Paul w. Miller in “Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown: Cynicism or Meliorism” states that critics have shared the feeling that Hawthorne’s story intends to express the move from the relationship between God and man that is brokered through faith to the state of evil taking charge resulting to the damnation of the human soul. He is not sure whether they think Hawthorne uses Goodman Brown to represent humanity as a whole or only the men who share the same sentiments as himself (255).
Miller says that if Young Goodman Brown represents the whole of humanity, then this should be an indication of the cynicism held by the author Hawthorne during the time he composed this story. He goes on to indicate that if Young Goodman Brown was a representative of a segment of people who share sentiments similar to his, then his creator must have been pessimistic.
In analyzing the words of Henry James, Miller says that the picture of Young Goodman Brown created by Hawthorne is not in any way intended to reflect his views about humankind. He says that it should however be viewed as simply work of creativity and nothing more. He however disagrees with James view by stating that unless other critics can analyze any work of art and the hidden meaning extracted, the work never qualifies not for a good art since this is what defines its quality.
According to Miller, whether or not the creation of Young Goodman Brown is a representation of humanity depends on whether or not there is human representation in the whole story. This he says would determine if Young Goodman Brown is the representative of humanity or not considering whether Hawthorne has a sample of humanity in the story. Miller argues that if there were a representative sample of humanity in the story, then it is possible that Brown would not be a representative of all humans (258).
Miller specifies that if in the story Brown moves from being faithful to be being evil, it is a clear indication strategically the story by Hawthorne targets to represent humanity. On the other hand if Brown is simply deluded by the devil with hallucinations and seeing false figures in the forest, it is then clear that he is not a representative of all humans but of a few who hold suspicions on others as he does.
There are critics who view Young Goodman Brown as skeptical according to Miller. These include Richard Forgie, who then based on this concludes that Brown is a representative of the entire humanity. McKeithan’s view is different considering his conclusion brought out by Miller that Brown cannot pass for a representative of all men or the other people in the story.
Miller concludes “…the witches that Brown saw in the forest were real” (260). He continues to justify Brown’s misanthropic view of the other people. His devotion to evil bars him to be regarded as a representative of all the other humans.
Miller states the need to replace Hawthorne’s explanation of witch trials as containing that puritan “rigorism” by a virtue, which starts with the confession of human weaknesses. Miller concludes by addressing how one need not to consider Brown’s story as based on his view on humanity but what the society can influence on a man such as Brown.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story Young Goodman Brown, there exists sufficient evidence to prove that death and birth can be symbolized through events, characters and objects. These symbols do not only highlight the main themes in the short story, but also represent Hawthorne’s political views and religions beliefs. The main characters who symbolize death and birth are Faith (Young Goodman Brown’s wife) and a grave man whom Brown meets in the forest.
The forest is depicted being gloomy dreary and evil. Additionally, Faith symbolizes political conservativeness as she clings to conservative Christianity throughout. Such conservativeness ensures that she does not suffer eternal condemnation like her husband Young Goodman Brown who is meant to represent the political hypocrites like Governor Howard Dean who changed views to suit their political whims.
Furthermore, the serpent like features that the grave man has is also a symbol of death. In addition, the departure of Young Goodman Brown from his wife’s comfortable house into the darkness of the forest symbolizes the birth of Brown’s new life. It also represents the departure from popular conservativeness to the unpopular liberal mindedness, which provokes a conflict of a person against the entire mainstream of society.
Therefore, characters, objects and events in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown do not only symbolize death and birth, but also reveal prevailing political views and religious beliefs. Hawthorne’s religious beliefs are evident in the short story and feature death and birth.
This concept of death and birth is seen from the beginning of the story due to the characters, such as Faith, Young Goodman Brown’s wife. Faith is symbol of the puritan Christian life. Faith like President Bush “relied too much on faith to make decisions” (Facts on File News Services para 7) when she pleads Brown to “put off his journey and sleep in his own bed until sunrise” (Hawthorne 7). however, her requests are unsuccessful.
This is a sign of Faith’s relevance as a life sustaining figure in Brown’s life; Faith’s religious beliefs seem to convince her that the journey will mark Brown’s death. It also signifies Hawthorne’s belief that Christianity is the foundation of successful life. Once in the forest, Brown meets a grave man adorned in “grave and decent attire… and had a staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake” (Hawthorne 10).
The black snake is a token of the evil in the society and also signifies departure from mainstream conservative views. Like abortion which many of the conservative Christians oppose (Facts on File News Services para 26- 28), the black snake is a mark of liberal mindedness.
Additionally, Brown confesses to the grave man that his “father… and his father before him… were a race of honest men and good Christians” (Hawthorne 12). This signifies that Hawthorne believes Christianity to be the only way to live an honest and fruitful life. This encounter further implies that Brown’s ancestors had been devoted Christians and significantly marks the death of Christian beliefs.
Throughout the night, Brown is experiencing disturbing visions. That’s why in the morning when he goes back home to his wife Faith, Brown’s Christian spirit had died. In church, Brown realizes the extent of his spiritual death when the preaching makes no meaning to him, and he labels the preacher as a blasphemer. Brown’s spiritual death also symbolizes his physical death. His spiritual death is a precursor to his physical one.
When Brown was “borne to his grave a hoary corpse”, the mourners “carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom” (Hawthorne 26). Therefore Hawthorne asserts that the loss of ones religious identify is the beginning of one’s spiritual and the ultimate physical death. Brown chooses to forsake his Christian faith and live a faithless life when he decides to visit the forest for an “evil purpose” (Hawthorne 7).
Unlike Senator Kerry who chose to be “on God’s side” despite of being criticized for being too liberal (Facts on File News Services para 24), Brown chooses to be on the devil’s side when he decides to go to the forest with an evil aim. This is the birth of Brown’s faithless life through which his eventual death is symbolized. Brown takes “a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest… with narrow path creeping through, and closed immediately behind…” (Hawthorne 9).
Furthermore, Brown knows that he is in the midst of “unseen multitudes” (Hawthorne 7) implying that there are unseen evil forces in the forest. Like Senator Kerry who forsakes some of the Catholic beliefs and is against campaigns for abortion (Facts on File News Services para 10), Brown decides to renounce his Christian leads to his spiritual and physical death..
It is imperative to state that Hawthorne alludes to the fact that evil and death exist in the real world. Human beings are carriers, and regardless people believing in God and serving Him, this evil lives even among those who confess to Christianity. The only way of escaping such a situation is through chaste followership of Christian belief. Hawthorne attains this by comparing the appearance of the grave man to Brown.
In Hawthorne’s words, the grave man “bore a considerable resemblance to Brown more in expression than in feature” (Hawthorne 10). Symbolically, the grave man portrays gloom and evil as a real personification of Death. It can be argued from this assertion that Brown’s resemblance to the grave man reflects evil and death which exist in a real world and which human beings unknowingly posses.
In addition, the grave man tries to appeal to Brown not to be afraid since Brown’s relatives as well as other Christians “were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight” (Hawthorne 13). The grave man can be likened to Senator Kerry.
Like Senator Kerry who forsook his Christian beliefs propagating atrocious acts such as abortion (Facts on File News Services para 10), the grave man helped members of Brown’s family, such as Brown’s father and grandfather, as well as other Christians who had lived in chastity to commit acts of atrocity. Senator Kerry’s as well as the grave man’s actions are symbols of the death of Christianity that also illustrate Hawthorne’s belief that evil and religion exist side by side, and that the most chaste people can avoid evil.
The use of symbols also illustrates Hawthorne’s political views in the United States and the relationship between politics and religion. Various symbols within Young Goodman Brown reveal the dominant political ideologies and what a significant role religion, especially Christianity, plays in American politics.
In the recent years, “U.S. politicians have become increasingly vocal about their religious beliefs” (Facts on File News Services para 10). However, such a vocalization of their religious inclination has lead to much criticism or the decline of some of politicians’ political life. Like Senator Kerry who vocalized antireligious views which lead to “denial of communion” (Facts on File News Services para 34) with the church and the society, Brown’s anti Christian stance results to him in being considered an outcast.
