Young Goodman Brown Rhetorical Analysis

Hannah Martin

Journal #4 The story “Young Goodman Brown” is one filled with intense irony. Written in the third-person point of view of a man who considers himself very faithful, with an overall favorable appeal with his relationships and the surrounding society, as is similarly stated throughout the beginning of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”. Goodman Brown, a married man to his beautiful wife Faith, decides to accomplish a task that requires him to leave during the night. As Goodman Brown ventures into the dark woods, he is accompanied by an old man. This man states that he is good friends with the devil and offers to lead Goodman Brown on his way, allowing him usage of his snakelike walking stick. Later on their

Abruptly the scene comes to an end, leaving Goodman Brown as a lonely and cruel man. I believe that from the moment Goodman Brown decided to go on his task, a night away from home, that he was already falling under the works of the devil. Goodman Brown even begins to think that what he is doing is in the works of evil, but soon justifies himself with his thoughts, “. . . after this one night I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven” (Hawthorne 2). As Goodman Brown continues his journey there is dramatic irony and foreshadowing of what was soon to come. Goodman Brown is accompanied by the old man carrying a walking stick in the shape of a snake. The snake is a symbol which represents the devil and his evil works. Continuously, both Goodman Brown and the old man walk down the trail, and while doing so, Goodman Brown states, “We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept-”(Hawthorne 3). This statement ironically foreshadows how Goodman Brown takes the path and falls under evil works. Goodman Brown is led to the devils ceremony of which ultimately

The short story is quite symbolic as it begins by telling how each person falls under remembrances, which keeps them in their own world separate from those around them. As each couple walks in, they envelope the beauty of the garden all around them and are cast into absence. Only couples are in the Kew Gardens, but this is situational irony. Each couple becomes an example of situational irony because even though the two came together, they are each in their own unique realm or world of memory. Four couples enter the Kew Gardens and experience thoughts that are only present to them. Each character leaves the beautiful gardens and has only taken from this garden visit, the realization of their unforgettable memories (76). All in all, I believe that Woolf used excellent imagery in describing the effect the garden had on each individual character, as well as has explained irony throughout the couples who have experienced