Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthrone

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Table of Contents

Quotations
Qualities
Questions
Work Cited

Quotations

The most compelling quote from “Young Goodman Brown” is probably the following: “Depending upon one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue was not all a dream. Now, are ye undeceived? Evil is the nature of mankind (Hawthorne, p. 408).” The Devil is trying to persuade the main character that the world as he sees it through the moral lens is an illusion. Evil, however, is the reality that every person will have to face. Another quotation that captures the reader’s attention is: “With Heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the Devil! (Hawthorne, p. 409)” Goodman Brown rejects the worldview perpetuated by the Devil and calls for the Higher Power (Heaven) to help him. Interestingly enough, Faith can be interpreted ambiguously – literally and as the name of his wife. In the second case, Brown might mean that the bond that he has with his wife is what makes him persistent in opposing evil.

Qualities

The story by Hawthorne includes six essential elements of fiction: character, plot, point of view, setting, style, and themes. The main character is young Goodman Brown, a puritan who moved to the New World with his wife. The plot is built around his journey into a mysterious forest – the main setting in this literary piece. While the story is written in the third person, the reader has access to Brown’s point of view and can empathize with his feelings. The style is intentionally gothic and grotesque insofar as the themes discussed – temptation, loss of faith, and madness.

Questions

“Young Goodman Brown” raises many questions that remain unanswered and, therefore, are open to interpretation. The reader cannot tell precisely whether what Brown encountered in the forest was real, or he merely dreamed it. There is some evidence that the vision that Goodman Brown had was nothing but a dream. Throughout his journey, his perception of the surroundings is indistinct and lacks detail. When Brown meets an old traveler, he realizes certain similarities between them, which may mean that the protagonist met his subconscious self in his dream. Another question that compels the reader to develop a deeper understanding of the story is whether the Devil himself made Brown hallucinate the entire encounter. The testing of faith is a common theme in Protestantism, which makes this explanation feasible.

Work Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Compact ninth ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015. 405-414. Print.

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Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthrone

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