Hawthorne’s Style in “Young Goodman Brown”
The style is “how speakers or writers say whatever it is that they say” (Abrams 303). This essay will present an analysis of the style found in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.”
First of all, the reader can notice right away that Hawthorne writes in a well-read and cultivated style, avoiding the use of profanity, vulgar language, or words offensive to the ear. Consider his precise word selection from an enormous vocabulary:
They continued to walk onward, while the elder traveler exhorted his companion to make good speed and persevere in the path, discoursing so aptly, that his arguments seemed rather to spring up in the bosom of his auditor, than to be suggested by himself. As they went, he plucked a branch of maple, to serve for a walking-stick, and began to strip it of the twigs and little boughs, which were wet with evening dew
Even the most emotional outburst in the entire story does not contain any language even remotely displeasing or uncultivated: "’Ha! ha! ha!’ roared Goodman Brown, when the wind laughed at him. "Let us hear which will laugh loudest! Think not to frighten me with your deviltry! Come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow, come devil himself! and here comes Goodman Brown. You may as well fear him as he fear you!’"
Though he has obviously read widely, where are the references to the works Hawthorne has enjoyed? It is a feature of his style in “Young Goodman Brown” that he does not allude to a single author or literary work. It would be so easy for him to do, and yet he restrains himself – for whatever literary reason.
Hawthorne’s style in this tale is, without a doubt, imaginative. Consider his description of the second traveler and his staff:
It was now deep dusk in the forest, and deepest in that part of it where these two were journeying. As nearly as could be discerned, the second traveler was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in expression than features. Still, they might have been taken for father and son. And yet, though the elder person was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner-table, or in King William's court, were it possible that his affairs should call him thither.
The style of Hawthorne is deft and effective. His examination of Pyncheons two-facedness is formatted like a courtroom interrogation with Pyncheon on the witness chair. The climatic last tirade of the narrator releases all of Hawthorne’s disgust and revulsion in a captivating fashion. The organization and attention to what the reader is expecting keep the argument subtle and critical.
Romero-Martinez A, Figueiredo B, Moya-Albiol L. Childhood history of abuse and child abuse potential: The role of parent's gender and timing of childhood abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect March 2014; 38(3).Print
In reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, many issues come up that arouse interest in topics of knowledge, evil, reality, amongst other things. During my experience reading this text, how Goodman Brown's outlook changed based on information revealed to him that may not even be the "reality" of the people he knows was fascinating. That knowledge gained outside traditional and physical realms can affect the mind and the perception of the world is a fascinating subject. I also found this interesting in conjunction with some of the concepts of literary critics we reviewed this week, as the question of what literature is and what it should do becomes important in the discussion of what happens to Goodman Brown, but subsequently what happens to the reader of his story.
“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
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol1. Ed. Nina Baym, et al. New York: Norton, 1994. 1198-1207.
Hochman Steven H. “Jimmy Carter – 39th President of the United States and Founder of The Carter Center.” The Carter Center. 13 March 2014. Web. 10 May 2014.
Lang, H.J. “How Ambiguous is Hawthorne?” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
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."
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.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." 1835. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter et al. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Lexington: Heath, 1944. 2129-38.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig. 5th Compact ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 329-37. Print.
Yiu, L. (2012). Community care. In L. Stamler & L. Yiu (Eds.), Community health nursing: A Canadian perspective (3rd ed., p. 213, 219, 227). Toronto, Canada: Pearson Canada Inc.
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
The narrator, Le Ly Hayslip was born into a family of six in a town called Ka Ly in Vietnam. The villagers of Ka Ly fight for both side of the war; Hayslip’s own brothers were split between the communist north and the puppet government controlled south and so were her family. By day the village was looked over by Republicans, but by night they were under...