Hawthornes Characters: Pride Of Intellect :: essays research papers

Hawthornes Characters Pride of IntellectMany of Hawthornes characters wrap themselves in a superbia of intellect.The characters become victims of their pride and consequently suffer. Good humanness brownish, from "Young Goodman Brown" and Hooper, from "The Ministers Black Veil"are two characters that suffer from a pride of intellect. Their pride causesthem similar problems and they end up living similar lives, although they camefrom polar backgrounds.Hooper and Goodman Brown both become isolated from society. Hooper had arevelation, and he feels that he truly understands human nature and sin.However, he believes that he is above everybody else because he has thisunderstanding. This is what causes the major separation between Hooper andsociety. After Hooper dawns the veil he lowlife no longer function or act as anormal person, because of this feeling of superiority. His perception of anultimate human isolation leaves him the man most isolated in what Hawthornedescr ibes as that saddest of all prisons, his own substance . . . "(The MinistersBlack Veil,228). The veil affects all parts of his life, his fiance leaves himand he chamberpot no longer relate to his congregation the same way. "As a result ofwearing the veil, Hooper becomes a man apart, isolated from love and sympathy, pretend and even feared by his congregation"(Ministers Black Veil, 228).Goodman Brown suffers the same quite a little because he also has a feeling of superiorityover the counterbalance of the village. He attains this feeling after he sees all thepeople that he though were good and pure participating in satanic rituals in theforest. He looses all faith in the corporation and feels as though he is abovethem because he was able to resist the devil. The lack or trust trusting thatGoodman Brown had separated him from the community because he was a strongPuritan and felt as though he could non associate devil worshipers. "Brown,despairing and embittered, belongs neither to the Devils party nor to the onlyformer(a) life-sustaining cause he knows--that of the Puritan faith and the Puritancommunity"(Levy,119).Hooper and Goodman Browns pride of intellect cause them to loose a loved star and their kind and loving nature. Hooper drives his fiance Elizabeth outsideby wearing the veil. Elizabeth sees how Hooper is separating himself and itscares her away from their purposed marriage. "Hoopers fiancee, seems at firstunawed by the veil. To her it is merely a framework that hides the face she mostdelights to see. But, like a sudden twilight in the air, Elizabeth suddenlysenses the unapproachable inner isolation of the man who wears it, and its