Flaws in Hawthorne's Short Stories Grace O'Connor 11th Grade

Throughout his works Young Goodman Brown, The Minister’s Black Veil, and The Birth-Mark, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to show that all humans are inherently flawed and are sinful by nature, and teaches the lesson that you can not obsess over it or try to defeat the nature of our natural imperfections because it will lead to self destruction. Each story has symbols that represent mankind’s innate flaws, such as the important people in Goodman Browns’s life that are part of the Devil’s community, the veil, and the birthmark. Through each of these symbols, the characters Goodman Brown, the Minister, and Aylmer recognize that everyone is naturally flawed, and cannot let this knowledge go. Knowing this affects them deeply and causes each of them to end up living sad and lonely lives. Hawthorne uses these stories to teach us not to obsess over the fact that everyone is naturally flawed as these characters did.

In Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne uses the characters that Goodman Brown sees at the Devil’s congregation as symbols of revered people that are naturally sinful in order to show that everyone is inherently flawed. Goodman Brown’s reaction to seeing this serves as a lesson that obsessing over the natural fact that all...