In Nathaniel's Hawthorne "Young Goodman Brown," the reader is brought along into the woods next to a 17th century Puritan settlement in New England, as Brown goes on a life changing journey. There are many conflicting theories on whether the experiences Brown has while in the woods are real or are in dream. For the sake of this argument, we are not going to have this even in Brown's life truly be a single night or a single dream. In this paper I will argue that Goodman Brown's journey is an allegory for his personal progression and realization of society's true state, and not specifically a single dream or actual night.
Before justifying why this story is just an allegory, it is important to offer why this story is neither and dream or an actual night, let’s start first for what this was not an actual night in the woods. The clearest cut element from the short story on why this why not an actual night in the woods is the unclear ending on how Brown got home from the woods. A new paragraph, the third from the end, begins with, “The next morning…” with no explanation in how Brown got home after the satanic ritual his just witnessed in the woods. For the sake of time, possibly, but this takes away of chance for Hawthorne to add realism to the work. Nonetheless, there are many other instances in this piece where Hawthorne works against realism. All of the engagements with the old man at the beginning are totally unrealistic. First the line suggesting his supernatural speed, “‘The clock of the Old South was striking as I came through Boston; and that is full fifteen minutes agone,” and that is a very far distance to travel in fifteen minutes, from Boston to this location in the woods. Another unrealistic element in the rod which turn...
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...ion, besides neighbors, not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tomb-stone; for his during hour was in gloom.” While it can be argued that single night could have such a drastic effect on the end of his life, a full on progression into a different person as just told by this massive allegory would be a great answer to everything up in question from this short story.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” has kept readers question about the story, it’s meaning, and Hawthorne’s intentions since its been published. By this essay still raising points about the sorts hundreds of years after being published attest the stories power. While argument can be made against all that was presented against a person progression allegory, its a theory that deserves just as much attention as whether the events in this story just happened to Brown or if it was a dream.