The Old Manse

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s family was deep rooted in the Puritan religion, which could explain his strong morals and interest in religion and faith. Faith is a private symbol for Nathaniel Hawthorne because it reaches across many of his works. In Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, for example, Brown’s wife represents religious faith and the many phases that someone with faith will go through in their lives. When the story starts, Young Goodman Brown is preparing to leave on a journey. His wife,…

Reassuring his wife, Faith, that all will be well and he shall be back in the morning, Brown departs. Meeting with an old man on the forest road, presumably the Devil, Brown continues on to the meeting place. Several individuals pass Brown in the night on their way to a meeting, people he holds in high regard. Brown arrives at the meeting and is forced to form new opinions…

material. While reading Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, my final take away was most likely different than others because I placed myself in the shoes of Good Brown and saw myself as the young and vulnerable man running through the woods with old witches and deceiving pastors. I think that his response is nothing worse than I would have reflected. I don’t know if I had an experience quite like his, if I would just bounce back.…

The main character’s name is sort of like a mockery because his name is Goodman Brown, but his temptation plays a huge role. When he leaves his wife faith to go do his evil purpose, he encounters the devil disguised as an old man. The old man carries a staff with him to teleport Goodman Brown throughout his journey. When he meets this man, Brown’s faith is tested and questioned as he grips the staff. “…Brown grasp his staff and set forth again” (Hawthorne 392). He takes a taste…

Dissension and Destruction of Arthur Dimmesdale The obligation or responsibility imposed on a person in whom confidence or authority is placed could be broken by those who are charlatans and ingenuine. These are the type of individuals the reader will encounter in the American classic The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts the conflict between outer appearance and inner reality through the internal dissension of the character Arthur Dimmesdale who struggles with day to day life while…

Comparison of “The Most Dangerous Game” and the “Young Goodman Brown” This essay will compare two short stories: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown and Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game. Works do not have similarities at the first sight. Stories are about a century apart (were published in 1835 and 1924 respectively), have different plots, types of characters and conclusions. However, it is possible to make a comparison and find both similarities and differences in these stories.…

Comparison between “The Crucible” and “The Scarlet Letter” “The Scarlet Letter” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller are two pieces of literature written around the same era. They were written in the early days of the Massachusetts colony. Both of the pieces of literature have many similarities including the theme, setting, conflicts, and some major plot elements. But the two pieces of literature are also very different. They both use have a common theme…

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, there are several themes, but the most ordinary and prominent is that everyone has secrets and sorrows hidden from others. In the story, the main character, Reverend Hooper, is a minister in a small Puritan community in Milford. The minister is described as wearing two folds of black crape, which entirely conceals his facial features other than his mouth and chin (240). This veil symbolizes many things, but most people assume that…

In the “Minister's Black Veil” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to represent secret sin and shows the theme is death. The main character named Mr. Hooper wears a black veil In the story Hooper wears a black veil which symbolizes hiding sin. “But what if the world will not believe that it is the type of an innocent sorrow?” urged Elizabeth. “Beloved and respected as you are, there may be whispers that you hide your face under the consciousness of secret sin. For the sake of your holy office,…

With a ruin standing strong in the night, a lone traveler passes by, using the light behind the never-ending barrage of clouds as his only compass. The twisted trees find home in the grassy plain bordering the trodden path to the right as the darkness closes in and a peaceful desolation takes into place. A dark and foreboding oil painting on canvas, Arnold Böcklin’s Mondscheinlandschaft mit Ruine, or Ruins in Moonlit Landscape, capture and illuminate the idea of the picturesque beauty of…