Beginning of Essay
Nathaniel Hawthorne, a master of American fiction, often utilizes dreams within the annals of his writings to penetrate, explore and express his perceptions of the complex moral and spiritual conflicts that plague mankind. His clever, yet crucial purpose for usi ....

Middle of Essay
.... true mastery of observation regarding the human soul. An examination of Hawthorne's own narrative in his short story, The Birthmark, published in 1850 during the latter part of the period of Puritanism expands his observations of mankind with keen insight. Truth often finds its way to the mind close-muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks with uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we practice an unconscious self-deception, during our waking moments. (par.15) The prophetic statement was made by Hawthorne to open the reader's mind and perhaps inject an introspective glimpse of his perspective that dreams do indeed contain p ....