A Comparison of The Ministers Black Veil and the Birthmark Both of these stories revolve around a lot of symbolism. These stories, since they really don't make a lot of sense on their own, force the reader to look deeper in an attempt to understand the ideas that Hawthorne tries to get across. The first and most evident symbol is the faces of the people. Georgiana has the birthmark if the shape of a hand, and the black veil that Hooper wore. I think that Hawthorne chooses to focus on the peoples faces because a person"'"s face is pretty much the center of their being. The face is where a person shows the majority of their emotions, and it holds the brain, which well, is where everything starts at. So, a person"'"s face is very important. Another prevalent symbol to me is the idea of sin. In The Ministers Black Veil Hooper just suddenly one day shows up to church wearing a veil. At first the people are sort of angered by it. People soon start to flock to his congregation to view the spectacle, and go so far as to test their '"'courage'"' by seeing who will go and talk to him. I think that the veil could represent sin. In The Ministers Black Veil Hooper was either trying to hide his sin from the people so that they could not judge him, which is god"'"s job, or maybe he was trying to protecting his self from the sins of the people. In the end of The Ministers Black Veil Hooper dies, and sees his congregation all wearing black veils, which would probably hint that maybe it represented the sin in all of us. In The Birthmark Georgiana"'"s birthmark could represent, as some religions believe, the original sin which is bestowed on all by the '"'hand'"' of god. But, unlike Hooper, Georgiana could not help her markings. ... ... middle of paper ... ...iana, almost perfect, is still mortal, and carries the burden of original sin. This is the puritan idea that every human is sinful. The Birthmark is in the shape of a hand because it is the work of God, done by God's own hand and will. In short, Alymer tries to play God by ridding Georgiana of her original sin, and make a perfect being. But no mortal can be perfect, and no mortal can not have original sin. Thus when the experiment works, Georgiana achieves perfection and can no longer be a mortal, thus she dies. Moral of the story: You cannot improve on God's creation. Alymer is a sinner because he tries to be god by trying to improve on God's creation. He is successful in improving georgiana, but is not successful in improving God's creation, because Georgiana can no longer live as a mortal, and she then dies - thus Alymer is unsuccessful.
Alyss concludes, “This marriage would please her mother, for her family’s sake” (Beddor 171). Alyss acts as a people pleaser when she accepts Leopold’s proposal. She doesn’t love Leopold, but accepts his proposal only to make her mother happy. Alyss has decided to no longer stand out and become like “every women” (Beddor 191). Alyss desires to conform and submit to ideas of society. She becomes normal and no longer stands out like odd Alyss. Mrs. Liddell exclaims “ The dress she had purchased months before, but which Alyss had always refused to wear it because she feared it would make her look normal”, Alyss now wears it ( Beddor 151). Alyss starts to dress like everyone in England. She no longer looks like a former Wonderlander, but becomes by all appearances a proper young
Throughout the book Alyce proves to be a very empathetic and caring young girl. One of the times Alyce shows her empathy, the Midwife was trying to help a woman give birth, but the lady was having some trouble and Jane tried so much that in the end she just gave up to go help someone else she knew would pay her more, deciding to abandon the woman who was in need of help. Alyce decided that it wasn’t fair, and that a lady shouldn’t be left like that when she needed help, “The memory of the proud, frightened, Joan of a moment ago kept her there. And she asked herself, What would the midwife so if she were here? … Alyce took a deep breath and returned to Joan’s side” (59), so she decided to help Joan even though the midwife was too selfish to do so. Alyce also respects the people who don’t respect her, so when the village boys that had recently stopped teasing her were doing something that would have definitely gotten them in trouble if the midwife had seen them, she knew they’d have been in trouble so she went up to the midwife and talked to her to hold her off so the boys could get away. Alyce likes helping people that need help when no one else will help them, for example when she’s found a job at an inn after she’s given up her career as a midwife’s apprentice and a few people ride to the inn asking for help because they claim the lord’s wife is being eaten by a stomach worm but Alyce immediately realizes the lady is pregnant and decides to help her even though she’s a bit uncertain at first because of her recent failure.
When she enters London, she changes into her own person who makes her own decisions. Alyss says, “Yes, it was a solution: Give up her so-called ridiculous, fantastical delusions and enter wholeheartedly into the world around her. Become just like everyone else.” (Beddor 89) Alyss was first being thought of as a crazy person with a story that no one believed. Then, she finally gave in to the people around her and agrees with them. She thinks that being like “everyone else” is the solution to her problem. When Alyss sees Dodge for the first time in 13 years, she thinks, “It couldn’t have been him. The man with the scars. It couldn’t have. He didn’t exist.” (Beddor 116) Since Alyss had become free from her fantasy world, she was overwhelmed when she first saw Dodge. Even though she had forgotten her past life, the memory of Dodge was still there. Her mixed emotions and memories of Dodge caused internal conflict within Alyss: “And as she torpedoed up toward the surface, having worked impossibly hard to convince herself that the place about to be seen by her disbelieving eyes didn’t exist, she said the man’s name- Dodge Anders- and water filled her lungs.” (Beddor 120) Alyss tried convincing herself Wonderland did not exist, as she went through the Pool of Tears, but she knew it was real. The only reason she let go of Wonderland is because she wanted to fit in with her other world.
