The Theme Of Sin In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Short Stories

Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates many similarities in his short stories such as similar, recurring themes. The reoccurring theme in his work is that the obsession with sin can lead to consequences. Three stories that demonstrate this are “Ethan Brand”, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, and “Young Goodman Brown” . In all three stories, they are just simple men who are struggling to be better people, but the obsession with the sin in their lives leads to consequences. In “Ethan Brand”, how the characters respond to their sin and the sin of others is a major issue in this short story. Brand deliberately causes others to sin and brings its acknowledgement to others around him, which he believes is the unpardonable sin. “The lime-stone-burner’s own sins rose up within him, and made his memory riotous with a throng of evil shapes that asserted their kindred with the Master Sin, whatever it might be, which it was within the scope of man’s corrupted nature to conceive and cherish.” Bartram becomes aware of …show more content…
Brown leaves his wife to go into the woods with a figure that symbolizes the devil. He struggles with being an honorable man to his wife, his community, and to the men of his family. Instead of dealing with sin physically like Brand and Hooper, Brown deals with his sin mentally and psychologically. Also, instead of fleeing from sin shown in the other two short stories, Brown is obsessed with sin by being tempted towards it. He has plenty of opportunities to turn back but was drawn to the Demon figure. Seeing people he loved and respected in the church helped his decision in continuing into the forest. Instead of fighting against sin, Brown is defeated by it. As a result of being obsessed with sin, he not only participates in the ceremony with the devil, but he also returns home cynical and bitter. It states, “They carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was