As it is explained above, this is the beginning of Brown’s death. Similarly, Senator Kerry’s support of pro-choice views, which are in opposition to mainstream catholism views on life, led to his eventual political death. While Hawthorne’s views on the relationship between religion and politics are not explicit in Young Goodman Brown, the implications are evident when analyzing the latest occurrences of Vis a Vis in America.
Events, objects and characters of Young Goodman Brown express, albeit implicitly, that Hawthorne sees conservative and liberal political views in a conflict. In Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, there are characters that explicitly support conservative views, but are inwardly democratic.
Hawthorne achieves this through the numerous outwardly chaste characters such as Brown’s father and grandfather with whom the grave man had been “good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk had they had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight” (Hawthorne 13).
Unlike Senator Kerry who explicitly expressed liberal views on religion, these characters chose to remain overtly conservative (staunch Christians), but secretly held liberal anti Christian views by being friends with the grave man. Furthermore, Brown explicitly asserts, “With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!”. Before this statement, he was in the forest and pledged the devil his allegiance to him.
These characters lived in spiritual conflict. This expresses Hawthorne’s political assertions that the society is overtly conservative, and that those who try to pursuit the liberal politics risk to be condemned by the society. Furthermore, this fact also exposes the political hypocrisy within the society where politicians like Governor Howard Dean who embraced Christianity to win governorship (Facts on File News Services para 23) both accept and deny religion to suit their political agenda.
The use of symbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story Young Goodman Brown is not only used to depict brown’s spiritual and physical death, but how dangerous it is for a person to depart from the Christian faith. Moreover, these symbols expose prevailing religious beliefs and political views. Young Goodman Brown ignores his wife’s appeals not to go to the forest at night. This marks Brown’s beginning encountering the death.
Death and birth are not explicitly stated by alluded to through events, objects as well as characters such as Faith and the grave man. Hawthorn’s symbols have also been illuminated through real life figures such as President Bush, Senator Kerry and others. Like most of the conservative Republicans, Faith and other chaste Christians, such as Brown’s father and grandfather, choose to abide by conservative Christianity.
However, liberal mindedness is revealed through Brown, and like other real life figures such as Senator Kerry who suffers eternal condemnation as a result of adopting liberal views. Therefore, through these symbols, Hawthorne makes overt references on the perils of living a faithless life as well. He also highlights the conflict between liberalism and conservativeness as well as how religion influences modern politics.
Works Cited
Facts on File News Services. Religion in Politics: Issues & Controversies. Facts on File News Services, 2010. Web.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. New Jersey: Wildside Press LLC, 2005. Print.
In essence, most novels, myths, fairy tales, or movies are similar in that they have specific adventures rife with various trials, obstacles, and conflicts the central heroes should endure to reach particular goals. In this regard, Joseph Campbell developed his universal template of stories, named the monomyth, or the Hero’s Journey, that contains twelve stages that generally fall under three acts: Departure, Initiation, and Return. Therefore, this paper aims at providing the analysis and comparison of two pieces of literature, namely, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. Despite distinct underlying themes of these works, both main characters become involved in risky and mysterious ventures that have different outcomes herewith.
Comparison
According to Campbell’s monomyth, the first stage of the story is The Ordinary World where heroes lead their typical lives before the upcoming adventures. The first work contains scarce details about Goodman Brown’s previous life, only indicating that he has married his beloved wife Faith for three months. It is impossible to identify what Brown deals with, his features and character, but it can be assumed that he is a simple, average man. Concerning the Call To Adventure, Hawthorne also does not describe the circumstances or the clear reasons that urge the main Goodman to venture forth. The narration only specifies a mysterious errand in the forest, which should be completed by this night (Hawthorne 1). Simultaneously, “The Alchemist” sufficiently recounts the main hero named Santiago who enjoys the humble life of a shepherd and only desires to have a little wine and a book in his handbag. The Journey’s second element is explicitly revealed via a recurring weird dream where a child promises a hidden treasure in the Egyptian pyramids.
In both stories, the main heroes experience The Refusal of the Call because of various doubts. In “Young Goodman Brown,” despite his eagerness, the character begins feeling a surging fear as he approaches the woods. Moreover, Faith’s doubts and apprehensions amplify Brown’s anxiety and even make him stop and turn his face back. Nevertheless, he proceeds with his journey and meets an older fellow-traveler, a demonic figure, dressed similarly and resembling Brown (Hawthorne 2). This older man serves as a Mentor whose goal is to encourage and guide the central hero. Believing the traveler and following him, Goodman crosses The Threshold that separates The Special World from The Ordinary World and signifies Brown’s commitment to the adventure. In this respect, Zapf notes that “Young Goodman Brown” comprises many elements belonging to “Faust” by Goethe, including encountering a demonic force and its role in the journey (28).
In “The Alchemist,” the refusal is more related to Santiago’s habit and desire of living as a shepherd than to concrete frights. In contrast to “Young Goodman Brown,” this work does not have obvious mentors, but some personages direct and prompt Santiago his way, such as a Gypsy woman, Melchizedek, and Englishman. Crossing The Threshold begins when Santiago listens to Melchizedek’s advice, sells his sheep, and travels to Africa for his treasure. Kumari indicates that Santiago’s decision to embark on Egypt is a turning point, due to which he overcome his feeling of inferiority stipulated by his previous life (90). Santiago becomes resolute in pursuing his destiny, which is the main idea of a Personal Legend introduced by Melchizedek. It is worth also noting that while in “The Alchemist,” crossing The Threshold portends something joyful and fortune, in “Young Goodman Brown,” it bodes entirely otherwise.
It is evident that after intersecting a starting point, heroes are highly likely to face different tests, hardships, and allies. In the first story, Brown’s core trials are directly connected with his religious belief. In the forest, Brown first meets Goody Cloyse who taught him catechism when he was a boy. Goodman Brown is dazed to see her and lurks in the woods, but his impression becomes even more enhanced when Cloyse greets the traveler as the demon and titles him “my worship” (Hawthorne 4). Although this scene should undermine Brown’s Faith, he endures the test. Then, Brown encounters riders, namely, the minister and Deacon Gookin speaking about “deviltry” and a young woman planned to be inducted. His faith wavers when during praying, he observes a gloomy cloud and hears only ominous giggle and murmur from above, including Faith’s voices. These intense, soulful experiences can signify the stage named Approach to the Inmost Cave when the main hero struggles with his/her fears.
If in the first story, trials are more linked to abstract notions, that is, beliefs and feelings, in “The Alchemist,” tests have a tangible, material character. In particular, on his arrival to Africa, Santiago is soon robbed by a thief and abandoned without help. Because of this costly failure, the central character “approaches to the inmost cave,” reflecting on rejecting his dream and seeking enough money to return home. However, remembering Melchizedek’s words about personal destiny, he manages to surmount his despondency and then join a caravan heading to Egypt. Santiago also faces another tricky trial when he, accompanied by the Englishman, reaches the oasis and meets a gorgeous girl named Fatima (Coelho 39). He falls in love with her so much that he proposes marriage and forgets about his treasure. However, Fatima helps him realize that genuine love never thwarts seeking a personal dream. At this moment, contrary to “Young Goodman Brown,” love in the novel inspires, not bewilders the main hero.
Goodman Brown gradually reaches his Supreme Ordeal when he finds himself near a blazing rock, around which the worshipping assembly, comprising townspeople and priests, gathered. At the ceremony, Brown sees his wife Faith and the demonic figure announcing, “Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race” (Hawthorne 9). Hearing the demon’s speech, Brown pleads Faith to pray but receives nothing in response. After the Supreme Ordeal, the high-point of the hero’s path, where everything precious and intimate is at stake, and irrespective of the results, the life will be not like before, the hero gains his Reward. Nevertheless, in this phase, the hero feels that something essential, deep in the soul, has broken, thereby indicating his root transformation. After the event near the rock, Brown occurs near the rock where he rested earlier. The narration does not describe the hero’s internal state, but, as the reader can discover later, Brown’s life will change dramatically, becoming much worse.
