Recently in class, we have been reading short stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. There are many allusions, allegories, and symbols in his work, so we have been focusing on finding those. Two repeating leitmotifs in his work are the devil and evil. These reoccur in many of his pieces, including Minister’s Black Veil, Scarlet Letter, and Young Goodman Brown. After reading both Minister’s Black Veil and Young Goodman Brown, we can see that the devil is a very important reference that is found in both works
While reading and analyzing Minister’s Black Veil, we can see that the devil is a reoccurring figure in this piece. The meaning behind Hooper, the main character, wearing the black veil was to prevent the townspeople and everyone else that …show more content…
In Young Goodman Brown, after telling his wife that he must go on a journey and promises to come back, Brown ventures off into the forest. During his walk, he seems fearful the deeper he goes, we know this because he continued to “glance fearfully behind him” (805). Suddenly, Hooper saw “the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree.” (805). While making small talk and studying the man, Hooper became “fixed upon as remarkable as his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.” (805). This description of the strange man’s staff is the reader’s first clue to the devil. Snakes are seen as evil, this is because of the serpent who convinced Adam and Eve to sin. Because of this, the reader can assume that the man with the staff is going to have a connection to evil because of his staff with the “great black snake”. The reader can also make the inference that the man is the devil because right after Brown says, “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!” (805), the serpent-staffed man
While reading and analyzing Minister’s Black Veil, we can see that the devil is a reoccurring figure in this piece. The meaning behind Hooper, the main character, wearing the black veil was to prevent the townspeople and everyone else that …show more content…
In Young Goodman Brown, after telling his wife that he must go on a journey and promises to come back, Brown ventures off into the forest. During his walk, he seems fearful the deeper he goes, we know this because he continued to “glance fearfully behind him” (805). Suddenly, Hooper saw “the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree.” (805). While making small talk and studying the man, Hooper became “fixed upon as remarkable as his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.” (805). This description of the strange man’s staff is the reader’s first clue to the devil. Snakes are seen as evil, this is because of the serpent who convinced Adam and Eve to sin. Because of this, the reader can assume that the man with the staff is going to have a connection to evil because of his staff with the “great black snake”. The reader can also make the inference that the man is the devil because right after Brown says, “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!” (805), the serpent-staffed man