Symbolism in Hawthornes free essay sample

Symbolism is the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships. In both of Hawthornes short stories The Ministers Black Veil and The Birthmark show symbolism, The Ministers Black Veil symbolizes sin and strong will; The Birthmark symbolizes amour love and imperfection. The Ministers Black Veil is a story about a well-liked Minister in a small town named Mr. Hooper. As the story progresses Parson Hooper, a looked up to citizen and great preacher begins to wear a black veil that covers his face. The congregation of his church and people around town became curious, distraught, and somewhat afraid of the black veil he wore across his face and why a man of his stature would do such a thing. What did he do? What was he hiding? Throughout the story the veil stayed on and these questions were asked, the people became Judgmental of the preacher and wondered if his sin was so bad that he didnt want his face seen in church. We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolism in Hawthornes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page One thing that caught my attention was how uch ruckus this little black veil had caused. He couldnt walk out in public with out causing a scene, children would run away and scream, men and women would turn there heads, and stare at him like the man had a plague. His wife even ended up leaving him because she was frightened of what he was hiding or what he had done that caused him to put on a black veil. To the townspeople the black veil is a symbol for sin and what evil Mr. Hooper could have done to hide his face in sight of the Lord. I mean, the people didnt even take the time to ask the man why he chose to wear it r if his spiritual well-being was 0k. Instead they assumed the worst, talk about him behind his back and make the situation ten times worse then it actually was, maybe he was trying out a new fashion statement for all we know. To me Mr. Hooper was a very strong willed individual and this is symbolized in this story, because not once did he back down from his decision of wearing the black veil even though the entire town even his wife was against the man. Like wise The Birthmark shows a lot of symbolism such as Amour love and imperfection. In this story there is a drop dead orgeous young lady by the name of Georgiana, and by the way Hawthorne describes her, shes a perfect ten, except for one birthmark that exist on the side of her face. Despite what you might think Georgiana loves her birthmark, it is what made her unique and imperfect, because nobody is perfect so she embraces it. Georgiana is married toa man named Aylmer, and hes pretty much a big selfish dick. One day he comes home and asks Georgiana what she thought about removing the birthmark because it shocks him every time he looks at her beautiful face. Aylmer is selfish nough to ask if he could remove it and doesnt even think of the consequences of what might happen after surgery, or considered that Georgiana was 0k with her small imperfection. Aylmer finally convinces Georgiana to have the surgery to try and remove the birthmark. Test after test Georgiana sees that Aylmer is working relentlessly to remove her imperfection and hopes that if he succeeds then he will love her endlessly as much as she loves him. She has the surgery and after she awakes the birthmark is no longer on ner tace. Aylmer is ecstatic that his experiment ad worked, Georgiana sees how happy he that she is now perfect in his eyes but has nothing to say expect for Poor Aylmer because she know she is dying. The symbolism in this short story is that there is nothing perfect on this earth and by removing the imperfection Aylmer also removed Georgiana from the world. It was through Georgianas Amour love (deep compassionate love) for Aylmer that she was willing to go to the ends of the earth for him that he would share that same love for her even if it meant she had to die for him to realize it.