Regarding the following stages, The Road Back displays how, depressed, Goodman Brown heavily walks back to the village at sunrise. The Resurrection is not healing but more of a poisonous nature because the experience happening in the forest disrupts Brown’s ability to accept and relish his life completely. He perceives all village citizens as hypocritical and vile persons and the whole world as the pit of evil. Ellis states that by revealing Brown’s inner struggle and loss of faith, Puritan dilemmas, such as the contradiction between free will and divine foreordination or God’s mercy and irrevocable judgment, destroy many Christians’ faith (2). Overall, unlike “The Alchemist,” the end of the story is mournful and dramatic.
Santiago’s Supreme Ordeal unfolds when enduring all tests, he arrives at the Egyptian pyramids and starts delving. Suddenly, thieves attack and rob him of all his money. Santiago’s disappointment should be overwhelming since he fails to find the treasure, herewith having traveled the way replete with numerous perils. Nonetheless, he continues believing and, as a Reward, the leader of bandits tells Santiago that the treasure nearby the ruined church where he saw his initial dream. The stage The Road Back relates to returning to Andalusia, while Resurrection is the hero’s reborn. The final stage shows that Santiago finds his treasure, a chest with gold enough for a long, blissful life with Fatima.
Conclusion
In summary, the paper has examined and compared the two literature pieces, namely, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, based on Campbell’s monomyth. In essence, the two works possess all structural elements belonging to the Hero’s Journey. The core difference between these two narrations is the culminating outcomes. While the main hero of “The Alchemist” achieves his resurrection and dream, the central character of another work fails his test and loses his happiness. Besides, it is worth admitting that “Young Goodman Brown” concerns more internal experiences and religious matters, whereas “The Alchemist” raises the theme of personal destiny and dream.
Work Cited
Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. Translated by Alan R. Clarke, HarperOne, 1992.
Ellis, Robert P. “Young Goodman Brown.” Masterplots II, 2004, pp. 1-3. Literary Reference Center, Web.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Gothic Digital Series.
Kumari, Archana. “Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist – An Exploration of Individual Psychological Dimension.” Language in India, vol. 20, no. 9, 2020, pp. 19-40. Communication & Mass Media Complete, Web.
Zapf, Hubert. “The Rewriting of the Faust Myth in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.”” Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, vol. 38, no. 1, 2012, pp. 19-40. Gale Literature Resource Center. Web.
American Gothic works present a unique cultural phenomenon in the literature of North America. Namely, it is different from European Gothic since the newly emerged American Republic had not ever entered the Middle Ages period to which the Gothic literature references. Yet, the texts of American writers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries are penetrated with medieval “European myth and fantacy” (Ringel 16). American Romanticists embued their short stories with national ideas and relevant historical and cultural phenomena. Namely, themes of irrationality and anxiety dominated the economic instability period in American society, the crisis of Puritan ideals, and the sinfulness of the humans realized in mystic conditions.
As such, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s nightmarish literary world embraces the issues of “the loss of identity and the dissolution of the self” (Bendixen 38). Specifically, in “Young Goodman Brown,” the author explores the dual nature of Puritan New England people’s personalities: “freedom and democracy” value contradicting with “intolerance and persecution” practice (Bendixen 38). “Young Goodman Brown” reflects the ambiguousness of identity and the inevitability of sinfulness, the common themes of the Gothic literature of the era.
“Young Goodman Brown” presents complex ideas that underlie the work and supply nourishment for readers’ speculations. One of the literary elements that connect the story with reality and convert it into a conceivable one is the setting. Namely, the events of the short tale are placed in Salem village, remembered for its ferocious religious persecutions of the 17th century both to the modern readers and Hawthorne’s contemporaries.
Some people inhabiting the place are not entirely fictional characters but instead incorporated in the story historical figures. For example, the author includes deacon Gookin, the “moral and spiritual adviser” of the main character, and depicts him firstly as a pious man and, at the end of the narration, as a fiend, Satan’s worshipper (Hawthorne 348). Such personalities are brought to the work to summon associations with the “witchcraft trial” processes (Levine 348). However, the author uses the “external setting” to create his own fictional world and allegorical representations that Americans could understand (Levy 384). Thus, the imaginative depictions of the existing people, location, and historical events such as witch hunts are invoked to testify of the relatedness of the story to the real issues of the Gothic era America.
Next, Hawthorne constructed a plot distinctive of its growing phantasmagorical nature and mirror-like composition. The narrative begins with commonplace dialogues of a religious pair and rapidly evolves into allegorical nightmare vision. As Brown, an innocent young man, deepens into the forest with his diabolical companion, he becomes aware of the sinful deeds of his ancestors and countryman. The Devil knew Brown’s grandfather, and he made the “pitch-pine knot” of Goodman’s father (Hawthorne 347).
The story’s culmination contains the recitation of the villagers’ sins, murderous and hidden from others thoroughly, witnessed by the silent observer only. After this, the narration continues on the realistic turn of Brown’s life and his death, allowing the reader to decide on whether the forest Sabbath was a dream or reality. The most significant change of the character shown by the plot is that he “has lost his Faith, that is, his religious faith, his faith in his fellowmen, his faith in his wife” (Stoehr 400). Consequently, the well-organized plot is aimed to be confusing and yet contain the main idea of the story, which is the gloom conspiracy toward the external world.
Considering the enigmatic content of the story, determining its theme, and interpreting the author’s main idea is a tedious task, if not futile. Such authors as Levy attempted to include multiple readings in his “The Problem of Faith in “Young Goodman Brown”.” He claims that “the story is… a dream vision, a conventional allegory, and finally an inquiry into the problem of faith,” reflecting the multilayerness of the work (375).
Among the numerous religious issues of the narrative, one the most crucial and expected for the writings of the authors of the American Gothic period is the vicious determinations of the human soul. Satan proclaims that “evil is the nature of mankind,” welcoming young Brown in his community of sinners (Hawthorne 353). This act may be the initiation process that awaits every man who enters the world of choices and consequences. Humans ought to decide whether to accept their ill spiritual composition or deny the common malevolence pretending to be pious and rightful. Therefore, the thematic insertions of the story are diverse; sinfulness and acceptance of other people’s imperfectness is a vital issue depicted by the author.
Another conceptual flow of the work concerns the different aspects of faith presence in human life. More specifically, the loss of faith and concomitant trust and compassion to people are highlighted in “Young Goodman Brown.” Levy observes this theme in the depiction of “serenity,… a dehumanizing dogmatism, or to intense suffering of spirit” that leads to the decline in belief (386). The intricate spiritual experiences are unique for each person, and each human being has their own religious way. Some invert the traditional religions such as Christianity to excuse their sins and continue being with a lightened heart.
Others ignore their vicious acts or cannot fully discern them as corrupt and wicked if they follow their church recommendations. Yet another group persecutes people who live somewhat inappropriately the common standards, such as Salem “witches.” Meanwhile, Brown presents a type of personality that abandons faith due to disappointment in the community practicing it. The author depicts old Brown who “shrank from the bosom of Faith” to demonstrate the “gloom” fate of those unbelieving (Hawthorne 354). In brief, the work contains imaginative representations of distinct spiritual experiences and their consequences.
In conclusion, Hawthorne created an elaborate story that reflected the dominant cultural phenomena of his age and imaginatively interpreted the historical events. The extraordinary result of the author’s work includes multiple attempts of literary analyses and approaches to defining the theme of the story. However, “Young Goodman Brown” is a product of its epoch so that it resembles the works of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe.
Moreover, the influence of the story on Poe’s works could be observed. Thus, the tale added representation of the issues important for the writers of American Gothic literature philosophically and gave rise to the debates about them. The events such as Salem persecutions were viewed in a new light, and the Sabbath received conceptual meaning along with specifically negative connotations. Contemporary mass media may derive inspiration for horror movies from the literature of this period. Additionally, the popularity of witchery and inquisition is linked to Hawthorne’s initial source to Americans’ think tanks.
