Appearance vs. Reality in Hawthornes Writings
...birthmark only contributed to her beauty. Reality for most of the general population was that the birthmark was a nice feature, however for Aylmer reality was that the birthmark was absolutely hideous. “We hesitate to term [the birthmark] a defect or a beauty” (148). Aylmer hesitates to term the birthmark because although he thinks it is a defect, his reality has been influenced by others, and most of the population felt that the birthmark was in fact a beauty. The realities of others influenced Aylmer’s reality. In the beginning of the story Georgiana shared the reality of the general population, but through talking with Aylmer she began to see his perception of reality and in the end discarded her former view of reality and shared Aylmer’s perception of reality. Everything we do, see, hear, feel, taste, and experience influences our perception of reality. Aylmer wanted to change Georgiana to be perfect in his reality. Yet perfection in his reality would not be the same as perfection in anyone else’s reality. If she had survived the procedure it very well may have been the case that the people in the town felt the same way about her without the birthmark that Aylmer felt when she did have it. This makes one wonder, if two people are looking at the same object, does one think its green while the other thinks it is blue? Or does one think it is a cube while the other thinks it is a sphere? Then if they discuss the object and the first person says, “It is a nice green cube,” does the second person hear, “It is a nice blue sphere,” because in the second persons perception of reality the object is a blue sphere and in their reality they experience (hear, see, touch, taste, etc.) what they think is their reality? Young Goodman Brown’s traveling companion for a period of time is actually the devil in disguise. Although Hawthorne doesn’t flat out say it, there are plenty of hints at the fact. “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!” (166). However it is uncertain whether or not Young Goodman Brown actually realizes that the man is the devil. Later in the story Goodman Brown is horrified at the dark ceremony taking place before his eyes, yet he did go to the dark ceremony, or was it just a dream? If it was in fact real, then the reader must remember that Goodman Brown did go very much out of his way on order to be at the dark ceremony. But the question is why was he there? Most likely, he was there to find out the truth about the other townspeople. Truth is a major aspect of appearances and reality. Does one ever really know the truth about anything? It is possible for one to have strong factual evidence in one’s own reality that may lead to an opinion which one may be able to backup with facts from their reality, but there is most likely no universal truth that works in everyone’s individual reality. This is the case because if an individual actually believes in something, then it is true in their reality. The worlds greatest liar George Costanza (a character from Seinfeld, which is actually a reality in and of itself) once said, “Remember Jerry, if you believe it, its not a lie.” When Young Goodman Brown awakens, he is not sure whether he really saw a dark ceremony which everyone in town participated in, or whether he was just dreaming. “The mind is in a sad state when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot confine her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers them to break forth, affrighting this actual life with secrets that perchance belong to a deeper one” (151). Whether dreaming or not, his experience had a profound impact on him and changed the rest of his life for the worse. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful if not desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream” (179). When we are sleeping, our world of dreams is our reality and sometimes our dreams are so real that just like Young Goodman Brown, oftentimes we encounter difficulty distingui...