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Human Complexity In Edgar Allan Poe's Young Goodman Brown

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Humans are capable of a variety of emotions, ranging from saintly to pure evil. Society fosters the positive aspects because they are beneficial to our lives. Negative traits are feared due to their relationship as omens of bad fortune and so refuses to openly discuss them despite their ability to exert influence in our lives. Gothic writing, specifically with its emphasis on intense emotions like apprehension, horror, and terror, was the perfect medium used by authors such Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne to explore a fascination with human complexity to uncover the truth it reveals about ourselves.
Edgar Allan Poe openly explores the agony of grief, fear, and despair in the poem “The Raven”. A typical gothic setting, on a dark and bleak December midnight, complete with a dwindling fire, illustrates the desolation felt after losing a loved one. A lone raven enters to antagonize the man and engage the process of grieving. The prophet seems to confirm his worst fear, surely he will never see his Lenore again, thus intensifying his grief. As he accepts this truth, despair sets in as he loses all hope: “And my soul …show more content…

All young men, when tempted, will give in, at least a little, resulting in the loss of their innocence. In the story “Young Goodman Brown”, the ill nature of his evening visit to the woods is on full display. He fears the questioning that will subsequently follow and what that will reveal if the catechism teacher discovers his tryst in the woods: “Being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with and whither I was going” (1072). The essence of this encounter embodies the rest of the story in that all who have given into temptation know the truth and live with secret guilt. Hawthorne shows us Goodman Brown’s transformational pivot point into sin. Had he listened to his Faith in the beginning, he would have avoided temptation and its

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“Young Goodman Brown.” : An Annotated Bibliography “Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. Gregory, Leslie. " The Text of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown". " American Literature Research and Analysis.

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The Perspective of Freedom Have you ever thought about the concept of freedom? Freedom is a point of perspective and not a point of a state of being. This can be seen in the story comparison in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown and Phillis Wheatley’s To the University of Cambridge, in New-England.

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In the story “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorn uses symbolism and imagery to present the idea that messing with good versus evil is a dangerous decision. The reader is able to take away that Young Goodman Brown made the decision to choose evil and in the end he ended up dying an unhappy man. This vivid imagery and symbolism shown in the short story wasn’t enough to frighten Brown, but

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The Danger of A Walk With the Devil: The Consequence of Sin and Guilt in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” As Canadian author William Paul Young once said, “sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown’s life and entire being is demolished by his sins, never to return to what it once was. Through a guilt-filled journey of sin, Goodman Brown struggles with his faith, his grasp on reality, but most importantly, life as he knows it. By losing everything, Young Goodman Brown suffers the ultimate punishment of lifelong pain and suffering.

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Edgar Allan Poe’s frightening gothic style poetry and short novels about fear, love, death and horror are prominent to Gothic Literature and explore madness through a nerve-recking angle. The incredible, malformed author, poet, editor and novelist is recognized for his famous classical pieces such as “The Raven”, “Berenice” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, pieces of work that mystically yet magnificently awakens readers with a gloomy spirit. Awakening the subject of madness through written work was viewed as insane during Poe’s times. Yet Poe published some of the worlds most magnificently frightening pieces of literature throughout history. In the following essay I will examine and cautiously analyze

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In Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown" it can be described as a moral allegory that illustrates the puritan doctrine of inherent depravity as the Brown. He tests his faith by entering the forest primeval by joining the man "of grave and decent attire" for an evening in the wilderness. It is apparent the symbols are of a religious nature. Hawthorne wrote in the time period known as the Romantic Period. Hawthorne's rejection of the Puritan belief system is the primary message of this story.

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Sin is inevitable. Every person sins, one way or another. Sinning is impossible to avoid even with “practice.” “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne shows readers that. Goodman Brown wants to believe he is a good man, and perhaps he is; but he is tempted by sin all the same.

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Every night I struggle to close my eyes; praying for the night I might ease my restless brain. A tremor of uncertainty floods me as the thought of death following me everywhere enters my brain; the idea of it retracing my steps sends a shiver down my spine. I stare at the embers of the dying fire, my mind wandering back to the image of Lenore’s exquisitely radiant face. Books of death, tragedy, remorse and sorrow accumulate my chamber, setting a dark mood.

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Conversely, Hawthorne did not trust man at all. He was a Transcendental Pessimist. He believed man was corrupt, and following his intuition would fail him in life. One of Hawthorne’s short stories, “Young Goodman Brown”, portrays the tale of a young Christian man who wanders into the forest and witnesses a witch-meeting that involves some of the people Goodman Brown thought to be some of the holiest people he knew: the church Deacon, the pastor, and even Brown’s own wife, Faith. After the witch-meeting incident in the woods, Brown wonders whether he witnessed the witch meeting, or if it was a creation of his own imagination: “quote”.

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When Young Goodman Brown his shown his shadow, he goes against his “Faith” and follows the dark shadow into the forest. Nathaniel Hawthorne, wrote about many things that Freud had proved to be truth of symbolic theory later on. In Young Goodman Brown Hawthorne analyzes symbolic meaning just like Freud has. Hawthorne’s fiction, Young Goodman Brown, shows how sin can be depicted through just a simple dream.

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“Young Goodman Brown” is a short story written by the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Most of the Hawthorne’s works follow Dark Romanticism, the tales that advise evil, sin and guilt is a nature of a mankind. Furthermore, his works are encouraged by Puritan New England, linking ancient romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells an inner conflict of a man’s faith in religion and knowledge of mankind’s imprudence with sin. The story took place in the 17th century in Salem, Massachusetts towards the end of the Puritan Era.

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During the night while Young Goodman Brown experiences the evil in the woods, he loses his focus on reality and believes he can resist the evil forces around him. Hawthorne uses dramatic irony to emphasize this idea. As Goodman Brown continues on his way with his “fellow-traveler,” they run into Goody Cloyse. The Traveler and Goody Cloyse begin to have a conversation when she says, “they tell me, there is a nice young man to be taken into communion to-night” (2624-25). While that clue goes over Goodman Brown’s head, the reader can infer that the “young man” most likely refers to Young Goodman

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In many stories and poems; such as the Tell Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, Annabel Lee, The House of Usher, and so many more timeless works, Edgar Allan Poe has been captivating his audiences with spine tingling thrillers through the words and style of his own twisted ways. The only way to describe where Poe’s writing belongs in history, would be classified as gothic genre. From the start of the 1800’s to present day and the future of literature, through irony, repetition, imagery, and symbolism Poe has been bewitching readers with his gore and insane writings. Poe’s life inspired so many of his poems, from focusing on taboo topics, such as death, revenge, love and loss. Poe’s life was painful and heartbreaking that

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Of all gothic writers, Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most groundbreaking of them all. From The Cask of Amontillado, a story with integrated historical references of the time, to The Fall of the House of Usher, a deep and morbid story full of imagery. Anywhere from The Tell-Tale Heart, truly a story of both unique syntax and perspective, to The Raven, a poem full of symbols and eerie repetition. Through these and many more, Poe has been using his writing style to immerse people into his stories and poems alike since 1839. However, Poe is only able to accomplish this through his unique writer’s style, particularly his forceful imagery and meaningful syntax.

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The desires of humanity often reflect the temptations residing in the heart’s depths. Evil’s lure is a strong pull felt by all, regardless of the appearance put on through the conscious mind. In literature, temptation is explored thoroughly, especially in the short story, “Young Goodman Brown”. “The tale becomes in great part, thus, a record of temptation” (Pualits 578-579). The author of “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804.

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