Works Cited
Bendixen, Alfred. “Romanticism and the American Gothic.” The Cambridge Companion to American Gothic, edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Cambridge UP, 2017, pp. 31–43.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, edited by Robert S. Levine et al., 9th ed., RedShelf ed., vol. 1B, W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 345–54.
Levy, Leo B. “The Problem of Faith in ‘Young Goodman Brown.’” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 74, no. 3, 1975, pp. 375–87. Web.
Ringel, Faye. “Early American Gothic (Puritan and New Republic).” The Cambridge Companion to American Gothic, edited by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Cambridge UP, 2017, pp. 15–30.
Stoehr, Taylor. “‘Young Goodman Brown’ and Hawthorne’s Theory of Mimesis.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 23, no. 4, 1969, pp. 393–412. Web.
“Young Goodman Brown” is a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The author describes the central challenges of the 17th-century Puritan community by focusing on the experience of the main hero – Goodman Brown. The loss of faith, corruption of that day society, living in the state of depravity, and questioning the dual nature of humanity are both symbolically and directly addressed in the short story. Being written almost two centuries ago, this piece of literature cannot be ignored nowadays due to the criticality of issues brought up by the author. That said, regardless of the evident theme – the contradiction between the good and the evil – Hawthorne’s story addresses other significant problems that are still relevant and critical in modern society.
As mentioned above, the central figure is a young man named Goodman Brown. The whole story is the depiction of the events that occurred during one night in Salem village in colonial America. However, the author points out that only one-night experience – either a dream or reality – can change an individual’s life and perception of their community as well as the world in general. His story begins when he leaves his wife, Faith, and heads into the forest with a secret mission. Even though she begs him to stay home, the young man does not want to give up his errand in the woods. As it turns out later, the secret errand is the meeting with Satan in the forest. As the conversation with an old man resembling a young Goodman Brown – the devil – comes to an end, the main hero remains in the woods where he becomes the witness of a wild meeting of witches. However, the most shocking revelation is that his wife, as well as the most influential people of the village including deacons, is among those who came to the woods.
The Struggle Between the Good and the Evil
The description of the wood and the central event seem superficial because no detailed portrayals of other heroes, events, or emotions are developed by the author. However, simple as it is, the short story addresses numerous underlying themes in both symbolic and direct manners. First and foremost, it is evident that the Nathaniel Hawthorne addresses the issue of the everlasting confrontation between the good and the evil. It is essential to realize that the concepts of the good and the evil are perceived from the perspective of one’s moral development. They are not portrayed as actions. Instead, they are described as an individual’s attitudes toward other people and events as well as vital life choices. To explain this statement, it is essential to recall the opening dialogue between the young man and his wife. Even though she asks him to stay at home that is a good decision, he chooses to head to the woods (Hawthorne 1). This decision is generally recognized as a wicked one because everyone in the village is aware of the events in the forest – the wilderness of witch meetings, anti-Christianity, and Satanism. The same is true about the conversation the young man had in the woods. Even though he knew that he was going to meet the devil, he headed to the errand regardless of the wickedness of his choice and its potential consequences.
His vital life choice (to meet the devil in the woods) can be viewed within the broader framework. For instance, in this case, “Young Goodman Brown” is commonly perceived as one of the versions of the Faust myth. Just like in the myth, the young man – an intellectual who knows all the postulates of Christianity and is characterized as a self-critical and self-aware individual – decides to break the rules and sell his soul to Satan to satisfy his corrupt desires. It can be as well viewed from the perspective of the everlasting conflict between following the generally accepted rules (deciding to stay at home once the wife begs the young man too) and self-exploration (going to the woods) that make up another interpretation of the Faust myth (Zapf 19-20). Even when the young man meets the devil, he is in the condition of the inner conflict because he does not know whether he should trust the old man and tie bonds with him.
The Corruption of Society
The struggle between good and evil is closely connected to other themes that are as well related to personal choices and attitudes. In this way, another evident plotline is the corruption of modern society and its weakness when it comes to demonstrating individuality. Recall the meeting of witches. Even though the story lacks detailed descriptions, it is clear that there are numerous participants of the wild event. “The weight of many voices” (Hawthorne 6) points to the fact that almost all village citizens gathered in the woods. The witch meeting is aimed at satisfying personal interests due to the direct interaction with the devil. From this perspective, it is easy to understand that the role of personal desires (a common trend in the portrayed community) is preferred over the true good and living according to the Biblical principles (daring to be individual and stand out from the crowd).
More than that, it is imperative to think of the very arrangement of the event. Even though the forest is synonymous with bewilderment and Satanism, most people are gathered there. In this case, there is no sense in finding out their motivations for visiting the woods. Instead, it is critical to recognize that the majority of people got there because the rest of the village citizens did so. It means that most decisions are made according to the publicly acceptable pattern instead of the focus on Biblical truths. From this perspective, “Young Goodman Brown” is relevant in the modern world. Even though the current-day society is not Puritan anymore, the overall desire to follow mainstream rules is still significant, while the desire to stand out from the crowd is weak. This statement can be explained by recalling the desire of the young man to “stand firm against the devil” (Hawthorne 5). Even though he proclaims that it is his goal, no steps are taken to achieve it.
At the same time, the issue of a corrupt society can be viewed from the perspective of an individual. The perception of one’s self and the realization of one’s superiority are as well at the heart of the dual message of the short story. Think of the young man’s disappointment when he saw the most influential people of the village and his beloved wife among them in the woods. “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name” (Hawthorne 6). The young man who has made the wrong decision is somehow disappointed in all people except for himself. In this case, one may question the duality of human nature and wonder how the choice to go to the woods, made by the Young Goodman, is better than that of his wife? Why is he better than the rest of the village if he is in the place he should not attend? The answer is evident – he is a sinner as well, but he has become too wicked to recognize it and seek ways to cope with his wickedness. Instead, it is easier for him to blame others rather than improve the world.
The Inevitability of Losing Innocence
Reading the short story, one may feel the change of the main hero’s mood. Even though he was frightened at the beginning of the portrayed experience, he was optimistic about his secret and nearly sacred mission. Nevertheless, the young man’s mood changes to pessimistic at the end of the story. Recall the thoughts about Faith the young man had when he dreamt of sleeping in her arms instead of making this wicked decision. However, just a second later, he realizes that his Faith is in the woods with the rest of the people. At this very moment, the young man proclaims that his Faith is lost. She is no longer sweet and innocent. Instead, she is with the group of the wicked and sinful. From this perspective, it is clear that the message of the story centers on the consequences of following the generally accepted rules. Therefore, one who is afraid to stand out and live virtuously will inevitably lose innocence and become wicked.
However, there is another question connected to the change of the main hero’s moods. Why is the dark inside (pessimism) different from the conscious choice to become corrupted? There is no difference between the two because both conscious wicked decisions and pessimism are associated with the elimination of one’s inner light and replacing it with the dark. It means that another hidden message of the story is that following the mainstream rules is inseparable from becoming emotionally dark, i.e. losing emotional innocence.
Finally, there is another challenge connected to the loss of innocence, as, in the case of the young man, losing it was inevitable. It can be explained by the fact that his belief in the divine God and Christian postulates was associated with the faith of other people as well as the trust in their innocence and moral perfection. It means that he was confident that his community was the group of Christian believers. Therefore, once he saw all of them in the woods, losing innocence (the inner light and belief in God) was the logical outcome. From this perspective, the message is that dissolving oneself in the community is inseparable from losing one’s individuality and facing the risks of becoming a member of the mainstream group, thus granting it the right to affect and drive one’s life. In this case, losing innocence and becoming dark in the inside is the possible outcome.