To prove that she is loyal to White imagination here is a quote from the book. “But she had caught it; the crystal cube was safe.” This quote represents Alyss saving the looking glass maze cube from hitting the ground and cracking. If it cracked it would be broken forever, never allowing the queens that come after Alyss to go through the maze. Another example of Alyss’ loyalty would be when she went into the maze to become the warrior queen that she had to become to save the queendom. “Do i kill or...but what’s to be done with her if I don’t? She’ll pose a threat as long as she lives.” In this quote Alyss struggles with how to handle her aunt. She shows loyalty to the queendom by thinking about getting rid of her aunt for the better of the land. She said that she would pose a threat as long as she lives. What that means is that it would be threatening the queendom if she does not kill her. This shows she is pretty loyal to white imagination/queendom.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne are both 1700s Puritan works of literature with similarities, as well as differences, from their theme to tone and to what type of literary work they are. Edwards and Hawthorne are both expressing the topics of how people are all sinners, especially in regards to their congregation and that questions their congregation’s faith.
Throughout his literary endeavors, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to present a certain theme that pertains to human nature and life. In his works, The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne uses symbolism to present a common theme pertaining to religion; that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" illustrates the dangers of secret sin. Allowing guilt from things done in the past, things that cannot be changed, can ruin lives. The life of the secret-carrier will be devastated, along with the lives of that person's most loved ones. Hawthorne uses various types of figurative language in his works to portray his message. "The Minister's Black Veil” is no exception; Hawthorne uses symbolism and suggestion to add depth and mystery.
Following a vivid dream in which Aylmer surgically removes Georgiana’s birthmark, Aylmer assures Georgiana with extreme faith in himself that he can heal their woes by removing the birthmark. The birthmark serves as a symbol for the uncleanliness of the sin that could be in her; not that she has been terribly unrighteous, but the birthmark, like sin, is an imperfection that he wishes to purify. I think the birthmark is a part of Georgiana that Aylmer cannot understand or explain, so he condemns it as sinful. It is possible that Aylmer may feel that what man cannot fathom is not of good nature. The idea that man associates evil with things he does not understand shows the close-mindedness that humans continue to carry through to the next generations through socialization. It could be a defense mechanism that we use to avoid physical or social harm. The shape of the birthmark also adds to its sin-like nature due to the negative co...
Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for some of his well-written literary pieces. Some of Hawthorne’s literary works is the “The Minister 's Black Veil” and The Scarlet Letter. Within these literary pieces, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to shape the perspectives of the community members on how they see an individual wearing the symbol and how the person wearing the symbol feels externally and internally within. Symbols can mean many things, it may or may not change over time. It’s up to one to let a symbol define them or not, it they allow
Throughout his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals character through the use of imagery and metaphor.
Hawthorne was also a symbolist who had enormous respect for the material world and for common sense reality. Hawthorne usually established a neutral territory somewhere between the real world and fairy land, where the actual and imaginary meet. His ultimate purpose was always "to open an intercourse with the world" and out of this came symbolism (Kaul 66). For example, the cross -hybridization of the plants in the garden is called "adultery (Newman 267).
Some of the main symbols of the novel are The Hanging Wall, the colours of the clothing of the different women and the Eyes. All these symbols add different features to the story which are important. Some add fear, suspense, and overall they all add an important understanding of the story line. Margaret Atwood, was able to successfully create symbols which added depth and helped with the understanding of the novel. With these symbols she used in the novel she proved the importance and the positive effects strong symbolism can have with plot and character
Nathaniel Hawthorne did not do much explaining when it came to the characters involved in "The Birthmark". He did not portray the main characters: Aylmer, Georgiana, and Ambidab as human beings, but rather as symbols. While analyzing the story "The Birthmark", I have achieved some great insight of the author 's articulate writing style; especially, his style of making characters have symbolic meaning. In this story, Hawthorne uses his characters to symbolize specific things. In this ambiguous, short story, the three characters each symbolize Science, Beauty, and Nature. Each character represents an unusual force that has equally worked against each other.
In Hawthorne's use of symbols in The Scarlet Letter, we observe the author making one of his most distinctive and significant contributions to the growth of American fiction. Indeed this novel is usually regarded as the first symbolic novel to be published in the United States ( Dibble, p. 77 ) . Hawthorne attempts to spread a revelation into imagined characters and scenes, to transfer the realization of the symbols into a warmth that will animate the entire...
In Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, there is a broad array of symbolism throughout the entire book. The purpose of using symbolism versus writing out the meaning making an extraordinarily boring and bland book is that it makes the reader have to think more and delve into the deeper meaning of things. Hawthorne also uses symbolism to convey a much deeper mental image of his words to the audience. He uses an vast array of colors, unique characters and grave sin to portray an deeper unconvoluted meaning to the audience; also, by using symbolism, Hawthorne manages to broaden the knowledge and imaginary context of The Scarlet Letter to allow people relate to the novel through the scarlet letter.