“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel
Hawthorne contains much symbolism. The symbols take many forms
from the setting to the characters. The symbols can be viewed as
just part of the story line, but apon further thought they
represent many different things. Faith, Brown’’s wife, is a
symbol herself. When he says, ““My love and my Faith,”” he is
using his wife as a symbol and is really referring to his love
and faith in God. He goes on to say ““this one night I must tarry
away from thee.”” He means that he must part from his faith in
God to carry on with his journey. He also says to the devil, ““
Faith kept me back awhile”” and is making reference to a higher
being that is trying to keep him from making his journey by
delaying it. When Brown finds the pink ribbon that his wife was
wearing lying in the forest he says, ““my Faith is gone”” and is
referring to himself as losing his faith in God. Also, Goodman
Brown’’s ““errand”” symbolizes the Puritan voyage where they were
to find the plan that God has set for them and let faith be their
guidance. As Goodman Brown continues his ““errand”” and thing
begin to go array he grows weak and falls to the ground. He
"begins to doubt whether there really was a Heaven above him" and
this is a key point when Goodman Brown's faith begins to wain.
Goodman Brown in panic declares that "With Heaven above, and
Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!" This is
similar to a Puritan putting his faith in God and following
““God’’ Plan.”” The forest that Goodman Brown ventures to in
itself is a symbol. In the Puritan days the townspeople were
barred from going into the forest because that is where evil
lurked and even says ““ my father never went into the woods……nor
his father before him.”” Hawthorne described the forrest as ““ a
dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest””
and even jokes of the evil lurking there when he says ““there may
be a devilish Indian behind every tree”” and ““What if the devil
himself should be at my very elbow!”” Hawthorne even uses the
main character as a symbol. His name, Young Goodman Brown makes
reference to him as being young and a good person. Then Hawthorne
gives him such a common last name that it relates him to any and
everybody, just like he does in one of his other short stories,
““Everyman””, when he uses this as a reference to all of society.
their goals by meeting their needs in life by using what was given to them.
Nathanial Hawthorne besieged with his ancestral ties to the Salem Witch Trials and his loathe for a Puritan society, lead him to create an allegory of a young man’s quest and his struggle between good and evil. Hawthorne wrote figuratively about Puritanical ideals, beliefs and social appearance in Young Goodman Brown. Also, the short story is centered on New England’s history, mostly inspired by Puritan beliefs.
“Lead me not into temptation. I can find the way myself,” Rita Mae Brown once remarked. Temptation is all around, no matter where one might be, there is no use in going out and looking for it. For some individuals, the enticement is so strong that it has caused them to break away from the ties that once bound them to their upbringing, such as faith, but for others, it has brought them even closer to their faith. There is no questioning whether or not one would be strong enough to deny the temptation in order to remain pure, but, rather one’s faith is strong enough to go through the test that has been taking place since the very beginning when Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden of Eden. Tone and symbolism throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne, through the use of deceptive imagery, creates a sense of uncertainty that illuminates the theme of man's inability to operate within a framework of moral absolutism. Within every man there is an innate difference between good and evil and Hawthorne's deliberate use of ambiguity mirrors this complexity of human nature. Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, is misled by believing in the perfectibility of humanity and in the existence of moral absolutes. According to Nancy Bunge, Hawthorne naturally centers his story upon a Puritan protagonist to convey the "self-righteous" that he regards as the "antithesis of wisdom"(4). Consequently, Young Goodman Brown is unable to accept the indefinable vision of betrayal and evil that he encounters in the forest. The uncertainty of this vision, enhanced by Hawthorne's deliberate, yet effective, use of ambiguity, is also seen in the character of Faith, the shadows and darkness of the forest, and the undetectable boundaries that separate nightmarish dreams from reality.
Symbolism, something that figuratively represents something else, is prominent in many literary works. One piece of literature that stands out as a perfect example of symbolism is Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." This story is completely symbolic, and provides a good example of an allegory, or a story in which concrete items or characters represent abstract ideas. Hawthorne uses both objects and people as symbols to better support the allegorical tones throughout "Young Goodman Brown."
In the story of young Goodman brown the Author of the story, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses symbolic characters that represent life. In the story, Young Goodman Brown goes into a journey into the cold, dark, and lonely forest. Faith, his wife is rejected by young Goodman brown when she asks him to stay with her that night and to forget about the journey. Young Goodman Brown tells her that she will be all right without him and that he has to go into that journey. This is an image of what many people do, if not all people. We do not listen to our sin or to people who only wants the best for us, for example, our family. In Young Goodman Brown, Faith does not only resemble Young Goodman Brown’s religion, but it also resembles his support and security
Literary Motifs in “Young Goodman Brown” A literary motif “is a conspicuous element, such as a type of incident, device, reference, or formula, which occurs frequently in works of literature” (Abrams 169). Incredibly, this one tale, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, contains an array of familiar literary motifs (Axelrod 337). First of all, the tale involves the common motif of a journey in quest of something. The young Goodman Brown, at the beginning of the story, takes leave of his wife, Faith, in order to journey into the woods where he keeps an appointment with the devil: "My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee.
Clarice Swisher in “Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography” states: ”When Hawthorne called his stories ‘romances,’ he meant that they belong within the romantic movement that . . . . emphasize imagination and personal freedom” (18). It is the purpose of this essay to interpret the theme of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and determine where this “personal freedom” leads.
Salem village: It was “the center of the witchcraft delusion, in the witching times of 1692, and it shows the populace of Salem Village, those chief in authority as well as obscure young citizens like Brown, enticed by fiendish shapes into the frightful solitude of superstitious fear” (Abel 133).
In Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the tale of a man and his discovery of evil. Hawthorne’s primary concern is with evil and how it affects Young Goodman Brown. Through the use of tone and setting, Hawthorne portrays the nature of evil and the psychological effects it can have on man. He shows how discovering the existence of evil brings Brown to view the world in a cynical way. Brown learns the nature of evil and, therefore, feels surrounded by its presence constantly.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is an excellent example of the use of allegories and symbolism as a form of satire on Puritan faith. According to Frank Preston Stearns, author of The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Hawthorne may have intended this story as an exposure of the inconsistency, and consequent hypocrisy, of Puritanism” (Stearns 181). Throughout the story of “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne tries to infuse as many symbols and allegories as he can to enhance the overall meaning of his story. He uses the village, Goodman Brown, Faith, the man in the forest, and the time spent in the forest as either a symbol or an allegory to get his point across that Puritans are not always what they seem to be.
This essay will examine the main physical settings within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown.” These are four in number and begin and end in the village of Salem.
In order to grasp the allegory Hawthorne uses in Young Goodman Brown, the story needs to be considered in a way that recognizes the blending of its historical background at the time of the Salem Witch trials and its relationship to religious symbolism within that perspective. By understanding the Puritan beliefs about sin, the forest and their own inherent faith, it becomes easier for the reader to understand the deeper meaning of Goodman Brown’s journey into the forest.
The dialogue, action and motivation revolve about the characters in the story (Abrams 32-33). It is the purpose of this essay to demonstrate the types of characters present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” whether static or dynamic, whether flat or round, and whether protrayed through showing or telling.
Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism throughout his short story Young Goodman Brown to impact and clarify the theme of good people sometimes doing bad things. Hawthorne uses a variety of light and dark imagery, names, and people to illustrate irony and different translations. Young Goodman Brown is a story about a man who comes to terms with the reality that people are imperfect and flawed and then dies a bitter death from the enlightenment of his journey through the woods. Images of darkness, symbolic representations of names and people and the journey through the woods all attribute to Hawthorne's theme of good people sometimes doing bad things.