The Past and the Future
One more critical plotline connected to the struggle between good and evil is the connection between the past and the future. It is essential because it shapes one’s perception of these concepts and the stance on the appropriateness of vital life choices. There are several central examples to mention – the image of the devil, an old woman Goodman Brown meets when he has a walk with Satan, and details mentioned by the devil during his conversation with the young man. The devil is depicted as an old man who resembles the main hero. They are similar to a father and a son. The same clothes, a similar manner of communication, and physical resemblance point to the fact that the devil may have been the inner self of the young man. Because the central conflict is the conflict between remaining a good person (a Christian believer) and following the path of wickedness (selling his soul and making a covenant), such a portrayal of the devil may be associated with the self-image of a young man once he realizes that his choice is wrong. In this way, the past decision affects the future perception of one’s self just like the father has an impact on his son (Ronan 254).
Another instance worth mentioning is meeting an old lady that warns the young man that he is walking with the devil (Hawthorne 3). She is the woman from the righteous past, and her appearance may point to the strong connection between the past and the future. If Goodman Brown listened to the old lady (the past), his future might have taken a differing direction. At the same time, it is critical to point to the details of the conversation with the devil – his reference to the young man’s father and grandfather. He claimed that most of the man’s relatives were close to him (sold their souls to Satan). In this way, the existence of the strong bonds between the influence of one’s ancestors and an individual’s future development is evident because the desire to stand against Satan is weaker due to the pattern established in the young man’s family. This connection is as well associated with the impact of society on individual choices, but it is even more robust due to the persuasiveness of Satan’s arguments.
Symbolism and the Hidden Message of the Story
Analyzing the message of the short story, it is impossible to ignore the criticality of symbolism in delivering it. The first symbol is the young man’s wife. Her name is Faith that is a religious concept. The first impression is that the dialogue is the inner one. In this case, faith is a concept. It is supported by the referrals to God and prayers. Moreover, once the young man makes his way to the woods, he recognizes that it was Faith that kept him back so that he was late to the meeting (Hawthorne 2). In this way, faith is a symbol of religion, not just a person. Furthermore, witnessing her in the group of wicked people is another proof that faith is a symbol of believing in God. As the young man claims that his faith is lost, he indirectly points to the degenerated society. From this perspective, the author criticizes the Puritan community, the people who claim that they believe in God but serve the devil.
The name of the wife is not the only symbol chosen by the author, as there are other details associated with the main hero’s love. For instance, special focus is made on pink ribbons – the accessory Faith wore on her cap. More than that, the young man associated these pink ribbons with his wife seeing them as the symbol of innocence and purity. Nevertheless, in the night, when he heard Faith’s voice among the others, he found these pink ribbons in the woods. They were not with Faith anymore, as she has lost them, just like the young man has lost her. Losing pink ribbons is similar to eating the forbidden fruit in Eden. In this case, the motif is Biblical because it is a woman that is connected to becoming sinful. Just like Eve tempted Adam in sin and deceit, the wife’s decision to be in the forest contributed to the young man’s loss of faith (Boonyaprasop 48).
Still, not all symbols are related to the wife of the main hero. To support this argument, think of the focus on the words “young” and “old” in the description of the characters. “Young” is subconsciously associated with innocence, especially keeping in mind the peculiarities of the young man’s worldview and his belief in the virtue of all community members. On the other hand, there is the old man – the devil – who resembles the main hero with the only difference – his age. This difference in their age is the difference in the perception of the world and self-image, as “old” is synonymous with one who has already lost innocence and becomes evil and dark from the inside (Boonyaprasop 44). More than that, the focus on youth and innocence is made in the title of the short story. It points to the possible changes that may happen to the main hero.
All in all, the young man himself is a symbol. It is assumed that he is a collective image of the perfect Christian – one seeing the world from a positive perspective. However, at the same time, the young man is the representation of the criticized society and its wickedness, as, unlike the true Christian, none of the community members manages to resist the temptation and live in virtue. Also, his death is as well symbolic. It points to the fact that losing faith and innocence (becoming dark in the inside) is synonymous with death because the young man died when he lost faith in his community, saw sin around him, and could not accept the duality of the human nature, even though he was dual (Nagel 179).
Conclusion
Keeping in mind all symbols and themes addressed in the short story, the conclusion is evident – the struggle between the good and the evil is everlasting, and it is the choice of an individual to decide which side to support. This complex challenge is connected to the duality of human nature as well as the constant search for the balance between and right and the wicked. In this way, mankind is not all evil, as the devil wanted to persuade the young man. Instead, everyone is similar in their uncertainty when it comes to vital life decisions (Francis). Nevertheless, regardless of the mainstream developments, it is critical to maintain one’s individuality and live decently. It is the central message of “Young Goodman Brown” that was applicable in the 17th-century community and is still relevant today.
Works Cited
Boonyaprasop, Marina. Hawthorne’s Wilderness: Nature and Puritanism in Hawthorne’s the Scarlett Letter and ‘Young Goodman Brown.’ Anchor Academic Publishing, 2013.
Francis, David R. Haunted Bowdoin College. Haunted America, 2014. Google Books, 2017. Web.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Web.
Nagel, James. American Short Story Handbook. Wiley Blackwell, 2015.
Ronan, John. “’Young Goodman Brown’ and the Matters.” The New England Quarterly, vol. 85, no. 2, 2012, pp. 253-280.
Zapf, Hubert. “The Rewriting of the Faust Myth in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’.” Nathaniel Hawthorne Review, vol. 38, no. 1, 2012, pp. 19-40.
The short story is an art form that was first mastered by the 19th century writer Edgar Allan Poe. In perfecting this form, Poe said “If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression” (Mowery, 1997). As he tells his frequently bizarre and frightening tales, Poe presents his readers with symbol-rich imagery and descriptions based on binary oppositions to help build the suspense and horror of his tale. As Mowery explains, binary oppositions are things such as hot and cold, male and female, dark and light. “It is in the subtle shifts in our expectations of the character that tension and conflict are developed” (1997). Yet Poe was not the only author to work within the short story genre or to use the concept of binary oppositions to explore its effects on an audience or a character. This concept of impossibly conflicting viewpoints as one both loves and hates, has faith and does not, is frequently illustrated in terms of the madness that comes upon characters as they experience deep feelings that had potential to overwhelm. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, both authors employ symbolism and madness to expose the fallacy of the binary opposition.
Poe employs two primary objects in “The Tell-Tale Heart” to illustrate the cause of his narrator’s madness. The old man’s eye is the first of these symbols to appear within the text of the story. As the narrator attempts to explain why he felt led to murder, he says,
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees – very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever. (156).
Basic medical knowledge to the modern reader quickly identifies this condition as symptoms of a cataract, a film that gradually creeps over the eye of an elderly person, eventually rendering him or her blind while also changing the color of the eye to a pale bluish color. It is this encroachment that seems to so bother the narrator, “it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye” (257). “The concept of the evil eye dates back to ancient times. It was believed that those who possessed the evil eye had the power to harm people or possessions merely by looking at them” (Young, 2003: 6). The presence of the evil eye in the loved old man is the catalyst that leads to the narrator’s madness.
The other major symbol that appears in the story is announced within the title; it is the old man’s heart. The heart begins to take on its meaning just as the eye has begun to work its way out of the story. As the narrator continues to stare at the eye revealed in the small light of the lantern, the sound of the beating heart takes on substance and life. When the narrator first perceives it, he says, “there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sounds well, too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart” (158-159). This sound makes him angry again because he is forced to connect the old man’s heart, and his love, with the baleful gleam of the evil eye that has been so distracting. As this beating sounds increases its rate, the narrator begins to feel it will wake the neighbors and is incited to action. When the heart begins beating again after the murder, the reader begins to question the true source of the sound. “The narrator starts hearing the heartbeat two times, right before the killing and after the killing. The heartbeat that the narrator is hearing is the heartbeat of his own. His conscience is warning him of the consequences he may encounter if he does the deed, eventually leading the narrator to confess the crime” (Sado, 2000). The heartbeat can also be said to symbolize the love the narrator felt for the old man, which will never go away and will always haunt him/her because of the harm they did to him.
