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Essay / Similar themes in The Funeral of Roger Malvin and The...
In "The Funeral of Roger Malvin" and "The Minister's Black Veil", Nathaniel Hawthorne centralizes the themes of sin, guilt and repentance. Both are very set in terms of what defines sin and, in turn, what would constitute an action that leaves an opening for forgiveness, and both leave many questions unanswered in the story being told. The main question for us then becomes that of applicability. Does either story contain a message, if so, what? Considering both, they may indeed contain a message, but perhaps that message is not one that Hawthorne himself might have imagined. In this article I will discuss the themes of guilt, sin, repentance and how Hawthorne developed them in both stories. By first considering “The Funeral of Roger Malvin,” the reader is immediately thrown off balance in terms of presenting the context of the story. history. A battle has been fought and won. This, in the introduction, is presented in a way when Hawthorne tells us that “The battle, though so fatal to those who fought, was not unfortunate in its consequences for the country; for it broke the strength of a tribe and led to the peace which subsisted for several succeeding years” (20). In this lack of empathy for Native Americans protecting their own homeland, we may realize early on that we are dealing with a writer whose sensibilities we ourselves may not share. As the story progresses, this tends to be confirmed. Two men, Reuben Bourne and Roger Malvin, survived the battle and are trying to return home. Both are injured. As they stop in a forest near “…a strong young sapling stood…”, Malvin begs Bourne to abandon it and run away (20). Men know each other and in the beginning...... middle of paper ......wthorne has a message or lesson for us and he delivers his message or lesson in his own way, as he did his protagonist. in both stories as the culprit. Its purpose is to reveal something about immorality and people have sin, guilt, shame and need to repent. Sin, Guilt and Shame, in Bourne's case, a person who has broken his vow, suffers from guilt. on the other hand, the sin, the guilt, the shame, in Mr. Hooper's case, especially the mask, is unbelievable that Mr. Hooper wears the mask and he didn't take it off even when he is dying because of the sins of the people. In both stories, we cannot accept Elizabeth's sacrifice, nor that of Cyrus. We would have been more moral of Mr. Hooper to lift his mask for Elizabeth and give her an explanation. We also see Hawthorne's stories as illustrating a moral lesson, one that Hawthorne may never have intended.