The Spirituality and Psychology of Nathaniel Hawthornes Short Stories - Essay Example

The Spirituality and Psychology of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Short Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is one of the most well-known and prolific American writers of all-time. During his lifetime, he produced several novels and numerous short stories. His body of work fits into the Romantic period of American literature, and his writings exhibit the emphases of this style: symbolism, aestheticism, and moralism (Brown 149-150). Even a rapid examination of Hawthorne’s work provides examples of each of these, and his short stories offer quick snapshots of the different aspects of romanticism. This paper will examine, specifically, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “The Birth-mark,” and “The Haunted Mind. Each of these stories evidences spiritual themes and psychological themes, in particular, the conflict between lightness and darkness – illumination and confusion. The spiritual themes in “The Minister’s Black Veil: A Parable” are not difficult to see. The story’s protagonist is a member of the clergy – the most respected religious leader in the town. The town is thrown into an uproar, however, when the minister suddenly appears one morning with a black veil covering his face. It was immediately assumed by his congregation that the minister was trying to hide some: secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them (Hawthorne 373). From the day the minister puts on the veil to the day of his death, the townspeople can think, or talk, about little else (373). The minister’s black veil has a profound effect on the thoughts and imaginations of the townspeople. It transforms the minister into a sort of ghostly figure. A brief conversation between two funeral-goers illustrates this: ‘Why do you look back?’ said one in the procession to his partner. ‘I had a fancy,’ replied she,’ that the minister and the maiden’s spirit were walking hand in hand.’ ‘And so had I, at the same moment,’ said the other (Hawthorne 375-376). The townspeople, who were once so fond of him and routinely invited him into their homes, now avoid and fear him because, to them, the veil “could portend nothing but evil” (Hawthorne 376). Perhaps the saddest effect of the minister’s decision to don the dark-colored cloth is its effect on his fiancée, and the subsequent breaking of their engagement. Even she, the person who was closest and most trusting of him, could not discern the true meaning of the veil. She began to believe, as the others did, that it was simply a “symptom of mental disease” (Hawthorne 379). When she pressed him for an explanation, he refused to give her one, thus driving her away from him physically, but not emotionally. Until the day the minister died, Elizabeth’s affection “endured … in secrecy, in solitude, amid the chill of age, and would not perish, even at the dying hour” (Hawthorne 382). In the end, we find the loneliness and pain these two lovers suffered was simply a result of the minister’s obstinate attempt to teach his congregation a moral lesson (384). “The Birth-Mark” tells the story of another love relationship that is doomed because of one man’s ideals and beliefs. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the thought that nature performed some sort of evil on his wife, Georgiana, because it gave her an unusual hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek (Hawthorne 765). Being a man of science and reason, he is incapable of agreeing with the estimations of his wife’s previous suitors, who thought that “some fairy, at her birth-hour, had laid her tiny hand upon the infant’s cheek” (Hawthorne 765). Aylmer sees Georgiana’s mark as a “symbol of his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death,” and he fears it as the supernatural curse of a “spectral hand that wrote mortality” (766). This confusion of the “physical imperfection for a spiritual one” is what leads to the tragic ending of the story (Rosenberg 148). Aylmer becomes convinced that the birthmark must somehow be removed from his wife’s cheek, and that his knowledge of science is going to enable him to accomplish this. Georgiana’s pure, loving nature causes her to agree to her husband’s plan because, as she puts it: Danger is nothing to me; for life – while this hateful object makes me the object of your horror and disgust – life is a burthen which I would fling down with joy. Either remove this dreadful Hand, or take my wretched life! (Hawthorne 768). It is unclear whether Georgiana really knows what she is saying, or if her despair at being the object of her husband’s fear and loathing is the motive behind this desperate bit of foreshadowing. Over the course of the story, Aylmer becomes increasingly fixated on the removal of the mark and his ability to do so. He develops a God complex, evidenced in his belief that he could “concoct a liquid that should prolong life for years – perhaps interminably – but that it would produce a discord in nature, which all the world … would find cause to curse” (Hawthorne 772). Aylmer even hints at the deterioration of his own mental faculties when he sees Georgiana looking through his alchemy books. He tells her, “Georgiana, there are pages in that volume, which I can scarcely glance over and keep my senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you!” (775). Sadly, even in the light of day, after Aylmer has administered to his wife the potion that will kill her, he does not realize that the only thing that has harmed his wife his own insistence on perfection and his desire to control nature (764). The removal of the dreaded birthmark results in the death of his wife. It is ironic that Aylmer draws back the curtains to see his wife more clearly, and yet he still remains in the dark regarding the consequences of his actions (Rosenberg 149). The narrator of “The Haunted Mind” remains in the dark, literally, throughout the story. This is the a brief, interesting glimpse into the mind of a nameless temporary insomniac – someone who wakes up in the middle of the night and has difficulty falling back asleep. It is written in the second-person – an unusual tense for any literary work, and certainly peculiar among Hawthorne’s tales. It is almost as if Hawthorne is presenting a “how-to” article, as if he is saying, “This is what to do if you ever get to a point where you cannot sleep at night.” Even in this short work, there are spiritual themes that are apparent. Upon waking, it is noted that: You find yourself, for a single instant, wide awake in that realm of illusions, whither sleep has been the passport, and behold its ghostly inhabitants and wondrous scenery , with a perception of their strangeness, such as you never attain while the dream is undisturbed (Hawthorne 200). The only thing that is seen clearly at this dark hour is “that one glorious star! Its beams are distinguishable from the rest,” and it throws shadows across the room that are even more brilliant than the ones caused by the moonlight (201). Even the brightness of the starlight cannot keep the dark thoughts from forming, however: You think how the dead are lying in their cold shrouds and narrow coffins, through the drear winter of the grave, and cannot persuade your fancy that they neither shrink nor shiver … In the depths of every heart, there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the lights, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide (Hawthorne 202). Then finally, you are able to fall asleep again: Your spirit has departed, and strays like a free citizen, among the people of a shadowy world, beholding strange sights, yet without wonder or dismay. So calm, perhaps, will be the final change; so undisturbed, as if among familiar things, the entrance of the soul to its Eternal home! (204) This story presents what could be considered a condensed version of all of Hawthorne’s fiction, at least as far as religious and psychological symbolism are concerned. Hawthorne regarded symbolism and suggestiveness as the most worthy aspects of art (Brown 165), and human thoughts and religious beliefs are the two aspects of human existence that are most open to interpretation. It is no wonder that Hawthorne used these themes so often in his writings. Hawthorne, in these short stories, describes common experiences with psychological and spiritual struggles, and he does so with a skill that clearly corroborates his status as a literary master and genius. Works Cited Brown, Clarence A. “The Aesthetics of Romanticism.” The Achievement of American Criticism: Representative Selections from Three Hundred Years of American Criticism. New York: The Ronald Press, 1954: 149-182. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birth-Mark.” Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches. New York: Library of America, 1982: 764-780 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Haunted Mind.” Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches. New York: Library of America, 1982: 200-204 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches. New York: Library of America, 1982: 371-384. Rosenberg, Liz. “The Best That Earth Could Offer: ‘The Birth-Mark,’ A Newlywed’s Story. Studies in Short Fiction Volume 30, Issue 2, 1993: 147-153. Read More