I saw much of what Michael Lancaster and Margaret Dukes wrote about in their posts, but I primarily saw Hawthorne taking this subject of sin a slightly different direction. From the subject matter of both of these texts, I believe that Hawthorne was speaking out against what he saw as rampant hypocrisy in the church of his day.
Starting with The Minister's Veil, it soon became apparent that the minister himself had a great sin to hide. He refuses to confess it to God, and go forward living a life of joy in the forgiveness and grace given by Jesus on the cross. Instead, he attempts to cover it up, and atone for it on his one through some sort of lonely suffering. The people of the town were both convicted by his hidden sin, and on the other hand condemnatory of the minister, even though they themselves had sins that the would never reveal to the world.
Secondly in the story of Young Goodman Brown, they hypocrisy of the leaders of the church is clearly evident, much more blatantly so than in the previous story. The deacons and the ministers were revealed to actually be consorting with the devil. The old lady that had taught the protagonist his catechism was, in fact, a witch. I believe it was the deacon that was quoted as saying he would rather attend that night's evil gathering than attend any sort of sunday service. While young goodman brown eventually resisted the urge to join the evil ranks of the devil, he was haunted for the rest of his life by the knew knowledge that he had of the secret evil inside everyone. He snatched the young children away from the old catechism lady, and shunned the minister and the deacons. He could not even trust his wife, because he did not know what had happened to her that night, or what her secret sin even was.
This recurring theme is one that I believe many of us can resonate with. The question is, we will be part of the problem, or part of the solution?
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