Every great story ever written has a deep meaning and many literary elements buried within it. If the reader merely surface- read the story they may or may not like it, but when read in depth, they learn to appreciate it and the author. In the short stories "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "Young Goodman Brown", Nathaniel Hawthorne displays a negative attitude towards life in two altogether gloomy stories through the manipulation of the characters and the setting.

To show his literal approach in these two stories I must first show his very obvious manipulation of the protagonist. Hawthorne takes his protagonists in both stories (Beatrice and Goodman Brown) and makes them the victim of some greater, higher power (the devil). Doctor Rappaccini's obsession with his work became his top priority over everything else. "`He would

sacrifice human life, his own among the rest, or whatever else was dearest to...