GUILT AND JUDGEMENT

 Running head: GUILT AND JUDGEMENT 1
Guilt and Judgement in Roger Malvin’s Burial
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GUILT AND JUDGEMENT 2
Guilt and Judgement in Roger Malvin’s Burial
Roger Malvin’s Burial, a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is about a young
man named Reuben who escapes from a battle with his girlfriend’s wounded father.
They try to make their way to a settlement, but the old man, Roger Malvin, is too injured
to survive the trip. He tells his companion to leave him to die in the woods. Reuben is
reluctant and at first refuses, but finally he concedes. He is instructed to marry the
man’s daughter, tell her about his death, and return with her to give him a proper burial
(Hawthorne, 2015). However, Reuben is wracked with a guilt. This paper is to study
how guilt and judgement can influence a person’s life.
When the main character gets back home, he does not tell of his abandoning the
old man, but rather states that he was killed in the battle. He is, however, filled with
shame for not honoring the old man’s wishes. It consequently turns him into a man of
harsh temper and a hard countenance. He begets a son named Cyrus with his wife
Dorcas Malvin. He inherits the old man’s farm and becomes successful, but his fortunes
are later reversed. He and his family depart to start afresh elsewhere, but they arrive at
the place of his father-in-law’s death, and there he accidentally shoots his son.
Ironically, while he regrets the loss of his son, he feels that the burden of his guilt has
finally been lifted and that his sin of not fulfilling the wishes of the dead has been
purged.
Two of the major themes in the short story are guilt and regret. The author is
particularly successful in bringing these out through Reuben, who engenders the bitter
consequences of having to live a lie. He is ashamed of both the fact that he did not stay
with his father-in-law and the fact that he did not have the courage to own up to what he 
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did or rather did not do. In the story, Reuben is almost driven to insanity by his feelings
of guilt and regret. Eventually, his deeds manifest themselves in his deteriorating
psychological state. He becomes irritable, selfish, and mean to the very people he is
supposed to love. He feels separated from the rest of the world, which affects his
management of the farm and his marriage. Reuben is transformed into a sad man,
which culminates in his financial failure. However, the author makes it clear that his
character is not the only cause of the farm’s deterioration. He says that, simply put, the
world does not go very well with him (Hawthorne, 2015). He uses the character of
Reuben to demonstrate the nature of America and the frontier, as well as human
relationships and the societal expectations of men.
In the scene where he abandons his father-in-law, Reuben does what anyone
would have considered the most logical thing to do. By leaving the old man, he is both
obeying him and respecting his last wishes. Malvin was unaware that his death would
turn out to be a lonely and painful one out there in the wilderness, but he did not wish to
have the young man’s blood on his soul. Reuben initially refuses to abandon the old
man, and even when he does so reluctantly, he seems to cling to the hope that the man
would somehow survive. He leaves a collection of roots and herbs and ties a
handkerchief to a bough above the tree so that he or future rescuers would know where
to find Malvin. These actions sound logical enough, but the young man still refused to
recount the true events out of shame for not doing the “right thing”. In this way, the
author uses Reuben to help the reader re-examine societal feelings about heroism and
dutifulness. When men go to war, they are expected either to return victorious or to be
mourned as heroes. Running away from battles, or challenges for that matter, could be 
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considered as cowardice, irrespective of the circumstances. Reuben is aware of the fact
that no matter how convincing his story is, many people would still see a person who
abandoned an old man on the battlefield to die and went on to inherit his land and wed
his daughter. It is unlikely that Reuben expects to receive any sympathy for respecting
the dead man’s wishes. In addition, he also feels guilty of the fact that he did actually
leave him to die, although the action was in honor of his wishes. In fact, he left because,
as they both knew, he would have a better chance of surviving alone than with the old
man dragging behind him.
Although the author is not very explicit, there is an underlying theme of judgment,
which is underpinned by the fact that Reuben is ultimately punished for his inaction.
However, this raises two key questions. First, is he right in his superstitions? Secondly,
did his son die because of a curse from the old man because Reuben had never fulfilled
his dying wish? The story, like man