Young Goodman Brown: Genre and Plot
Young Goodman Brown is a short story; that is, it is a relatively brief narrative of prose fiction (ranging in length from 500 to 20,000 words) characterized by considerably more unity and compression in all its partstheme, plot, structure, character, setting, moodthan the novel. In the story we are considering, the situation is this: One evening near sunset sometime in the late seventeenth century, Goodman Brown, a young man who has been married only three months, prepares to leave his home in Salem, Massachusetts, and his pretty young bride, Faith, to go into the forest and spend the night on some mission that he will not disclose other than to say that it must be performed between sunset and sunrise. Although Faith has strong forebodings about his journey and pleads with him to postpone it, Brown is adamant and sets off. His business is evil by his own admission; he does not state what it is specifically, but it becomes apparent to the reader that it involves attending a witches' Sabbath in the forest, a remarkable action in view of the picture of Brown, drawn early in the story, as a professing Christian who admonishes his wife to pray and who intends to lead an exemplary life after this one night.
The rising action begins when Brown, having left the village, enters the dark, gloomy, and probably haunted forest. He has not gone far before he meets the Devil in the form of a middle-aged, respectable-looking man whom Brown has made a bargain to meet and accompany on his journey. Perhaps the full realization of who his companion is and what the night may hold in store for him now dawns on Brown, for he makes an effort to return to Salem. It is at best a feeble attempt, however, for, though the Devil does not try to detain him, Brown continues walking with him deeper into the forest.
As they go, the Devil shocks Goodman Brown by telling him that his [Brown's) ancestors were religious bigots, cruel exploiters, and practitioners of the black art --- in short, fullfledged servants of the Devil. Further, the young man is told that the very pillars of New England society, church, and state are witches (creatures actually in league with the Devil), lechers, blasphemers, and collaborators with the Devil. Indeed, he sees his childhood Sunday School teacher, now a witch, and overhears the voices of his minister and a deacon of his church as they ride past conversing about the diabolical communion service to which both they and he are going.
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Even as Bayard is faced with the idea of war, he recalls of himself and Ringo that, “What counted was, what one of us had done or seen that the other had not, and ever since that Christmas I had been ahead of Ringo because I had seen a railroad, a locomotive” (81). In the midst of an already chaotic situation, the childlike fascination with the locomotive is a bit illogical.
In the story, Goodman Brown decides to embark on a night journey, with some kind of evil intentions. He is guided by a man who resembles his grandfather, and despite his hesitancy, proceeds to his destination. Brown is shocked to see religious figures along the way, who share the same evil intentions. He is driven to meet the end when he hears his wife Faith's voice calling out. She is his one strand of good that he struggles to hold on to; when he realizes she might be captured by evil, he fills with fear. At the end is their meeting with the devil-figure, where he calls all people to come together under evil.
First of all, Caesar always felt entitled to himself and always had the audacity to see everyone as beneath him. A great example of Caesar’s bravery and fearlessness is when he was eighteen and was escape the punishment from the dictator Sulla, so in the process he was captured by pirates, who decided to be help for ransom. “When they demanded twenty talents for his ransom, he laughed at them for not knowing who he was, and spontaneously promised to give them fifty talents instead, Next after he had dispatched friends to various cites to gather the money…he felt so superior to them that whenever he wanted to sleep, he would order them to be quiet” . Even being surrounded by murderous pirates clearly out numbered, he refused to let them think that they were in charge while he was in their captivity for thirty-eight days.
The overall tone for the passage is more skeptical in the beginning as Brown tries to figure out his stand on the subject of his Puritan faith, however, it shifts towards a traffic tenor at the end as he lives with the consequences of his choices from the night in the woods when he decided to walk along side with the weary old traveler. The symbolism of this passage is so robust, with such great significance behind it. Young Brown proclaims during his journey, “‘Faith! Faith!’ as if bewildered wretches were seeking her, all through the wilderness… ‘My Faith is gone!’ cried he, after one stupefied moment. ‘There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name’” (Hawthorne 251). The symbolism of this passage is so strong, with such great significance behind it. As he shouts from the rooftops that he has lost his wife Faith, which can be inferred to be his own personal faith. Sheer panic filled the air once he realizes that he had turned away from his heritage, involuntary choosing to eliminate his faith from his life. How did he lose his faith within that night? He chose to follow the traveler with the serpent staff, casted as the devil, as the walk along in the woods, representing hell. Just like the devil tempted Jesus, he did so with Brown,
Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in “Stories Derived from New England Living” state: “’Young Goodman Brown’ uses the background of witchcraft to explore uncertainties of belief that trouble a man’s heart and mind” (31). It is on that one night of the year when witches have their coven in the deepest woods that the young husbandman, Goodman Brown, takes leave of his wife, Faith: “YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife.” The reader receives a premonition of the impending evil intrigue with Faith’s staement of her foreboding, troublesome dreams:
As Goodman Brown sets off on his walk into the forest, he believes that there is more good within his community than evil, and that he himself is a good man. He believes that he will follow his wife to heaven. Yet as he talks with his fellow traveler his thoughts are soon swayed. Goodman Brown talks of his father and grandfather and how they never went into the woods on such an errand as himself, for they were honest men and good Christians. Yet his companion tells him of many a sin his relatives had committed and the walks he had taken with them, therefore proving to Goodman Brown that his father and grandfather before him were not perfectly innocent, good people. Goodman Brown says to his companion that the people of New England are a good people of prayer and abide no wickedness. Again, the traveler returns with comments of the church deacon drinking the communion wine and the town selectmen selling...
