s reasoning behind their withdrawal from society. For Hooper, his isolation was not exactly chosen. He knew perhaps that his veil would cause problems with the un-accepting community, but he didn’t want it to happen. Young Goodman Brown’s guilt at his sin, on the other hand, caused him to retreat in shame and bitterness from his loved ones and townspeople.

(this one is also unfinished... sorry all)