Isolation In The Minister's Black Veil By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s stories, a major character faces a common theme of isolation within their lifetime. This theme of isolation can cause a person to act differently. Hawthorne himself experienced a feeling of isolation in his lifetime due to his great shyness towards other people. At the age of four, Hawthorne’s father died. His mother and sisters often isolated themselves in their rooms, which had an effect on him and his writing. After graduating, he spent nearly twelve years with his mother in seclusion. This may have influenced the theme of isolation throughout his stories because he knew what it was like to be isolated, and the feeling it brought upon someone.
In The Minister's Black Veil, Mr. Hooper wears a black veil over
Rappaccini keeps his daughter, Beatrice, secluded in his garden where she is full of poison. He thinks by doing this, he would be protecting her from the evils in the world. Some townspeople believe he sees other people as science experiments, rather than actual human beings. Although he may see his daughter as his daughter, an actual human being, it seems as though he sees her as a science experiment as well. By turning Beatrice poisonous, he isolates her from the rest of the world. Hawthorne stated, “You have heard of this daughter, whom all the young men in Padua are wild about, though not half a dozen have ever had the good hap to see her face.” - The Professor (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/english/f1124y-001/resourc es/Rappaccinis_Daughter.pdf). Isolating someone from society can cause them to act differently and/or strangely towards others because they don’t know differently. We see this portrayed in Rappaccini's Daughter. By isolating Beatrice from society, she became different and it caused her to act differently towards Giovanni. Because Dr. Rappaccini isolated his daughter from society to try to save her from the evil of the world, it shows the theme of isolation and how much of an impact it can have on a