For those who have not studied the Puritans or their beliefs, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is not much more than a story of lost (or maybe just confused) faith. Hawthone, a man of puritan descent, had some oppositions to the ideals that Puritans followed. Some of these ideals are discussed in his "Young Goodman Brown".
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." An Introduction to Literature. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, Willam Burto. 10th ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. 74-85.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodmam Brown", The Story and Its Writer, 4th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1995, 595-604.
In the story Young Goodman Brown, it suggests that people should test their faith of their religious beliefs to determine the strength of it. Goodman Brown took this journey into the woods to test how strong his faith in Christ was. Before Goodman Brown left for his journey in the woods, he promised his wife Faith that he would return to her, his wife symbolizes Goodman Brown’s faith in Christ. The multiple obstacles that Goodman Brown faced in the woods like when saw all the people he considered to be upright and holy in the meeting with the devil, caused him not to trust anyone not even his own wife Faith when he returns from his journey. If a person has a strong faith in their religion, nothing should be able to cause them to lose it. Unfortunately, Goodman Brown did not have a strong faith in Christ and ended up turning his back on the church. Goodman Brown seems to be a good honest person who was raised in the Christian church and was taught about Christ but he ne...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown struggles with staying pure and not giving in to the devil. Hawthorne utilizes allegory and ambiguity to leave unanswered questions for the reader.
In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne published the tale of “Young Goodman Brown,” a tale that illustrates many configurations of symbolism used to leave the reader planting the pieces together through his characteristics of detail and imagery. Hawthorne’s prime analogy expressed throughout this tale is the loss of vulnerability and pureness when reaching maturity.
“Young Goodman Brown” is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The literary work entails a young man’s journey into the woods one night and stumbles upon a variety of people that will change his life forever, but not for the better. 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, the it shifts towards a more 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. 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,
In the same way, Hawthorne uses faith symbolically again to represent Goodman Brown own faith in God. As the story begins we see Faith pleading with Goodman brown not to go on the journey but to stay home with her. Hawthorne shows that Goodman has strong faith before he departs for his journey and sometimes in the deep forests, by the way in which he replies to faith as to reassure that his faith will not be weakened by anything he comes across in his journey the author states " 'Amen! ' Cried Goodman Brown 'Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee '" (Hawthorne). So we see that Goodman brown not only knows the consequences he will encounter, but he welcomes it because of the curiosity and will that inflame his heart. He acknowledges his motives and he "felt justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose" (Hawthorne). Even though he knows what he’s about to do is evil and sinful, Goodman
But this was not so, for his faith had never been there in the first place. In James 2:17, the Bible says, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead”. This was exactly the problem for Goodman Brown. While he retained the faith of his religion, he did not live his life according to that faith. Later in the short story, after his fall, he returns to his home to find his wife Faith waiting for him, as lovely as ever. But things are different now. He can no longer pretend that his Faith means something. Now it has been exposed, and he regards it as it truly
McCabe, Michael E. “The Consequences of Puritan Depravity and Distrust as Historical Context for Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”.”
Faith is accepting what you are taught or told without trying to prove or disprove it, rather than discovering it through experience. Those who believe in God have faith. It has not been proven that God exists; similarly, it has not been proven that humans are kind, honest, and good by nature. Young Goodman Brown is a character in "Young Goodman Brown," who leaves his known world in Salem village and travels an unknown road in a dark forest in the middle of the night, a common motif in literature better known as the Hero's journey, and is faced with obstacles. He must decide if he will carry his journey out till the end, or turn back and not learn the truth about himself and other humans.
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.
Hawthorn, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown" The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol. I. Shorter Seventh Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2008. 620-629. Print.
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.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol1. Ed. Nina Baym, et al. New York: Norton, 1994. 1198-1207.