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The night during which Ethan Brand returns to his lime kiln, pierced occasionally by the light of the kiln’s flames, symbolizes the limited nature of human knowledge. Personality provides one of these limits: where the darkness of night inspired the sensitive and thoughtful young Ethan Brand to muse on the human soul’s capacity for darkness, his replacement—the practical and unimaginative Bartram—sees the night as merely another time he needs to work to ensure the proper conversion of his lime batch. And just as the kiln’s flames illuminate the surrounding clearing imperfectly and in short bursts, everyone’s perceptions are limited by their own beliefs and experiences. For instance, Brand believes himself to be a uniquely damned sinner because of his intellectual pride, separation from humanity, and loss of reverence for God. Yet Bartram and the Village Doctor both believe that Brand is insane, and that his sins are ordinary.
The kiln’s limited ability to illuminate—it can only show what is nearby—further suggests that Brand’s understanding of himself and of human nature is limited and therefore incorrect. In the story’s 19th-century setting, Esther’s circus career indicates a loss of virtue and social status, which would seem to support Brand’s belief that he’s ruined her soul. Yet in the reports that come back to the village, she seems to be healthy and happy—perhaps not as ruined as Brand fears and still capable of redemption. Similarly, the darkness allows Brand to voice doubts about his own sinful status. At several moments, his contact with Bartram and the tavern patrons makes him worry that he’s delusional. But his confession of the Unpardonable Sin happens in the dark of night, which reflects the fact that he’s keeping himself in metaphorical darkness about the truth in order to reinforce his sense of self. Sitting in the darkness, he reiterates his beliefs before committing suicide in the kiln. This fate prevents him from witnessing the daylight, which reveals a charming world protected by God. The story thus suggests that Brand’s beliefs about human nature and his own special sinfulness wouldn’t have held up in the light of day.
Light and Darkness Quotes in Ethan Brand
The Ethan Brand quotes below all refer to the symbol of Light and Darkness. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Ethan Brand
Quotes
Bartram, the lime-burner, a rough, heavy-looking man, begrimed with charcoal, sat watching his kiln at nightfall, while his little son played at building houses with the scattered fragments of marble, when, on the hill-side below them, they heard a roar of laughter, not mirthful, but slow, and even solemn, like a wind shaking the boughs of the forest.
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Within the furnace were seen the curling and riotous flames, and the burning marble, almost molten with the intensity of heat; while without, the reflection of the fire quivered on the dark intricacy of the surrounding forest, and showed in the foreground a bright and ruddy little picture of the hut, the spring beside its door, the athletic and coal-begrimed figure of the lime-burner, and the half-frightened child, shrinking into the protection of his father’s shadow.
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The early sunshine was already pouring its gold upon the mountaintops, and though the valleys were still in shadow, they smiled cheerfully in the promise of the bright day that was hastening onward. The village, completely shut in by hills, which swelled away gently about it, looked as if it had rested peacefully in the great hand of Providence. Every dwelling was distinctly visible; the little spires of the two churches pointed upwards, and caught the fore-glimmering of brightness from the sun-gilt skies upon their gilded weathercocks.
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Light and Darkness Symbol Timeline in Ethan Brand
The timeline below shows where the symbol Light and Darkness appears in Ethan Brand. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Ethan Brand
At twilight, while Bartram and his son Joe tend their isolated lime kiln on Mount Graylock, they...
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...door, the half-moon and the final pink clouds of sunset become visible again in the night sky.
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...says it is the kind of homecoming he expects. Bartram opens the kiln door for light, revealing a tall, thin, nondescript man in the plain clothes and heavy shoes of a...
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...on Bartram like a shadow. The legends say that Brand talked with Satan in the light of the kiln; while Bartram used to think this was an entertaining tale, he finds...
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...talking and boisterously laughing tavern-goers. When they enter the clearing, Bartram opens the kiln door slightly to provide light.
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...the crowd soon disperses. Only Bartram, Joe, and Brand remain in the darkness of the night and the vast, old forest. Joe thinks that the forest must be holding its breath...
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...Ethan Brand’s death, a terrible laughter disturbs the sleeping Bartram and Joe, giving them both nightmares. Even when they wake up in the morning, it still seems like they can hear...
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...in the dawn; the valleys are still in shadow but seem cheerful at the approaching light. The village lies peacefully in the valley, as if “in the hollow of the great...
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