“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.
The character that we come to know as Faith in Young Goodman Brown is primarily a symbol for primary Christian beliefs. “And what calm sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith!" (P. 6, paragraph 3 Young Goodman Brown) In the story, all of the evil villains were trying to lead Brown away from his Faith, just as the devil’s temptations will attempt to lead one from God. Upon his return at the village, he found that his Faith was not as comforting as it used to
Many famous works in literature feature references or allusions to the Bible and Christianity. The wife’s dreams in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown allude to Pontius Pilate’s wife’s dreams in the Bible. Pearl’s name in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter alludes to Matthew 13:45-46, the Pearl of Great Price. Lastly, some quotations in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 allude to Jesus walking on water and Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine.
eriod which the story took place was the 17th Century, where females were commonly seen as being housewives, which meant they stayed at home most of the time, if Brown’s wife Faith stayed at home most of
Hawthorne says, “Something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree” Faith’s pink ribbons symbolize purity. In the beginning of the story was Faith had her ribbons she was pure but at the end of the story when Young Goodman Brown saw Faith’s pink ribbon come down from the sky it represents how she succumed to evil and Hawthorne lost both his faith and his wife Faith. The third example of how Hawthorne uses symbolism to show the theme good versus evil in the story “Young Goodman Brown” is when the devil is telling Brown and Faith that they will have a new perspective of life, a life where everyone sins. In the beginning of the story Young Goodman Brown saw his family as godly and he saw Faith as pure but the devil shows him that his views are naive and the devil gives him the capability to see the dark side of everything and everyone.
I’m going to choose the motif of a forest. The idea of forest seems to signify an unexplored realm full of the unknown. It stands for the unconscious and its mysteries. The forest is traditionally a place of darkness or evil. This is particularly true in works set in the Puritan time.
Has your mind ever played tricks on you? In the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character, Goodman Brown, seems to experience just that. He’s travelling through the forest with another man who can only be described as the devil himself, and at the end of the story the reader is left to wonder if anything that took place even truly happened. Hawthorne uses many literary devices to convey that deception comes in many shapes and forms, the worst of which can be your own mind.
Question 2: In Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown”, does it matter whether or not the protagonist, Goodman Brown, Dreamt the events in the story? Introduction Hawthorne‘s “Young Goodman Brown” (YGB) is such a richly layered, compelling and compact masterpiece that lends itself to multiple interpretations and dimensions of meaning when read with different approaches. It is all at once: a satirical allegory, a gothic story, a psychological investigation of Hawthorne’s own mind, a historical treatise of American Puritanism, a feminist record of woman’s plight in Puritan Times, a condensed dispensation of Hawthorne’s philosophical and religious beliefs and also a vent for his own personal catharsis.
As the journey continues and Goodman Brown falls deeper into sin, he says “The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon. ‘My Faith is gone!... There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is this world given’” (Hawthorne 5).
Characters can contain symbols that more fully embody or express a topic or theme than they do itself. In the story “Young Goodman Brown” the main character Goodman Brown is a good example of symbolism in a character. The character Goodman is designed to serve as an allegory for Adam and Eve and the fall of man. Brown's curiosity and the devil's deceit get the better of him as he is drawn by the stranger with the serpent staff
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.
In first part of the story, the symbol of Goodman Brown’s faith is personified through his wife, Faith. The story states “And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons in her cap.” The pink ribbons represented childlikeness and was a symbol of Brown’s childlike faith and purity. He had hope that although he was about to embark on a sinister journey into the woods, his religious faith would keep him grounded and bring him home. This is demonstrated through the passage “….and
Goodman Brown enters the forest knowing of such evil, he states in the story “what if the devil himself should be at my very elbow” (Hawthorne 322). Goodman Brown sees the minister and Deacon Gookin as well as many other townspeople making their way into the dark forest towards the ceremony. At this time, Nathaniel Hawthorne is displaying that many people of all ranks in religious and governmental society are sinners despite their external appearance. He holds on to the thoughts that as long as Faith remains holy, he shall find it in himself to resist the temptations of evil, but when he sees the pink ribbons from Faith’s cap his Christian faith is weakened. Hawthorne is using Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, as a symbol of his own when he yells out “my faith is gone!”
When young Goodman Brown parts from his wife, Faith at sunset on that fateful night, Hawthorne is using sunset to represent the descent of light (day) into darkness (night). Faith represents not only his wife, but also his spiritual faith. She asks him to stay “Prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is feared with such dreams and such thoughts that she’s afeared of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year.”
Brown reflect this when returning home from the forest and see Faith in which his reaction was “ But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without greeting” (70). He displays this further by “Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away.” (72) because his wife caused him to his loss of faith which he displays by not praying publicly or privately showing faith in