Having set things up in terms of the two symbols conflicting against one another, the narrator of the tale continues to insist that he is not mad, eventually convincing the reader this is not the case. It is seen almost at once that the incongruity of the ‘evil eye’ housed within a person that had been loved drives this caregiver to extreme distraction, pushing his/her mental state over into a madness that sought escape in whatever form it could devise. “He discloses a deep psychological confusion. Almost casually he admits lack of normal motivation … Yet in spite of this affection he says that the idea of murder ‘haunted me day and night’” (Robinson, 1965: 369). Although the rationality of the actions taken are illustrated as a means of proving the absence of madness, “If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body” (159), the macabre details delivered completely without emotion and with a simple step-by-step precision tend to hint otherwise, “The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs” (159). This casual approach to murder and the horrid butchering that occurred afterward is further accented by the narrator’s audacity of placing his own chair directly over the spot where the body was hidden as s/he talked with the officers that had come to investigate a shriek that was heard. “The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at ease” (160). As the tale ends, it becomes clear not only that the narrator is completely insane, but also that this insanity was brought about by an inability to avoid the evil eye and the guilt of having killed a loved person placed within the narrator’s care.
This same sense of madness and descent into despair as a result of an inability to find a means of compromising oppositional beliefs can be found in Nathanial Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown.” Hawthorne wrote his stories from a perspective already deeply embedded within the myth and beliefs of the Puritan world. His ancestors had landed on North American soil with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other, ready to tame the savages body and spirit. He grew up in Salem, the site of some of the most famous witch trials ever documented in this country, and his own training and upbringing were heavily influenced by many of these same belief systems. It is not surprising, then, that these ideas had a strong influence on Hawthorne’s stories and provide the foundation upon which many of these stories are built. However, while Hawthorne was strongly steeped in these ideas, his writings reveal a deep questioning of their validity and a doubt regarding the wisdom of endorsing such a strong spiritual opposition. In Puritan society, one was either an evil sinner or a saintly penitent with no room or understanding for the concept of a middle ground. Hawthorne explores the possible consequences devout belief in this opposition might have on an impressionable mind in his short story “Young Goodman Brown.” Like Poe, Hawthorne uses imagery to provide an intimate understanding of the main character’s descent into madness as a result of his inability to negotiate equally valid conflicting concepts such as good and evil.
At the opening of the story, the title character Young Goodman Brown sets off from his home at dusk with the intention of having his required conversion experience that signals the young Puritan’s transition from learner to modeler of true spiritual enlightenment in his society. “The conversion experience – a sudden realization brought about by divine intervention, a vision, or perhaps a dream – easily translates into the dream allegory of Hawthorne’s work and allows the author to use Puritan doctrine and the history of Salem to argue the merits and consequences of such a belief” (McCabe, 1998). The concept of the conversion experience was central to the Puritan society as a secular and a religious rite of passage that opened the individual to participate in the adult culture. This concept was closely tied to the central tenets of the religion as “the Puritans distinguished between ‘justification,’ or the gift of God’s grace given to the elect, and ‘sanctification,’ the holy behavior that supposedly resulted when an individual had been saved” (Campbell, 2008). This illustrates some of what Goodman Brown must have expected as he set off from his house that evening. Preparing to take his first steps into the adult male community of his spiritual and physical home, he was ready to receive the sanctification of his God and perhaps discover he himself had proven faithful enough to justify his own quick elevation within that society. Expecting to discover a profoundly deep inner faith, Hawthorne demonstrates through Brown’s progress how this conversion experience is more a kind of madness in itself, caused by the discovery that pure good is not possible and an inability to justify this with the realities of evil inherent in the human race.
Perhaps the most obvious form of symbolism Hawthorne includes in this story is Goodman Brown’s wife Faith. This young bride appears at the beginning of the tale as she begs her husband not to set out on this journey. Her warning, “may you find all well when you come back” (293), seems to indicate the peril does not apply strictly to Goodman Brown as he sets off on his journey, but for Faith as well in being left behind, alone in the darkness. This provides the reader with the sense that Goodman Brown is testing his Faith in more ways than one as he enters the forest, an idea reinforced through Hawthorne’s description as he makes his way “on his present evil purpose. He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind” (294). The most blatant indication of the danger of Brown’s journey so far comes with Goodman Brown’s response to the older gentleman when he is admonished for being late: “Faith kept me back a while” (294). Although the reader knows the younger man is referring to his wife, the name of the lady also serves to warn the reader that a pure faith such as Goodman Brown possessed prior to entering the wood would have been better off had he simply trusted to its council and remained home for the night. Through this early interaction, Hawthorne is working to show that a complete conversion to the tenets of the Puritan religion leads not to salvation as is supposed, but to an utter loss of faith as the belief in a forgiving God is incompatible with a belief in a human soul that is beyond redemption.
Exploring the concept of Faith in such an obvious way enables Hawthorne’s primary focus to remain grounded upon the Goodman’s journey as a physical symbol of the character’s descent into despair. He first meets with a character that resembles him so much in shape and form that “they might have been taken for father and son” (294). The people that Young Goodman Brown sees and hears as he makes his way to the heart of the forest further illustrate the concept that the human soul is beyond redemption, regardless of their good works performed in the light of day. First, he is told of the acquaintance his father and grandfather have had with the wily fellow met in the woods as well as given reason to doubt the goodness of the men and women Young Goodman Brown looks up to in his village life. Then the two men come upon an elderly woman walking through the woods, presumably to the same destination: “a female figure on the path, in whom Goodman Brown recognized a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser, jointly with the minister and Deacon Gookin” (295). It is his meeting, or rather the witnessing of the meeting between the good woman and his companion, that first opens Young Goodman Brown’s eyes to the idea that the people he has considered so good in his lifetime are as full of the sin and corruption that his religion professes exists in all men at the time of their birth. Despite her many good deeds in the town and her close association with everything good and honorable, Young Goodman Brown sees Goody Cloyse as a well-versed witch, the most evil creature in creation, as she associates herself with the stranger and unhesitatingly makes use of his serpentine walking stick. What becomes clear to him through this journey is that “damnation is not inherited but chosen and is redeemable through human agency,” but even “if guilt itself was escapable, brotherhood with the guilty was not” (Ziff, 1981: 142). At almost every step along the way, it seems Young Goodman Brown is about to defy the devil’s wishes and refuse to follow along the path to his conversion experience, but each time he tries, another familiar voice, shape or sign spurs him to continue on until he is no longer capable of retaining any Faith in any shape at all.
Despite Young Goodman Brown’s last second decision to turn to God before being consecrated in the Devil’s congregation, the fact that he is able to find no peace in his future life emphasizes Hawthorne’s assessment that devout belief in the Puritan ideals can lead to nothing other than miserable insanity as the individual becomes incapable of trusting either their own interpretations or the sincerity of others. According to Soler (1998), the revelation of the conversion experience “is often the result of a Purtian confronting his repressed evil. According to the Journey towards Justification, this confrontation should teach him to let go of his worldly dependence and strive for a life without sin.” Although his Faith has been tested, Goodman Brown is no longer able to believe in her. His experience has taught him that all people contain evil in their souls and that no one can be trusted. Even his own thoughts are subject to questioning and at no point in time does he ever return to the easy lifestyle with his neighbors he once knew. Regardless of appearances, his life is now one full of evil at every turn where the slightest evil counteracts even the greatest good and no hope remains that a Godly life might eventually lead one to heaven. In this story, “Hawthorne poses the dangerous question of the relations of Good and Evil in man but withholds his answer. Nor does he permit himself to determine whether the events… are real” (Fogle, 1970: 16). This dreamlike quality provided is the final clue that Hawthorne, like Poe, finds only madness in attempting to hold to a pure belief in one half of an binary oppositional concept.
Through both of these stories, Poe and Hawthorne explore the concept of binary oppositions and the effect they can have on the human mind as it dedicates itself to one half of the concept. The narrator of the Tell-Tale Heart has devoted him/herself to the pure concept of love and devotion to a single person, but the changes that come over that person are hateful. The stress that builds as the narrator obsesses over attempting to reconcile these oppositional features contained within the same object eventually drives the individual mad, causing them to engage in brutal murder. In the same way, the main character of Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” has dedicated himself to an idealistic concept of adult spirituality and a sense of what is good. However, good cannot exist without evil and the character is forced to come into contact again and again with images of the blending of good and evil within the same object. Like the narrator of Poe’s tale, the character is unable to reach a conciliatory position between these two poles and spends the rest of his life in a type of madness in which he is no longer able to fully connect with others, including his wife.
