Young Goodman Brown: Historical and Biographical Impact
So much for textual matters, paraphrasable content, and genre. What kind of historical or biographical information do we need in order to get the full impact of this story aesthetically and intellectually? Obviously, some knowledge of Puritan New England is necessary. We can place the story in time easily, because Hawthorne mentions that it takes place in the days of King William (that is, William III, who reigned from 1688 to 1702). Other evidences of the time of the story are the references to persecution of the Quakers by Brown's grandfather (the 1660s) and King Philip's War [primarily a massacre of Indians by colonists [1675-1676]), in which Brown's father participated. Specific locales like Salem, Boston, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are mentioned, as are terms used in Puritan ecclesiasticism and government, such as ministers, elders, meetinghouses, communion tables, saints fin the Protestant sense of any Christian), selectmen, and lecture days.
But it is not enough for us to visualize a sort of "First Thanksgiving" picture of Pilgrims with steeple-crowned hats, Bibles, and blunderbusses. For one thing, we need to know something of Puritan religion and theology. This means at least a slight knowledge of Calvinism, a main source of Puritan religious doctrine. A theology as extensive and complex as Calvinism and one that has been the subject of so many misconceptions cannot be described adequately in a handbook of this type. But at the risk of perpetuating some of these misconceptions, let us mention three or four tenets of Calvinism that will illuminate to some degree the story of Goodman Brown. Calvinism stresses the sovereignty of God --- in goodness, power, and knowledge. Correspondingly, it emphasizes the helplessness and sinfulness of man. Man has been, since the Fall of Adam, innately and totally depraved. His only hope is in the grace of God, for God alone is powerful enough (sovereign enough) to save him. And the most notorious, if not the chief, doctrine is predestination, which includes the belief that God has, before their creation, selected certain people for eternal salvation, others for eternal damnation. Appearances are therefore misleading; an outwardly godly man might not be one of the elect. Thus it is paradoxical that Goodman Brown is so shocked to learn that there is evil among the apparently righteous for this was one of the most strongly implied teachings of his church.
INTRODUCTION: why is Young Goodman Brown a sinful and bitter person? Why and how is he like that?
Explain in detail, from a biological perspective, how GABA is related to the experience of anxiety. What are some limitations of this explanation?
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.
“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
Young Goodman Brown: The Puritans and Love Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, exposes the puritan view of love and relationships. In theory, these two visions are diametrically opposed. One exalts love as a physical manifestation between two individuals (although it also claims to represent higher ideals), the other sees it as a spiritual need, one best manifested by attachment to God. In fact, the puritans did not see love as a good thing, but rather as an evil, a grim necessity, that is, they saw physical love (between a man and a woman, or sexuality and all it carries with it) as such. The emotional turmoil affecting Goodman Brown clearly expresses this.
The American experiment is one that has been ongoing since the moment the first settler stepped foot on the newly discovered continent. The definition of what it means to be someone in this new place has changed frequently, and a common national identity was not something that was common until about halfway through the occupancy of said new place. This is because unlike other lands, American has been left untouched by our European style of thought for most of its inception. America changed that, only certain people came over, and these are the people that have had the most impact on our way of thinking. The identity known as being American took time to develop, starting with the writings of the explorers, flowing to the thoughts of religious
In “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne uses the hypocritical nature of Young Goodman Browns neighbors and friends to show the hypocritical nature of the puritan people. In the story, Young Goodman Brown is led by the devil to a witching party in the woods. At the witching party he sees all the people he thought to be honorable and pious. He sees his minister, and Goody Cloyse, the woman who taught him his catechisms, meeting with the devil. He even sees his wife about to join the commune but doesn’t see whether she does or not because he resists the devil and wakes up by a tree. After witnessing these things in the woods Young Goodman Brown can’t look at the people he loved and looked up to in the same way anymore. He becomes a bitter and distrustful old man because of their hypocr...
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.
... Orpheus thinks that a trick is being played on him and turns around, causing Eurydice to be lost forever. This leads the viewer to believe that Orpheus was not really in the underworld and that this was just a fake journey into a nonexistent underworld. It seems quite odd that anyone can walk down a spiral staircase and be placed at the gates of Hades. This is the main reason the journey into the underworld appears to be a false one.
Nathaniel Hawthorne did not write Young Goodman Brown to insult the Puritans’ views on religion. By the time he wrote this short story, the Puritans did not exist anymore. Hawthorne simple shows how their way of religion can affect a person’s life and how they struggle to live to the standards of a “good Christian”. Goodman Brown seems to struggle with being what the Puritans consider a good Christian man. He fits the image of a good Christian but did not have the relationship that one should have. If he did have a Christian like faith he would not have fallen deep into temptation, lose faith in his religion and became a stern bitter man.
Through the work of "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne is able to express his views of hypocrisy in Puritanism. Goodman Brown was convinced that his Puritan family was sinless and deserved to be honored. When traveling through the forest he says, "My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs" ("Young Goodman Brown" 238). What Goodman Brown does not know is that his previous generations have taken part in these sinful actions that occurred in the woods. Although Brown's ancestors were supposedly righteous Puritans, they were involved in lashing a Quaker woman and setting fire to an Indian village, according to the traveler speaking with Brown. Through these stories that the traveler tells, Hawthorne makes known to his readers that Puritan's are hypocrites because they say they are holy and pure when in reality they are committing impious actions. Throughout this story Young Goodman Brown takes his journey through the woods and sees nearly eve...
Staton, Shirley F. Literary Theories In Praxis. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne analyzes the Puritans’ consciousness and the hidden wickedness of their nature. He takes a naïve Puritan man and takes him on a journey into the dark forest to meet an old man whom we presume, is the devil. As the naïve Puritan embarks on his journey, his wife "Faith" kisses him good bye. The Puritan has an overwhelming feeling of guilt as he is entering the forest to meet with the Devil. He realized what he is doing was forbidden and none of his forefathers or fellow Puritans would ever commit such a sin. During his meeting with the Devil his naïveté dissolves. He sees Deacon Gookin, his old catechism teacher, and other upstanding members of the community, whom he looked up to and feared, dancing around the Devil’s fire. He is told that the Devil has helped his father and Grandfather in years past. His innocence is completely destroyed when he sees his own wife Faith dancing around the Devils circle . He screams in agony: "My faith is gone. There is no good on earth; and sin is but a ...
Pikas, E. (2013). Building information modeling dcation for construction engineeng and managemet. ii; procedures and implementaion case stdy. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 139(11), 04013016-1 - 04013014-11.
The stages of the EIA process include screening, scoping, impact prediction, evaluation and mitigation, decision-making and, finally, monitoring t...