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Ambiguity in Hawthorne’s works
What does the devil tempt in young goodman brown
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Journal A 1. Nathaniel Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown” I really liked “Young Goodman Brown”. I enjoyed the heavy symbolism, puns, and biblical themes, which made me think and analyze more. It reminded me of the short tv series, Over the Garden Wall that aired on Cartoon Network, which also had dark,creepy symbols and was set in an unsettling limbo-like forest.
First he come across an elderly witch. Follow by a couple of devil-worshippers.he then come encounter with a spooky "black mass of cloud". Shortly after, brown faces the devil himself and his minions. At last brown returns home safe from all the evil things. Young Goodman Brown may leave you feeling a bit confused after reading his story the first time ,and may require a second reading .Many
With his glorified view of people and occasional religious terminology, Goodman is depicted as a loving and loyal person through the use of diction. Hawthorne then uses imagery to develop Brown’s gradual descent into corruption. When Brown declares that “there is no good on earth” and how “sin is but a name” (6), the realization of mankind corrupts his pure mentality.
(pg. 453)” Young Goodman Brown is a man living in the puritan era who has a wife and family, and is deep in his Christian faith. Young Goodman Brown lived in a town that is all connected to through the local church. Early in the story Young Goodman brown would set out to meet a person who would later be labeled as the devil by one of the locals. Young Goodman brown would have a vision of everyone in his community that would show him their wicked sins.
A man about 50 years old with “Considerable resemblance to Goodman… So much so they might have been taken for father and son.”(135) He guides Goodman through forest, figuring as they walk along the dark path. In order to gain Goodmans trust the man tells him that he's been “Well acquainted with the Brown family”(136) dating back several generations. Goodman encounters several religious leaders of the community also traveling through the forest, and his faith drains from his soul while filling with despair. Goodman sits on a rock refusing to travel any further, he “Looks up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a Heaven above him.
When he discovers from the traveler that his father, grandfather, Goody Cloyse, the minister, Deacon Cookin, and Faith are all acquaintances with the devil; he decides he might as well do the same. The Bible stated, “do not be deceived bad company ruins good morals”. Simply because Goodman church members know the devil he thinks it is acceptable to give the devil his innocence as well. Goodman Brown is a religious man he recognizes what is good and what is evil, and going into the forest was not a wise approach, and when the man tries to continue to persuade him to go farther into the dark forest; he knew he should have turned around and go back home to
This talk of devilish acts from people known to Goodman Brown as holier than all causes Goodman Brown great pain and confusion even to the point where he was “ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened” from what he had just witnessed (5). In the short time from when Goodman Brown enters the forest, sees Goody Cloyse, and sees the minister and the deacon, his entire life and upbringing is
In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown is naïve. At first, he is stuck on the idea that everyone is good but still chooses to meet with the devil in the forest out of curiosity. He knows that the devil is evil and a bad person, but feels as long as he clings to Faith once he gets home he will be safe. Goodman Brown encounters several people that he knows while on his walk in the
After reading “Young Goodman Brown,” it becomes apparent to the reader that the author uses symbolism, the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. One will find symbolism being displayed in most Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories. In the short story Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism in various ways. When thinking about the color pink, what comes to mind? Pink has always been associated with girlishness and righteousness.
A married man during the Puritan times who makes the decision to wander in the woods to meet a stranger who shows Goodman Brown the truth about his faith and religion. The author describes this interaction to be dark/evil/suspicion. “Nathaniel Hawthorne” uses fear to develop the main idea. Fear can be seen in Goodman when he steps into the woods as he knows nothing good ever comes out of the wilderness. Goodman brown beliefs as a Puritan is that the new world is something to fear rather than dominate “(Overview).”
‘This Means War’ is an action comedy and if there is anything I despise more than an action comedy, is an incompetent action comedy. This Means War is directed by Joseph McGinty Nichol, nicknamed McG. Having shown his ‘skill’ in both the comedy and action genres with Charlie’s Angels and Terminator: Salvation, it is clear that he has perfected the skill to mess up both simultaneously.
His journey into the woods signifies a journey into the forces of evil which can be described as the woods themselves. Since the story begins and ends in Salem it is a symbol of the starting point as well as and the endpoint of his life as he visits the woods. Salem is as said in the story a safe haven and the woods are filled with sin. Puritans believed the woods to be the habitat of the devil. The woods in "Young Goodman Brown" are the symbol of the devil's habitat and are filled with evil and
The woods evoked fear and the unknown. He met the devil on the path and he told Goodman Brown that he was late. The response from Brown of “Faith kept me back awhile”, depicted Brown’s own personal faith and uneasiness with the journey he was taking. Goodman Brown soon realized that the upstanding Christian people that he was familiar with in New England, were actually acquaintances with the devil. The serpent’s staff in this section was a symbol of evil which was handed to Brown by the devil.
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!”
There are hundreds, even thousands of literary theories. Looking at the Freudian theory, everything in the text of Young Goodman Brown has a symbolic meaning. The text is placed in the early mid-nineteenth century, in Salem. Young Goodman Brown is about to leave is wife, Faith, for a walk in “hell”. Salem is known as the town of witchcraft and horridness.