Works Cited
Campbell, Donna M. “Puritanism in New England.” Literary Movements. (2008). Web.
Hawthorne, Nathanial. “The Young Goodman Brown.”
Fogle, Richard Harter. Hawthorne’s Fiction: The Light and The Dark. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.
McCabe, Michael E. “The Consequences of Puritan Depravity and Distrust as Historical Context for Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown.’” American Literature. Florida: Florida Gulf Coast University, 1998.
Mowery, Carl. “An Overview to ‘The Fall of the House of Usher.’” Short Stories for Students. Gale Research. (1997).
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Aerie Books, (2003).
Robinson, E. Arthur. “Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Vol. 19, N. 4, (1965), pp. 369-378.
Sado, Koji. “The Mind of a Killer.” Romanticism. University of North Carolina. 2000.
Soler, Angie. “The Journey Into the Puritan Heart: Nathanial Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown.’” American Literature. Florida: Florida Gulf Coast University, 1998. Young, Laura. “The Evil Eye.” Voices. Vol. 13, N. 1, pp. 6-7.
Ziff, Larzer. Literary Democracy: The Declaration of Cultural Independence in America. New York: Viking Press, 1981.
One of the important key passages in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown is an exclamation that the main character makes while lost in the dark and mysterious forest. At the story’s beginning, the reader is introduced to Goodman Brown’s innocent and pretty wife, Faith. While her name does not sound uncommon for the reader, the main character refers to her specifically as “my love and my Faith” (Hawthorne, 2012, p. 24). Indeed, the sunrise setting in the farewell scene adds to the contrast between the wife’s godly character and the darkness of the main character’s upcoming journey. Leaving the wife for the gloomy forest with a suspicious unnamed companion, Goodman Brown regrets his decision, but the other man ensures that everything will be fine with his wife. After witnessing the deviltry of his companion’s conversation with a woman who used to teach Goodman Brown catechism, he is confused and hears a sound that resembles his wife’s voice.
The key passage that reveals the most important point of the plot is sourced in Goodman Brown’s desperate cry that his “Faith is gone” (Hawthorne, 2012, p. 30). In this passage, the reader finally becomes familiar with the fact that the main character’s wife, Faith, represents the main character’s religious beliefs and faith in Christianity. As a good Christian, Goodman Brown was afraid to leave his wife at home alone, meaning that he was afraid to put his religion under question. The reader gets familiar with the author’s main idea that Goodman’s journey represents an allegory of the Christian soul. At the moment where Goodman Brown is lost in the forest of confusion, he hears the voice of his wife being taken away, which represents the moment he lost his own faith. Without faith, Goodman Brown becomes distrustful, distances himself from his wife, and dies without hope.
Reference
Hawthorne, N. (2012). Young Goodman Brown and other short stories. Courier Corporation.
Desiree Aubigny, like Faith Brown, is a gentle and devoted young wife. They married their husbands for love and did not regret what they had done, did not suffer from conscience or doubts (it seems at least). The figure of Faith’s husband is quite controversial, although the text clearly and in detail demonstrates to the author that Faith loves him. She gently addresses him, escorts her husband from home, and shows concern. Desiree’s husband is a strict and even cruel man, the owner of a large plantation. In addition, he is a well-known slave owner who never shows sympathy or understanding for his slaves. Desiree Aubigny gives birth to a child of mixed race. The husband suspects Desiree is of mixed origin and demonstrates that he is very disappointed in his wife. Desiree leaves her home and goes with the child to her mother, seeing her husband’s true face. While some similarities between Desiree Aubigny and Faith Brown are evident, they are different in the aspects of independence/dependence, conflicts/trials faced, and journeys, either physical or symbolic.
Independence
Desiree Aubigny and Faith Brown have varying degrees of dependence on their husbands, and readers can trace this fact in detail in the text. Desiree Aubigny is not just a gentle, devoted, and kind wife but shows genuine affection and dependence on her husband. She lives for his look, word, and approval. When this approval fades, Desiree becomes nervous and loses control of her feelings. She also boasts to her mother about how proud her husband is of her.
In the case of Desiree, only the fact that her husband rejects her allows her to gain independence. Her fate and ordinary life are cut short when her husband (who, under the influence of his wife and her pregnancy, even began to communicate with slaves condescendingly) severely accuses her of mixed origin. She tries to deny everything, and she wants to prove to him that she deserves to be called his wife, the wife of Armand.
Having gained independence and seeing the natural face of her husband, who has wholly cooled towards her, Desiree cannot hold her head proudly. She is also shocked by the accusations against her and shows her husband her white skin, brown hair, and gray eyes. Her origins are obvious to Desiree, and the allegations seem absurd. Desiree wants to enlist the help and support of her adoptive mother. She writes her a letter of complaint, where she talks about the terrible attitude of her husband. Desiree’s mother does not give the desired reaction, and she invites her daughter to return to her house with the child.
The scene in Armand’s office, when Desiree gives him the letter, is also enjoyable. Being a naive young girl, Desiree expects her husband to keep her and asks her to stay. She believes that an invitation from her mother can frighten her husband, but this does not happen, and the husband indifferently waits for the moment when Desiree leaves his cabinet and then the house. Until the last moment, Desiree hopes that her husband will change his mind, but this does not happen.
In the situation with Faith, there is no direct development of the independence line from the husband or relatives. She is initially independent, although she loves her husband and treats him with great respect. A reader can see how Faith and thoughts about Faith excite the mind of her husband. He worries about his wife and tries to imagine what she thinks about when he is not home. He enjoys talking to her so much that he pauses before going into the forest. Despite Faith’s behavior, her thoughts remain independent throughout the story. She does not open up with her husband, and other people do not share secrets and thoughts. Her motivation is not completely clear to her husband, so in the end, he becomes a cold and cynical person who does not know how to trust.
As a result, we can say that Desiree Aubigny demonstrates complete suppression by the figure of her husband. She belongs to him, being a free woman, but behaves like a child with him. Faith Brown is initially an independent person who her husband appreciates. While Desiree Aubigny lives by her husband’s word, all the way to being cruelly rejected by him, Faith Brown contemplates betrayal while being a young wife.
Different Trials
In the center of which is Desiree, the conflict is racial prejudice, which is a vice for the entire society of that time. She cannot change her husband; she cannot change his worldview, his slave-owning family, and is forced to take it for granted. Armand cannot forgive her for the shame inflicted on her, and his family’s reputation has suffered because of Desiree. Likewise, Desiree cannot fight the prejudices of an entire society, strong and diverse. The ordeal that Desiree goes through is due to factors that she cannot control. These circumstances frustrate her very much; she feels the absurdity of the situation but cannot resist. As a result of the ordeal, she leaves her husband’s house with the child.
The Faith Brown challenge is a profoundly existential challenge of personal choice. She ponders this choice and makes a decision, although she could immediately discard any doubts. She would remain a loving, gentle, and godly wife to Goodman. She is free to refuse to do this if she chooses righteousness. Faith bears full responsibility for what happened since she is not a victim of circumstances like Desiree. She disappoints her husband and turns him into a cold and distrustful man who in the future will live a gloomy and dull life without becoming attached to anyone.
The critical conflict faced by Faith Brown is within her control and subject to her will, though social pressures also play their part; meanwhile, the fundamental conflict faced by Desiree Aubigny is absolutely beyond her power to control. The trials of these two characters are fundamentally different, and if Desiree and Faith had switched places in their trials, they would have passed them differently. Faith realizes that she has disappointed her husband, but Desiree cannot fully accept this psychologically.
