Can you explain what this quote means to you?

Question

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true."-------Nathaniel Hawthorne

Answer 1

Nathaniel Hawthorne, the sensitive 19th-century American writer, dwelt much on the discrepancy between how people appear to be and what they actually are. He seems to have thought that this was partly because New England Puritanism, in which he was steeped and of which he could be probingly critical, emphasised personal sanctity and righteousness in an almost rigid way, with the result that some cracked under the strain and turned to the things which secretly tempted them. In "Young Goodman Brown," one of his short stories, Brown becomes convinced that everyone around him, however saintly they may seem to be, has in fact given himself over to the Devil. What finally saves him is his wife Faith. Puritanism bred such a morbid preoccupation with holiness and sin that some went over to the other side. in his masterpiece, "The Scarlet Letter," the brilliant clergyman Arthur Dimmesdale has had an extra-marital relationship with the married Hester Prynne but will not own the relationship in public, where he is the dazzling and pious minister of religion. It is only when he finally does ackowledge it that he feels a new and fresh energy flow into him. Eliminating the schism between what you seem to be and what you really are frees you from prison. As for the passage you have quoted, Hawthorne believes that if you wear a mask in public and take it off only in private, you will finally be bewildered as to the real You: Are you as you have led the public to believe you are or as you know yourself to be? That question becomes more and more difficult to resolve. Stevenson in Jekyll and Hyde and Oscar Wilde in Dorian Grey brought other perspectives to this problem.

Answer 2

First, Ronald Reagan was famous for loving Jelly Beans. Second, he had a sense of humor. Third, it's popular to make up a quote along the lines of "you can tell a lot about a person by the way he......" There are tons of these kinds of "wisdoms". Reagan probably wasn't serious about gauging a person's character by how they eat jelly beans. It's kind-of funny, because like the posters above, if you take it seriously, you really can come up with answers.

Answer 3

It means if you are one way to yourself (in how you think) yet another way around people (in your actions which are the oppisite) then which person is really you.

Take a preacher for example. In the church & to others he is a becon to the community. He truly helps the homeless, people in need. WIll give you the shirt off his back. Yet behind the scenes he pays for sex, cheats on taxes, pockets money from the church. Is this a good man doing evil, or a evil man doing good?

Answer 4

Nice thought!

I think it means that man must be true to himself. If he pretends as something else then he eventually becomes that and it may hurt him harder. When that happenes, he realises - hey wait a min I am not like that so he starts thinking.

Thanks - It has given me also some food for thought to be honest!

Answer 5

This means that if you lie so good you eventually begin to believe in that lie. its sorta like a murderer he kills and deceives to a point that he cares no more because he has lied to others and to himself by making people think he is not that of a murderer

Answer 6

don't b e two faced. acting a certain way infront of others and another way when your with yourself is only lying to yourself. you should be true to yourself and live only ONE life or otherwise you wont know who you are or what your purpose in life is

Answer 7

you cant be 2 faced to different ppl because you will eventually slip up

Answer 8

If you try to fool everyone forever, you will eventually begin to fool yourself.

Answer 9

oh what tangled webs we weave. if you feign your personality for too long, you'll begin to forget who you actually are.

Answer 10

if you pretend to be someone other than who you are you will eventually lose yourself