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discuss the symbols in Hawthorne's young goodman brown
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Losing Faith Young Goodman Brown
Throughout the short story "Young Goodman Brown," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne the main character is searching for Faith in what appears to be an increasingly corrupt world. Faith takes on a double meaning in this story, for Faith is used both as the name of Young Goodman Brown's pretty young wife and the spiritual devotion of Young Goodman Brown to the Puritan Faith. The dual usage of Faith in this short story, along with its theme of devil worship amongst Puritan society draws the reader in, and leaves the story imprinted on his brain for a long time to come.
As the story opens, Young Goodman Brown is about to enter the forest to partake upon an "evil purpose." He leaves behind his sweet, pretty, young wife of three months, who wears pretty pink ribbons in her hair, urging her to "Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee" (p. 102). Young Goodman Brown is hesitant about leaving his Faith behind to go on such an errand, to venture into the forest where "the devil himself could be at my very elbow!" (p. 103).
Once in the forest, Young Goodman Brown is met with "the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree" (p. 103). When questioned as to why he has dallied in meeting this figure, Young Goodman Brown replies "Faith kept me back awhile" (p. 103). In the literal sense, Young Goodman Brown's pretty young wife delayed him from his meeting with the dark figure by begging him to "put off his journey until sunrise and sleep in his own bed to-night" (p. 103). In a symbolic sense, Young Goodman Brown's devotion to all that is just in the world has made him hesitant to enter the corrupt reality of the forest.
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...ditate his sermon, and Goody Cloyse catechizing a little girl. He spies the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy at the sight of him that she skipped along the street and almost kissed her husband before the whole village" (p. 111). Young Goodman Brown looks sternly and sadly into her face, and passes on without a greeting.
"Had Young Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?" (p. 112). It does not matter, for Young Goodman Brown becomes "a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man" (p. 111). He shrinks from the bosom of Faith, and he dies a "hoary corpse" (p. 111). It does not matter that Young Goodman Brown rejected the Devil at his fiery altar that night in the forest. The Devil has claimed his Faith in humanity in another way.
This was shocking for Young Goodman Brown because everyone from town who were claiming to be Christians were here worshipping the devil. The symbolic part of the story is that all people will sin and even Jesus has sinned. But in Goodman Brown anyone who has sinned cannot be trusted because they follow the devil. The devil is at the altar and a basin which is like a big bowl, but what was in it “Did it contain water, reddened be the lurid light? or was it blood?” (12). As the devil was going to mark them with the liquid from the basin. Goodman Brown yelled “Faith! Faith! Cried the husband, look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one”(12). Goodman Brown did not know if Faith had heard him. This conflict is when Goodman Brown finds out that everyone worshipped the devil and that he was the only one who had stayed true towards his religion. This is ironic because there is no one in the world who has not sinned, and for Goodman Brown to think that he is the one and only one to have not sinned is the reason it is
Within “Young Goodman Brown”, the naive and malleable character’s intoxication of grief and dread lead him upon the revelation of the town’s hypocrisy. The fact of the initial impact upon Brown’s mentality and changed outlook of the town’s people revolves around the imagined forest meeting which leaves him bitter and spiteful. Satan’s true intent was to make him: “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream”. Whether the forestry scene did in fact occur is truly a matter of the readers insight, however the overall impact that the scene had upon the story’s primary thematic detail of hypocrisy does evolve around the secrets of which the townspeople in turn remain to hold to themselves. Hawthorne’s works primarily emphas...
Before Brown leaves the house, Faith begs him to stay saying, "...put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night" (Hawthorne 298), but of course, Brown ignores her plea and continues his journey anyhow. In the forest, he meets a man with a staff "which bore the likeness of a great black snake" (Hawthorne 299), an ultimate representation of evil. Surely, Goodman Brown knows that the witch meeting appears to be his destination. Walking through the forest, he pays close attention to every tree and every rock. As he proceeds his journey, Brown sights Faith and his moral and spiritual adviser, along with Deacon Gookin and the minister. He then notices Goody Cloyse, an old "Christian woman" (Hawthorne 300), rushing through the woods. Surely Brown's suspicion begins to take over, now curious about...
During Brown’s venture through the woods he first discovers the truth behind those and others whom he knows personally and from a distance. “Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart. He looked up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a heaven above him,” (530). This particular quote is an example of Brown’s initial shock after learning of the ties these seemingly good Christian people had with evil. It is with this realization that Brown begins to doubt all he has been taught to accept as true. This also begins Brown’s struggle to accept such discoveries and to catalyze not only his faith in mankind but also his spiritual faith.
The story begins with Young Goodman Brown departing from his wife. His pretty young wife Faith is immediately identified by the pink ribbons in her hair. “And Faith, as his wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street letting the wind play with the pink ribbons on her cap.” (Hawthorne 197)...
