Hawthornes Characters: Pride Of Intellect :: essays research papers

Hawthornes Characters Pride of IntellectMany of Hawthornes characters wrap themselves in a fleece of intellect.The characters become victims of their conceit and consequently suffer. Goodman chocolate-brown, from "Young Goodman Brown" and Hooper, from "The Ministers shadowy 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 different backgrounds.Hooper and Goodman Brown both become isolated from society. Hooper had arevelation, and he feels that he genuinely understands human nature and sin.However, he believes that he is above everybody else because he has thisunderstanding. This is what causes the major(ip) separation between Hooper andsociety. After Hooper dawns the veil he can no longer function or act as a usual person, because of this feeling of superiority. His perception of anultimate human isolation leaves him the man approximately isolated i n what Hawthornedescribes as that saddest of all prisons, his own heart . . . "(The Ministers total darkness Veil,228). The veil affects all parts of his life, his fiance leaves himand he can no longer relate to his congregation the same way. "As a resoluteness ofwearing the veil, Hooper becomes a man apart, isolated from love and sympathy,suspected and plain feared by his congregation"(Ministers Black Veil, 228).Goodman Brown suffers the same fate because he also has a feeling of superiorityover the rest 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 community and feels as though he is abovethem because he was able to resist the devil. The lack or religious belief trusting thatGoodman Brown had separated him from the community because he was a wetPuritan and felt as though he could not helper devil worshipers. "Brown,despairing and em bittered, belongs neither to the Devils party nor to the onlyother critical 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 lovedone and their cast and loving nature. Hooper drives his fiance Elizabeth awayby 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 cloth that hides the manifestation 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