Nathaniel Hawthorne's best known short stories including Young Goodman Brown, The Minister's Black Veil, and The Birthmark, should be considered some of the great works of American literature because their exploration of enduring American themes of moral struggle. The short stories demonstrate a masterful command of symbolism and allegory.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. Descended from a staunch Puritan family, Hawthorne?s father was a presiding judge over the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne?s father died when he was young and he spent much time alone during his childhood. He had an introspective nature and was an avid reader. He began to write while he was in college and following graduation, returned to Salem where he entered a twelve-year literary apprenticeship. His first collection of short stories, Twice-Told tales, was published in 1837. Soon afterwards, he joined for a short period an experimental utopian community outside of Boston called Brook Farm in 1841. In 1842, Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody and they moved to Concord, Massachusetts. There Hawthorne wrote many pieces including his next collection of stores in 1846 called ?Mosses from an Old Manse.? From 1846 to 1849, Hawthorne worked in a Salem customhouse. Following his dismissal was a two-year period of intense productivity after which he wrote very little fiction, although he did keep notebooks. Hawthorne died in 1864 following several years of inability to complete any of this writings. Much of Hawthorne's work is set in colonial New England and many of his short stories have been read as moral allegories influenced by his Puritan ancestry. He believed that the misfortunes of his immediate family were the result of d...
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...esides over a funeral and a wedding, providing no one with any explanation as to his unusual appearance. The only character not afraid of the veil is the minister?s fiancé but she does ask him to remove it and how his face if only for a single time. He refuses to do so, explaining that the veil must stay on forever in recognition of the time when we will all cast aside our veils. She finally breaks off her engagement with Mr. Hooper since he refuses to remove it. When the minister dies, he is buried with the veil unlifted.
Nathaniel Hawthorne?s best known short stories including Young Goodman Brown, The Minister's Black Veil, and The Birthmark, should be considered some of the great works of American literature because their exploration of enduring American themes of moral struggle. The short stories demonstrate a masterful command of symbolism and allegory.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, Young Goodman Brown is a story of sex, sin, and the Devil, all the entertaining things in life. Hawthorne uses many literary devices to impress strength in his work. Hawthorne uses these techniques to bring out the religious themes within the story.
Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804 (Magill 1; Campbell 1; “Nathaniel Hawthorne”; Eldred 1). He was born into the sixth generation of his Salem family, and was a descendant of a long line of New England Puritans, which contributed in his interest in the Puritan way of life. The family was originally known as the “Hathornes”, but Nathaniel added the “w” to his name so it would become “Hawthorne”. The Hawthornes had been involved in religious persecution with their first American ancestor, William. Another ancestor, John Hathorne, was one of the three judges at the seventeenth-century Salem witchcraft trials. Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain, and when he was four years old (1808), his father died on a voyage in Surinam, Dutch Guinea (Campbell 1). Hawthorne was left alone with his mother and two sisters. He spent his early years in Salem and in Maine, during which he showed an interest in his father’s nautical adventures and read his logbooks often, even after his death (Magill 1). His maternal relatives recognized his literary talent at such a you...
Hawthorne’s Romantic writing ability allures his readers into deep thought of the transforming characters creating himself as a phenomenon. His ability to transform Puritan society in a dark world “attracts readers not only for their storytelling qualities, but also for the moral and theological ambiguities Hawthorne presents so well” (Korb 303). In “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Romantic characteristics such as artificiality of the city, escape from reality, and the value of imagination.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed, Nina Baym. 6th ed. 2003 1263-1272.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in the year 1804 in the heart of Salem, Massachusetts, where to Salem witch trials were conducted. Hawthorne was born in an unforgiving time period, where life revolved around religion and family. Hawthorne’s father died of Yellow Fever in the year 1808. Nathaniel grew up fatherless, which had a lasting effect on who he later became to be. Education at the time was centered on reading and writing, with a heavy religious influence. “The education of the next generation was important to further "purify" the church and perfect social living” (Kizer). However, since his father passed away, there was no other man to instill the Puritan beliefs into young Nathaniel. Hawthorne later on was able to see the culture through a different lens than the people surrounding him, which made him slightly opposed to the Puritan way of life. He became intellectually rebellious; not thinking in the same way that his peers or family was.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol1. Ed. Nina Baym, et al. New York: Norton, 1994. 1198-1207.
The Romantic Period served as a breeding ground for some of America's most extraordinary authors. Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Ralph Waldo Emerson are just some of the names that graced this Golden Era of American literature. Great as they were, these men still lacked a significant amount of originality. Relating their themes and structures results in little to no variation. One author, though born into the era of Romanticism dared to expand the possibilities nineteenth - century literature had to offer. Through works such as "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and "The Birthmark," Nathaniel Hawthorne incorporated Romanticism into his own style. Including ordinary men, such as Mr. Hooper, Goodman Brown, and Aylmer helped to classify Hawthorne as a semi-Romantic author. Other Romantic characteristics were found in his stories as well. Symbolism, man's connection to nature, and the supernatural are all also present in most of his tales. But, most importantly, Hawthorne was remembered for breaking the rules and adding his own touch. He told allegories and parables concerned about his concept of the "unpardonable sin," always including the character's trials from obsession to alienation to finally a loss of soul. Careful review of his work probes the fact that fitting into a dictating society is not only boring but dangerously ordinary.
One particularly noticeable theme in Hawthorne’s work is that of secret sin (Newman 338). In the “Young Goodman Brown”, this theme is evident when young Mr. Brown dreams that he is led by the devil to a witching party. There he sees all of the honorable and pious members of society, including his minister and the woman who taught him his catechisms, communing with the prince of darkness. Upon awakening, the hypocritical nature of his once admired neighbors and the realization of his own secret sin causes him to become terribly disillusioned (Colacurcio 396).
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain lived in completely different times, yet the stories they wrote both tell of the human condition in such a true way the characters in them are as familiar as pedestrians walking on the sidewalk. Two stories by them in particular accentuate a good cha racter. Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown and Mark Twain's the Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Young Goodman Brown is a gothic story about a man, and the town with him, that allows curiosity to lead him astray, while the Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is about a compulsive gambler. Readers who haven't ever heard of these authors are familiar with these type of characte rs. They are real enough to cause nostalgia in the stomachs of the most
It is impossible to fairly analyze Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown" around a single literary approach. American novelist, essayist, and poet, Herman Melville, once wrote about Hawthorn's short story that it over time, like wine, it only improves in flavor and body (The Life and Works of Herman Melville). Hawthorne's short story continues to get better with age, and carries today's readers into a world filled with a plethora of meanings for them to pick from its symbolism. Modern readers have interpreted the meaning of Goodman Brown's experience in many ways, but to pigeon hole the story into one view would destroy its veracity.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown”, The Story and Its Writer, 4th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1995, 595-604.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories. Appelbaum, Stanley, ed. Dover Thrift Edition. General Publishing Company, Canada. 1992.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's knowledge of Puritanism and his close relationship with the religion has impacted his views on those in the society. Hawthorne is critical of the Puritans and he thinks that they are hypocrites for having rules and morals that they do not follow. He sees the underlying sin that others may not. Through his many writings he makes known to his readers that everyone is guilty of sin. The Puritan's main goal was to save themselves from the sin in the world, but Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays their morals and society as troublesome through his works, "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and The Scarlet Letter.
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.