Analysis Of The Minister's Black Veil And Young Goodman Brown

The year is 1729 and the Puritans are going about their daily life of strict, religious life. Nathaniel hawthorne is not part of this crowd but he likes to pick fun at their lifestyle. In "The Minister 's Black Veil" and "Young Goodman Brown" he does just that. In both these stories he makes fun of their idea that everything is a sign, and has a double meaning. These allegories that Hawthorne uses may confuse the average reader. In both stories there is something that has a meaning based on reality, and a more mystical meaning. The word faith, when used in "Young Goodman Brown" can either mean Faith, as in the name of Goodman 's wife, or faith in God. The black veil, is it just a veil, or does it have a deeper, darker meaning of sin? The premiss of "Young Goodman Brown" is that Mr. Brown leaves his town and his wife Faith and travels through the forest, where he is tempted by the Devil and eventually caves in once he sees man others worshipping satan. When he falls into the pressure of the Devil he looses his faith in God. When Goodman was leaving town he and his wife Faith, expressed a long period of goodbyes. "And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street,"(Hawthorne). Clearly by this quote Faith is an actual human being, but the next quote is a little misleading, "My love and my Faith, of

"Hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil."(Hawthorne). This veil clearly exists as a physical object, it hangs over his face and dims the world around him. This veil was very suspicious and made everyone wonder what the reason behind it was. "Such was the effect of thus simple piece of crape, that more than one women of delicate nerves was forced to leave."(Hawthorne). The community was in awe with the crape, and as Hawthorne writes, it even disturbed some