Hawthorne's Light and Dark Imagery

Nathaniel Hawthorne used imagery of light and darkness within his stories to reflect ideas of good and evil. Hawthorne can be regarded as a moral symbolist, one who uses any kind of symbolism and shows how morals, ideals, and values can be taught and displayed through these symbols. One type of symbolism found in many of Hawthorne's stories is the concept of light and dark, and how it relates with the relationship of good and evil. These light and dark symbols can be found specifically in some of Hawthorne's most famous stories like: Young Goodman Brown, The Minister's Black Veil, The Maypole of Merry Mount, and The Ambitious Guest.

Young Goodman Brown is an outstanding story to use to help illustrate Hawthorne's light and dark themes. This stories consistent imagery is the easiest form of symbolism to understand. Right in the beginning of the story, sunset is mentioned, which can be interpreted as his intelligence and goodness of heart, along with his wife's pink ribbon, which represents her purity and innocence. The overhanging dark clouds tip off the adventure that is going to occur.

As Goodman Brown continues on his adventure, he indicates the increasing darkness in which the forest creates. Brown worries about the sounds in the forest, and pictures the possibility of hostile Indians or the devil himself to be present in the forest. Young Goodman Brown states, "The whole forest was peopled with frightening sounds-the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians." (Hawthorne. 594) These descriptions give the forest the evil, dark, and gloomy feel, and set the stage for the devil's communion in the wilderness.

The most significant part of the story is this communion, or meeting which produces the most intensive and direct imagery relating to darkness and evil. The destruction of faith, and the personal reputation of Brown's neighbors ruin him on the inside filling him with darkness and gloom. The surrounding area of this wilderness meeting which includes the surrounding and overwhelming dark trees, an "unhallowed alter," mention of "dark figures," and strange voices from the darkness. "There was a scream, drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter." (Hawthorne. 594) The wilderness meeting portrays the creepy, dark, nightmare of the evil it represents.

Another story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that depicts images of light and dark is The Minister's Black Veil. The focal point of the entire story is the black veil that Mr. Hooper, the reverend, wears. The veil that he wears is a direct image of darkness, it symbolizes the gloom, sorrow, and "secret sins," that he wears in a physical form. Hawthorne also states how the veil restrains him from love and sympathy, it is a barrier that separates him from his relations with other people, especially Elizabeth and the people who attend his sermons in church. "It had separated him from a cheerful brotherhood and a woman's love, and kept him in the saddest of all prisons, his own heart; and still it lay upon his face, as if to deepen the gloom of his darksome chamber, and shade him from the sunshine of eternity." (Hawthorne. 605)

The black veil also caters toward Hawthorne's concept of a "masked society," in how everyone wears a mask that hides their true identity and being. Furthermore, the veil also represents an emblem of power over the people who were in agony for sins, and regarded him with dread. When Hooper wore this veil, his actions were also notably darker, "Its gloom, indeed, enabled him to sympathize with all