Roger Malvins Burial

The Story Roger Malvin’s Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne contains a strong focus on the themes of guilt and sin. The main character Reuben Bourne was heading home wounded from battle through the woods with his soon to be father in law, Roger Malvin. Malvin then made the decision that he could not travel any farther without hindering the chance of Reuben’s survival, as well as his own. The two men quarreled for quite a while before Reuben finally agreed to Malvin’s request, to continue on alone, and send back help to him as soon as he came across someone. However, Reuben failed to keep his promise once he returned, and never sent someone back to find and help Malvin. Reuben Bourne continued life dragged down by an immense amount of guilt and feeling of sin because of the lies he had told and the promises he had broken. At the end of the story Reuben’s guilt and sin is finally released of him when he returns to the burial spot of Roger Malvin, however, he is forced to go through a great amount of emotional travel before he can reach the point of forgiveness. Reuben Bourne lied to Malvin and continued to lie to all of him family and friends. He told his new wife, the daughter of Malvin, that he stayed by her father until the moment of death and then buried him. He also lied to Malvin when he promised to send someone back to help him or bury his body; he did neither of those things. “His one secret thought, became like a chain, binding down his spirit, and, like a serpent, gnawing into his heart; and he was transformed into a sad and downcast, yet irritable man”(Hawthorne, 8). The guilt and lies took over Reuben’s life and transformed him into a completely different person. He no longer had a relationship with God, did not have a loving or wholesome relationship with his wife, and became overcome by such a great amount of guilt that the voice of Roger Malvin and vision of the grown man constantly ran through his mind. The only article in Rueben’s life that