Let us begin with the opening lines of the story: “YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset, into the street of Salem village. . .” What is Goodman Brown symbolic of? 1. According to Levy, he “is Everyman. The bargain he has struck with Satan is the universal one . . . . Initially, he is a naive and immature young man who fails to understand the gravity of the step he has taken . . . [which is] succeeded by a presumably adult determination to resi...
“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, delves into the classic battle between good and evil; taking the protagonist, Goodman Brown, on a journey to test the resolve of his faith. Goodman ventures out on his expedition deep into the sinister forest, in order to repudiate the attempt of the devil to sway him from Christianity; a test he believes his devout faith is prepared to confront. Goodman Brown is forever altered in ways unforeseeable by taking a stroll with the ultimate antagonist, the devil himself. The prevailing theme in this literary work, which is common in Hawthorne’s gothic writing, is the realization that evil can infect people who seem perfectly respectable. Throughout the course of his journey, Goodman Brown discovers that even highly reputable people of Salem are vulnerable to the forces of darkness.
The case under review occurred in the city of Newton against a backdrop of economic decline, political disenchantment, and a widening racial divide. A Newton High School senior,Sheila Allison, is accused by her teacher of plagiarizing a book review. Mrs. Durnitz, the teacher, reported to the school principal that Sheila admitted to taking material from the web but claimed she did not know that doing so constituted plagiarism. The district’s policy states that students found guilty of plagiarism must receive a failing grade and repeat the course. Mrs. Durnitz feels that Sheila, having a copy of the student handbook in which plagiarism is discussed, should have known that what she did violated the policy. The teacher also believes that the policy, drafted by the teachers who teach honors classes and approved by the administration, must be followed to the letter despite any extenuating circumstances.
When his father first appears on the scene, the Bayard says: “He was not big, it was just the things he did… that made him seem big to us” (9). Swept up in the romance of war, with the dust of battle clinging to him, John Sartoris seems to assume a larger than life persona but even as the narrator delineates his father before us, he attaches a caveat that in actuality, the Colonel was different from how he saw him as a young boy. This statement presages the mature understanding of his father’s character that Bayard develops as the novel progresses. In “The Odor of Verbena”, he has reached such clarity of vision that he can say without much difficulty that his father was a difficult man to get along with, he ac...
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegorical story “Young Goodman Brown” is set in Salem, Massachusetts during the late sixteen hundreds in a time of religious hysteria and only a few generations after the infamous witch trials. Although "Young Goodman Brown" is a fictional tale, it is based on the cynical environment of Salem during this time period. The short story is filled with many literary elements, leading you to question what did exactly happen to the main character at the conclusion. When analyzing a story like "Young Goodman Brown", one must recognize that the story is at whole symbolic. In the text, symbols are used to uncover the truth of the characters. The role of Faith as both a character and a spiritual element are crucial to both the story and the character of Young Goodman Brown.
Late one night he finds himself in the middle of the woods with the Devil, on his way to a meeting of the Devil's followers. After seeing respected townsfolk at the Devil's meeting, including his minister and his wife, Faith, he loses hope in humanity and all that he had known to be true or real. Goodman Brown wakes up in his bed immediately following the Devil's meeting and wonders if what had happened was reality or simply just a dream. Despite his confusion about the events that took place, he was unable to forget what had happened and lost faith in religion and his com... ...
Coal is a non-living resource and a non-renewable resource; it can be defined as a resource that is being consumed at a faster rate than it can be replaced. Coal is formed from the compression of vegetable matter over millions of years. Coal is used to power electricity and a range of everyday products that will be discussed throughout the report and is mined underground or in an open pit.