Hawthorne Transcendentalism in Hawthorne's "Birthmark," Term Paper

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35). The suggestion implicit in the confession is that the Minister is no different from anyone except that he is showing in an exterior way the inward disposition of his soul: it is stained with sin and is in need of saving. "This veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes" (par. 31).

The veil also gives the Minister a priestly aspect that transforms him into a "better clergyman" -- just as the priests of Christendom wore their own especial garb -- which differentiated them from the laity whom they served. Indeed, he becomes known as Father Hooper in the Puritan village -- a title that would have been given to a Catholic priest in medieval times: the black veil becomes a symbol of death to the world. It is a symbol of life transcendent: of spiritual growth. The spirit of transcendence in Hawthorne's stories is best stated by Father Hooper thus:

"Why do you tremble at me alone?" cried he, turning his veiled face round the circle of pale spectators. "Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! On every visage a Black Veil!" (par. 3rd to last).

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The veil is described as being an extension of his aspect and his relation to God: before whom he trembles (again, the idea of fear and trembling) just as children tremble before his veil: the priest becomes a symbol of the Deity -- an alter Christus as Christendom understood it. Hawthorne's transcendentalism is Catholic -- and it is no surprise that his daughter Rose Hawthorne would become a Catholic nun.

In conclusion, Hawthorne's stories evoke a transcendental sense that is medieval rather than modern, that is Catholic more than it is Emersonian. Hawthorne's sense of transcendence as it appears in his short stories depends upon the grace of God more than it does upon the Self. Hawthorne says not to "trust thyself," as Emerson espoused, but to trust God only.

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