Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a romantic writer, who used symbolism to make stories effect each person differently and to leave his stories open for interpretation. Hawthorn uses symbols in Young Goodman Brown, The Birthmark, and Rappacinni's Daughter to give a deeper meaning to each story.
Goodman Brown’s wife, faith is a symbol of faith. She symbolizes faith in God. When Goodman Brown tries to leave for his errand at night his wife explains, ““prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeard of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights…show more content… This man symbolizes the devil. “But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light" (American Dreams 193). The devil was holding a staff, which looked like a snake. This image links back to the story of Adam and Eve. The devil appears to them as a serpent, which, encourages them to sin. In this story, the devil want to fill Goodman Brown with evil. This story uses Young Goodman Brown to show that any body can lose faith in God.
In he birthmark, the birthmark represent mortality. “Masculine observers, if the birthmark did not heighten their admiration, contented themselves with wishing it away, that the world might possess one living specimen of ideal loveliness without the semblance of a flaw" (American Dream 164). Hawthorne decides to get the beautiful girl a birthmark to show no one is perfect. This birthmark shows that we are human.
In conclusion, Young Goodman Brown, The Birthmark, and Rappacinni's Daughter Hawthorne uses symbolism to give people a personal connection to his work. These symbols are used to show that we are human, and that we are subject to sin and death. No matter who you are or where you
