Through reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," "The Minister's Black Veil," "The May-Pole of Merry Mount," and "Young Goodman Brown," we see that Hawthorne discloses any thoughts he may have concerning his views on community versus the individual. In all five works, we see that Hawthorne, in his own sometimes-bizarre way, fully explains himself on what he feels can influence whether the community or the individual is key. Hawthorne demonstrates to us that even though the individual remains a strong presence, the community still brings factors into play such as religious or moral values and economic status to overtake him.
             In all five chosen works of Hawthorne's you will find evidence of a community rising up in order to cancel out the individual. In "Young Goodman Brown" the main character undergoes a tremendous change of thought after his excursion in the woods. Brown then felt that as an individual he had been betrayed by a community that he thought was his Puritan family. In "The Minister's Black Veil" Mr. Hooper was looked on as hiding an evil deed because of the black veil he wore over his face. His community never sought to understand the true meaning behind the veil, but only gossiped about what evil he was actually hiding. Hawthorne desires to show that a strong community often leads to gaining victory over the individual. These two examples illustrate a definite success for the community.
             How can the issue of moral or religious restrictions allow a community to triumph over an individual? Hawthorne gives us several examples of how the nineteenth century people were very determined to fully discipline anyone who stepped out of the Puritan boundaries. We witness this first hand in The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne, a woman who has stepped out of the bounds of marriage, has been accused of having an adulteress affair with another man. To make matters worse, she has also conceived his child. In Hester's trial the...