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The Symbolic Meaning Of Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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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. In Moore’s review he writes, “"What is it the devil can offer him that his Faith cannot?" asks James C. Keill in his discussion of the story's gender constructions (34)”. He also states that, “the answer from a Freudian perspective is that Goodman Brown is in fact seeking himself his lost/unwanted parts, the psychic energies he keeps locked in the dungeon of the unconscious because they threaten to overwhelm his Calvinistic value system, which has no room for darkness, shadow, and "evil.".” Having such an evil within a soul can be the most dreadful …show more content…

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.
Fannye Cherry even states, “in substance an account of a young man’s experiences with some New England witches, deals with the effects of secret sin in the human heart and with the dual nature of man..”. She agrees that sin lies in every soul and every heart. That the one person we look up to can symbolize something of great sin. Symbolize the Devil and a person of great dismay may not even realize it. Cherry writes that Hawthorne disguises the Devil as Young Goodman Brown’s

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Web. 2 May. 2012. The research of “Young Goodman Brown,” explains the various images found in Young Goodman Brown. Some of them clarifies the author criticisms are the Salem Village, the pink ribbons on Faith’s hat, the fellow traveler, the staff, and using of the term “faith”, and the forest.

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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.

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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.

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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 protagonist, Young Goodman Brown, is one of the first and most important symbols in this story. As the name itself indicates, he is meant to represent someone who is young, not in age, but in experience. During the setting of the story, the name goodman was used to refer to anyone you meet, so it may be suggested that he symbolizes the general population. His experience and situation is not a unique one and many others have dealt with a similar struggle.

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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

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While there are as many possible interpretations of a work as there are readers, a reader should not have to go beyond a work to understand an author’s intentions for a work. They should be able to have a somewhat similar interpretation to the author’s intended interpretation, given that the author was successful in their rhetoric and stylistic devices. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s case with his short story “Young Goodman Brown”, one does not have to go far to understand what he wanted to achieve. Hawthorne was a master of societal criticism, symbolism, rhetoric, and narration. Hawthorne meant for his readers to feel conflicted and confused.

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Ominous settings symbolize the evil within characters and suggest that more darkness exists in the world than they predict. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Brown embraces his internal evil in an evil setting. Brown walks toward a “red light… with the instinct that guides a mortal man to evil” (page) on his way to the evil ceremony. Goodman Brown follows a red light that may represent evil since red is often associated with the devil. He follows this evil light out of “instinct,” which suggests that an inner evil guides him.

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“The Overview of Young Goodman Brown” explains how the symbols appointed to these characters show their importance. Goodman is running through the forest, terrified of what he has seen. Goodman begins panicking as he sees his beloved faith with the devil, he even shouts her name, however, “the forest laughs like demons around him,” (Hawthorne). With his faith no longer there, he practically flies towards the witches' gathering. Hawthorne makes it out as if the forest was mocking his panicking, and screaming.

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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

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The reader is left guessing whether the conscious journey of Young Goodman Brown is an allusion or reality? This idea was illustrated at the end of the story when the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, leaves the reader wondering whether Brown had, “only fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of witch-meeting (315).” My observation and evidence helps reveal the pondering thoughts that the reader may have regarding what really occurred when Young Goodman Brown experienced the wicked assembly. He found himself in a tug a war of reality and allusion. After returning from the assembly and finding himself back in the forest, Brown is thought of as, “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not desperate man, did he become

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The story Young Goodman Brown was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The main character of the story is Goodman Brown who is a very young innocent guy and also religious. The story talks about Brown who went out night to a dark ugly forest and came across and face many evil courses like the devil, witch, the staff and the creepy gray clouds. Evil can mean sins, drugs, and cruel and untruthful human beings. No one can avoid sinning and escape evil because there is evil everywhere and there is no one that cannot escape from evil.

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Goodman Brown loses his faith in his humanity when evil prevails itself in many forms, leaving him to speculate the behavior and beliefs of everyone encircles around him. This story also contains similar Biblical characteristics of the sinful nature in man. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to define that wickedness exist in all humanity and nothing is the way it seems. The story begins with Goodman Brown and his wife named Faith bartering a goodbye kiss.

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This is what makes the story about the test of Goodman Brown’s faith in

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The Use of Symbolism in Young Goodman Brown In the short story, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne symbolism and imagery are used in many ways, reading the story once is only scratching the surface. Hawthorne sculpts a story by tying intricate details together to create something that will absorb the reader. Through scenery, Biblical references, and even names and colors, Hawthorne has proven himself as a literary genius.

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