For I chose one of Edgar Alan Poe’s gothic tales as the subject of the second literary analysis, consequently I’d like to discuss general topics related to Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life’s and work. This week I discovered through the study material that with Hawthorne, Melville and Poe the short story took on a significant role in literature. These authors developed the short story and novels, and while during the countries development literary figures analogously are trying to describe what does it mean to be an American and what is the American literary style; consequently, the above authors shape the novel into a defined American form.
Life experiences, upbringing and interactions with fellow individuals affect the person’s outlook on life in general as well as their perception of reality. Authors, poets and writers in possess a talent to describe these experiences through an art form they explicitly excel in. Hawthorne is a
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I believe that both authors struggled with convictions which did not have place in the ideal image of life they expected for themselves. Although, I might be wrong in my interpretation, I would like to believe that my explanation has at least a hint of actuality. The Freudian ego is a subject of Hawthorn’s “Young Goodman Brown” as the hero of the story witnessed a gathering of witches in the woods and because he cannot distinguish between a dream and reality, he eventually loses himself in his waking life. Both authors are on a journey to gather a deeper understating of the human nature, while one of them through the reason of travel and discovery while the other evaluates the human spirit and how does it measure up to the strict expectations of
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” utilize character responsibilities to create a sinister plot. For Hawthorne, protagonist Young Goodman Brown must leave his wife at home while he partakes in a night journey. For Poe, ancillary Fortunato covets a pretentious manner towards his wine tasting skills, and after being ‘challenged’ decides to prove his expertise by sampling Amontillado. Hawthorne and Poe showcase a theme of darkness but differ in their approach to the setting, characters, and fate of entrapment.
Edgar Allen Poe was known for his annoyance of allegories, his literary works and his alcoholism.” (Elbert) Poe writes that Hawthorne has "high imaginations gleam from every page” but needs to develop more in his writing. (Elbert)
INTRODUCTION: why is Young Goodman Brown a sinful and bitter person? Why and how is he like that?
...Jung, whose assertions not only help in the clinical aspect, but in the search for the common message in all of human literary (this includes oral) tradition. Hawthorne’s Gothic shows, whether conscious or not, the underlying conflict that lies within the people of his time as well as the time in which each of his stories take place. It is with this that the key to understanding the self lies within the commonly untapped recesses of the unconscious, an uncomfortable and unnerving concept for everyone, particularly those that have many things to hide.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. �Young Goodman Brown.� Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston, 2003. 161-171.
In any text wither it be a short story or a book you will find many hidden literary component throughout the text. These devices can range from symbolism to foreshowing, but understanding text is not just bound to these devices, but it is also important to understand narrative perspective or if the text is referring to a bigger picture. A great example of a text that exemplifies all of these literary devices is the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorn. In this story the main character Goodman Brown leaves his wife Faith in the middle of the night to go on a walk to ponder about life and his own faith. Upon the walk he comes to meet a stranger, who appears to be the devil and has been waiting for Goodman the whole time. As the story progress Goodman is led by the devil and is shown what people are doing, which makes Goodman’s faith and innocence falter. However, this is the whole story and I have chosen the first page of “Young Goodman Brown” to further analyze.
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.
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.
It seems necessary to write down some lines about the author. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Because of the involvement of his ancestor in the Salem witch trials , Nathaniel later added a "w" to make his name "Hawthorne" in order to hide this relation. He entered Bowdoin College in 1821, and graduated in 1825. Hawthorne published his first work, Fanshawe, in 1828. He published several short stories after that which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. His masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, was published in 1850. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864.
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.
In “Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne the author uses mystery and suspense to capture the attention of the reader. From the beginning until the closing, Hawthorne leads the reader into questioning, “What is symbolic about the bilateral lifestyle and witch crafting?” One must not only view “Young Goodman Brown” as a story full of mystery and suspense but also as one containing many symbolisms. John Neary argues that “just because Young Goodman Brown’s is journeying to God that does not mean it will be sweet and edifying” (Neary 250). Hawthorne reveals to us that having a solid Faith is the utmost asset that one can possess and once Faith is conceded, the effects can result in doubt in yourself and the entire world.
Kaul, A. N., Ed.. "HAWTHORNE: A Collection of Critical Essays." Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1966.
These two men had an imagination before their times. Hawthorne and Poe’s love for writing tales that will raise hair on a reader’s body, make the reader question every detail and moral fiber within their being. That is what makes these two men great at what they loved to do. While they both had differences that set them apart, they also had similarities’ that brought them together and they each created master pieces that will last lifetimes to be read and enjoyed by many generations to come.
Insanity can be a dark descent into the strange, nightmarish unknown realms of the mind unable to return to the known world of reason. This is a major theme in literature, and is particularly evident in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. The nightmarish undertones are one of the main similarities in Hawthorne's and Melville's works. Another similarity is writing style. Both men write very descriptively, and their writing is based more in intellect than emotion. Also both men write about the nightmarish descent into madness.
The terror and suspense in the Hawthorne story function as integral parts of the allegory that defines the story's theme. In allegory (a narrative containing a meaning beneath the surface one), there is usually a one-to-one relationship; that is, one idea or object in the narrative stands for only one idea or object allegorically. A story from the Old Testament illustrates this. The pharaoh of Egypt dreamed that seven fat cows were devoured by seven lean cows. Joseph interpreted this dream as meaning that seven years of plenty (good crops) would be followed by seven years of famine. "Young Goodman Brown" clearly functions on this level of allegory (while at times becoming richly symbolic). Brown is not just one Salem citizen of the late seventeenth century, but rather seems to typify mankind, to be in a sense Everyman, in that what he does and the reason he does it appear very familiar to most people, based on their knowledge of others and on honest appraisal of their own behavior.