Jan 6, 2010

The Minister's Black Veil: A Paradigm | What Do I Read Next?

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's ‘‘Young Goodman Brown’’ (1835), the title character witnesses what appears to be a witches' sabbath, at which he recognizes several notable people from his hometown. His experience is more illusory than real, but afterward, Young Goodman Brown shies away from the evil he perceives in the townspeople, an evil which may be his own sense of guilt projected onto others.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850), a tale of Puritan hypocrisy and repression, relates the story of Hester Prynne, who is accused of adultery and is forced to wear...