Young Goodman Brown is about a young, newly wedded man who leaves his wife, Faith, and to go on a journey into the forest one night. Young Goodman Brown has an innocent and maybe even naïve soul and was looked upon by townspeople as a “silly fellow” (Hawthorne 83). He is accompanied by a mysterious, older man who is later on revealed to be the devil. As they are walking, Young Goodman Brown tries to turn back several times and at one point succeeds in getting rid of the devil. However, when he sees that even his wife has surrendered to the same evil path that he was on, he stops resisting and continues into the forest. He ends up at a witches’ sabbath where he sees familiar faces of people whom he previously looked up to for spiritual guidance; he also finds Faith there and becomes devastated. In the end, he cries out to resist the devil and then wakes up to find himself alone in the forest.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne short story “Young Goodman Brown,” he takes us on a journey of the human heart, in which he would later coin the phrase that “there is a fund of evil in every human heart”. Though the story is filled with dark gloomy imagery, Hawthorne was able to keep us wanting to know more base on the fact its Salem village. With the uses of symbolism, the author incorporate nature such as the “deep forest”, and “Faith” the newly wife of young Goodman brown working hand in hand to illustrate the purpose of the story. Hawthorne shows us that our faith should not dictate base on the perception of others, as a result, would be compromised and weaken.
First, the main character's name is Goodman Brown. Does this mean something? It seems Nathaniel Hawthorne wished it to be that way. After reading the story, the reader is left with the impression that "GOOD-MAN" in the focal character's name symbolizes that this will be the good character in the battle between good and evil. Hawthorne begins the allegory immediately with the setting, "Young Goodman Brown came forth....And Faith, as the wife was aptly named..." (Emphasis on the "aptly named" part). This indicates there is an ulterior motive for naming the wife Faith. Hawthorne also points out the pink ribbon of Faith's cap when she calls to her husband, and this becomes important later in the story. Combining the opening character introduction with the description of the environment establishes the theme of the story, if one could think on the same level as Hawthorne.
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. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise.”
At the beginning of his journey, Goodman Brown’s will and pride were both embedded in the belief that he was a pious man. Goodman’s pride in piety evidently fails him, as he discovers that his faith was based on the principles of individuals who had sworn allegiance to the devil. This deplorable truth destroyed his conviction, and in this sense the devil prevailed against Goodman Brown.
During Goodman Brown’s journey, he recognized Goody Cloyse, his catechism teacher, the preacher, and Deacon Gookin is going to the devil’s meeting. However, after seeing his church members at the devil’s meeting, Goodman says, “My Faith is gone! and There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil! for to thee is this world given” (Hawthorne 27). “But, where is Faith?”, asked Goodman Brown (Hawthorne 29). As hope came into his heart, he trembled when he found the pink ribbon of his wife, Faith, in the forest. At that moment, Goodman Brown lost his faith in his family and church members. Goodman becomes unforgiving of others and believes only evil can be created from evil and there is nothing that anyone can do to change it. Here, Hawthorne demonstrates that a naive faith in our family, friends, and church member’s righteousness could lead to distrust. While, “Young Goodman Brown” lives a long life with Faith, he never loses his meanness toward humanity and the evil in the world, “for his dying hour was gloom” (Hawthorne
In the story, Young Goodman Brown, the character, Goodman Brown changes throughout the story. In the beginning he was a kind man, loving husband with nothing holding him down, not even the warnings of his wife, Faith. As he walked and talked with the Devil, he became more aware of what had happened in the past with his own family. When he saw the Devil talk with Goody Cloyse on the path in the woods, he figured out by the nature of their conversation that the Devil was more mischievous than he thought. He started to have uncertainties about the errand he was on. At that point, Goodman Brown told the devil he was not going another step. Shortly after the Devil left him in the path, Brown found a ribbon on a branch of a tree
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” (repr. in Thomas R. Arp, and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 8th ed. [Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2002] 316) is a short story with strong Puritan influence. Puritanism is a religion demanding strict moral conduct and strong faith. Puritans held that Christians should do only what the Bible commanded. Analyzing “Young Goodman Brown” is dependant upon understanding the Puritan faith. The influence of the Puritan religion is vivid in literary elements such as setting, allegory, and theme.
One element of Young Goodman Brown is a criticism of Puritan self-righteousness; the devil points out to Brown that he has “a very general acquaintance here in New England” and then proceeds to cite instances of hypocrisy, prejudice, and persecution (Hawthorne 5). The devil also reveals that he is familiar with Brown’s ancestors, leading them toward sin (Hawthorne 5). All of this is disturbing to Brown and the issue of evil is f...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown,” the author uses danger and mystery to represent the struggle of good versus evil. Young Goodman Brown journeys into the night and comes to realize an unforgiving truth. Everyone is in danger of abandoning their faith or is inherently evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne has filled this story symbolism, after reading this story the reader may have questions about Young Goodman Browns’ determination to journey towards his evil purpose. Nathaniel Hawthorne implies strong faith can endure but when that faith is destroyed, what view does a person have towards mankind? Let us take a look at Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of significant symbols throughout “Young Goodman Brown.”