Changes
Desiree goes a long way to independence, although it turns into suffering and grief for her. At first, she basks in the riches and love of her husband, being utterly dependent on him, but later she leaves his house with nothing, feeling betrayed. Desiree goes through some progress, which changes her life and worldview. She irrevocably left home where her husband no longer appreciated her due to prejudice. Leaving her husband is the price she pays for independence and self-identity.
At the beginning of the narrative, Faith is a tender and devoted wife who innocently talks to him. He does not doubt her; he thinks about her and dreams of seeing her sooner. Faith cannot resist the temptation, despite her husband’s attempts to save her. She does not grow morally, although her husband believed in her from the very beginning. Towards the end of the story, her personality is seen as weak and superficial. She understands that she made her husband survive the betrayal, but she is not trying to make amends.
While Faith Brown faces temptation early on in her journey, she does not grow stronger by it; meanwhile, Desiree Aubigny is forced to face the reality of her society. Faith does not seem to feel guilty before her husband; she chooses her own. Desiree does not understand why she should feel guilty for her origin and the prejudices of other people, so she quickly leaves her husband’s house.
Conclusion
Although the authors show Faith and Desiree at the beginning of the stories as kind and honest young wives, they are in varying degrees of dependence on their husbands and in different ways to cope with the circumstances in which they find themselves on the path of life. To begin with, Faith Brown starts displaying much more independence by deceiving her husband than Desiree Aubigny, who lives by her husband’s word. Secondly, the trials Desiree faces come altogether from outside, while those of Faith Brown are mainly due to an inner conflict between good and evil. Lastly, while Desiree’s journey leads her from happiness to being in touch with dark realities, Faith’s journey does not implicate moral growth, as the reader never learns whether she has changed.
The short story “Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the story by Washington Irving titled “Rip Van Winkle” are exceptional examples of American literature that are relatively distinguished but share several similarities. Both authors narrate the journey of the stories’ main characters. Goodman Brown and Rip Van Winkle are male protagonists who experience an adventure accompanied by supernatural events that eventually crucially affect their lives.
Both characters’ journeys in the forest and meeting there strange people are similar aspects of these stories. Goodman Brown headed on a short trip to the woods to see an odd elder man. That person owned a notable strange staff, “which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent” (Hawthorne, 1835). Afterward, the narration includes several hints that this person is the devil in the flesh. Goodman Brown unwillingly followed the man and found himself at some vicious ritual and noticed many familiar people, including his pure wife and other people he thought were exceedingly spiritual.
In the story by Irving, Rip Van Winkle went hunting in the mountains and met a suspicious, oddly dressed stranger there. His dress was ancient, “a cloth jerkin strapped round the waist, several pair of breeches, the outer one of ample volume decorated with rows of buttons down the sides, and bunches at the knees” (Irving, 1988, p. 33). The stranger and his mates appeared to be ghosts, which was revealed later in the story. Noteworthy, after encountering these bizarre people and drinking offered liquor, Rip Van Winkle fell asleep and woke up after twenty years. Similarly, Goodman Brown founds himself awakening from an awful dream.
Despite mentioned similarities, these stories have some substantial differences. The primary dissimilarity is the impact of the journeys on the protagonists. After the forest journey, Brown became suspicious, wary, and aloof; he lost his faith in God and stopped trusting his surrounding people. In the “Rip Van Winkle,” the main character felt that he eventually achieved relief and freedom: Winkle could afford to be carefree, and his wife no longer scolded him since she had already died.
Looking at the history of mankind, it is possible to see one of the attributes which always supports it. It is faith. No matter what century is considered, either before or after Christ’s birth, people always believed in something.
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story which dwells upon Puritanism, human beliefs and faith. The weakness of the society depends on the faith of those who live there and if one loses faith and believes that others have made the same, it leads to unsupported suspicions of evil nature of people who live nearby.
Brown believes that al people around him have deep faith in good. This is the main basis of his faith. This idea can be considered from the name of his wife, Faith. He lives with her, so believes her, trusts in her power. Faith (wife) is the first symbol in the story. She seems to persuade her husband not to go outside, but he does not agree and leaves.
Isn’t it the symbol of refusal of faith in goodness? When Brown goes to the forest, he does not pay attention to the fact that he goes to devil, he sees his neighbors and understands that they have lost their faith. This is the beginning of his disbelief and loss of faith in goodness as well. His belief is based on the beliefs of others, as it has been mentioned. When he saw that those beliefs had been ruined, his faith was ruined as well.
The whole story is full of allegories which consideration helps get the main idea of the story better. Village is a symbol of something good, while the forest, opposing to it, is an allegory of evil. The dark night is the association with the devil, as evil affairs are made when no one is able to see, at night (Neary 248).
The symbolic nature of faith is the problem which can be discussed perpetually as there is no specific answer to the issue. “The timelessness of mankind’s sin is revealed within the Puritans” (Jacobs n.p.), it can be stated that the allegorical relation of evil’s past, present and future is related to the Fall of Man.
The time in the story plays crucial role as it can be considered from different angles and can be referred to the various symbols. If to consider the story deeper, it comes out that the story is related to the time of Salem witch trials that makes it eerier (Jacobs n.p.).
Reading the story, it comes to mind that a journey to the forest may be a symbol of a journey into self. Waking up the next morning, Brown could not understand whether it was a dream or everything happened in the reality.
Trying to consider the whole story from this angle, it becomes understandable that dark forest is not just evil, it is a symbol of bed ideas which come to human mind when there is no faith in heart. The answer to the question about why Brown came so long was simple, “Faith kept me back a while” (Hawthorne 10). Is the wife meant? No! Brown tries to explain why his ideas have not been occupied by dark evil thought. The answer was faith. It is faith that makes people remain good and trust others.
Nevertheless, having entered the forest, Brown was not sure whether he was going the right way, whether it was exactly what he wanted. But, the understanding that other people in the village (the symbol of goodness) were on the side of dark (as he thought), he became to assure in his choice.
The weakness of the morality in society takes place when people stop perceive faith, when they are unable to consider what they believe into and copy the beliefs of the society. This is the main factor which points to the weakening of the society in general. The author of the book tries to find roots of such behavior in Puritanism, a religion which creates corruptibility of private religious faith (Campbell n.p).
Donoghue in his article tries to point to the fact that the absence of faith is not considered as sin in the story, still, Brown hides real reasons for going to the forest. Why does he do it? If it is not a sin, he could tell about it his wife.
This is the matter. Walking inside self and searching for dark corners, a person cannot think adequately, and right when faith is absent, dark thoughts occupy human mind. If a person has come to the ‘forest’ (evil place is meant), there no other ways out. The same has happened with Brown. The time when he entered the forest was the beginning of the faith loss.
Devil had already gained the aim, there was just necessary to strengthen the idea that all people were the same. The symbolic meeting with the village representatives is the play of Brown’s mind. Moreover, the whole journey may be considered as the mind game as in the morning the main character is unable to understand whether it was in reality or it was a dream. But, his opinion is influenced and the doubts have already occupied his mind.
In conclusion, the main character has to live his life without faith in humanity and in good. Is not it a paradox? Living with Faith Brown does not have it. The story is a good example of the life of a person who believes in nothing, an unhappy man. Brown is tempted by devil, but tries to convince the whole society in this affair.
Having been influenced by a devil Brown thinks that all people in the village are also under devil’s impact and cannot trust them as they are evil. Brown’s faith in goodness stops existing when he is sure that all people are tempted by evil. The morale of the story is that human faith is lost when they see that others in the society have already lost their faith in goodness.
Works Cited
Campbell, Donna M. “Puritanism in New England.” Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. 21 Mar. 2010. Web.
Donoghue, Denis. “Hawthorne and Sin.” Christianity and Literature 52.2 (2003): 215- 234.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Wildside Press LLC, 2005. Print.
Jacobs, Laurie Anne. “The Depths of Allegory in Hawthorne’s `Young Goodman Brown.” Department of English. N.d. Web.
Neary, John. “Shadows and Illuminations: Spiritual Journeys to the Dark Side in “Young Goodman Brown” and Eyes Wide Shut.” Religion & the Arts 10.2 (2006): 244-270.