hawthornes pride of intellect
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Hawthorns Pride of Intellect Many of Hawthorne's
characters wrap themselves in a pride of intellect. The
charactersbecome victims of their pride and consequently suffer.
Goodman Brown, from "Young GoodmanBrown" and Hooper, from "The
Minister's Black Veil" are two characters that suffer from a prideof
intellect. Their pride causes them similar problems and they end up living
similar lives, althoughthey came from different 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 thathe is above everybody else because he has
this understanding. This is what causes the majorseparation between
Hooper and society. After Hooper dawns the veil he can no longer
function oract as a normal person, because of this feeling of superiority.
His perception of an ultimate humanisolation leaves him the man most
isolated in what Hawthorne describes as that saddest of allprisons, his
own heart . . . "(The Minister's Black Veil,228). The veil affects all parts of
his life,his fiance leaves him and he can 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, suspected
andeven feared by his congregation"(Minister's Black Veil, 228).
Goodman Brown suffers the samefate because he also has a feeling of
superiority over the rest of the village. He attains this feelingafter he sees
all the people that he though were good and pure participating in satanic
rituals in theforest. He looses all faith in the community and feels as
though he is above them because he wasable to resist the devil. The
lack or trust trusting that Goodman Brown had separated him from
thecommunity because he was a strong Puritan and felt as though he
could not associate devilworshipers. "Brown, despairing and embittered,
belongs neither to the Devil's party nor to the onlyother life-sustaining
cause he knows that of the Puritan faith and the
Puritancommunity"(Levy,119). Hooper and Goodman Brown's pride of
intellect cause them to loose a loved one and theirkind and loving nature.
Hooper drives his fiance Elizabeth away by wearing the veil.
Elizabethsees how Hooper is separating himself and it scares her away
from their purposed marriage. "Hooper's fiancee, seems at first unawed
by the veil. To her it is merely a cloth that hides the faceshe most
delights to see. But, like a sudden twilight in the air, Elizabeth suddenly
senses theunapproachable inner isolation of the man who wears it, and
its' terrors fall upon her, too"(TheMinister's Black Veil,228). As a result of
Hooper pride, he looses his loving and kind nature. "Hooper is shunned
and even feared by the others in their times of health and
happiness"(TheMinister's Black Veil,228). He concentrates so much on
the negative aspects of people that herefuses to see the good in them.
"He makes the dark side of people the whole truth of humanexistence.
His own kind and loving nature is lost for all"(The Minister's Black
Veil,228). Goodman Brown also looses someone very close to him. He
separates himself from his wifeFaith. This is a result of Goodman
Brown's pride. He felt so strongly that he was the onlyinnocent person
that he could not trust anybody else including Faith, his apparently
religiouslydevote wife. When Goodman Brown saw Faith in the forest
(Hawthorne, 178) she became justlike the other townsman. "He now
knows that Faith's voice has been mingled with the otherfamiliar tones,
heard daily at Salem village"(Levy,118). Goodman Brown's loving nature
is alsolost due to his pride. He becomes separates himself so much that
he can no longer hold a lovingrelationship with Faith like he did early in
the story(Hawthorne,165). Hooper from "The Minister's Black Veil" and
Goodman Brown from "Young GoodmanBrown" both suffer similar fates
from their pride of intellect. It caused them to be drasticallyseparated
from society, and to loose loved ones and their loving nature. Their pride
of intellectchanged their whole lives. It can be seen as a cloak that the
characters try to wrap themselves in toescape human nature and
mankind. It is obvious that the characters did not consider or were
notaware of the penalties of their intellectual pride.
