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Young goodman brown summary essay
The analysis of young goodman brown
Importance of setting in literature
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The setting of a work can be the most powerful literary devices an author uses in their work. Setting refers to a location or time in which a work is set. Setting has a wide range of possibilities. The setting of a work may be as simple as a single room or may be as complex as the author or character's psychological state of mind. Authors can use setting to enhance the theme of their works. One author in particular is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown” in 1835. His time period influenced the theme of his work. The theme Hawthorne chose was the weakness of public morality. In “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne shows this theme through the perspective of a Puritan man, Goodman Brown. In the story Hawthorne shows that Goodman Brown’s religious convictions are rooted in his belief that those around him are also religious. This kind of faith, which depends so much on other people’s views, is easily weakened. Hawthorne suggests that faith is weak when people copy the beliefs of other people around them. Hawthorne shows this in the story with the fall of Goodman Brown, who at the beginning was pure and pious. To further illustrate this, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the setting of his time period and that of his predecessors to enhance the theme of the weakness of public morality in his work “Young Goodman Brown”.
Nathaniel Hawthorne used his own personal setting in life to help write his short stories. Most of Hawthorne's stories are dark and gloomy, as was the history of his family. The Hawthorne family had deep roots in New England. Hawthorne had an imaginative link to the paternal side of his family. This link to his father's family inspired most of Nathaniel’s literary work. Nathaniel’s great-great-grand...
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...lection of Literary Biographies, Retrospective Supplement 1. Ed. A. Walton Litz and Molly Weigel. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. Scribner Writers Series. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.
Liebman, Sheldon W. "The Reader in 'Young Goodman Brown'."The Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal 1975. Ed. C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr. Microcard Editions Books, 1975. 156-169. Rpt. In Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 29. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Walsh, Thomas F., Jr. "The Bedeviling of Young Goodman Brown."Modern Language Quarterly 19.4 (Dec. 1958): 331-336. Rpt. inShort Story Criticism. Ed. Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 29. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Wilson, George. ""Young Goodman Brown""Literature and Its Times. By Joyce Moss. Vol. 1. Gale Cengage, 1997. 420-26. Print.
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...
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, the descendent of a long line of Puritan ancestors, including John Hathorne, a presiding magistrate in the Salem witch trials. After his father was lost at sea when he was only four, his mother became overly protective and pushed him toward more isolated pursuits. Hawthorne's childhood left him overly shy and bookish, and molded his life as a writer. Hawthorne is one of the most modern of writers who rounds off the puritan cycle in American writing
...nterpretation of the story would be distinct with each setting. For example if he was to choose to write this story with a lower class, African-American social setting the interpretation the audience would acquire would much different. It could be to represent the enslavement era or the civil rights movement. Thus, setting is extremely crucial to the ultimate interpretation of the story.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne conveys to readers a seemingly highly religious Puritan town. However, this town appears to be holding a devious truth. Throughout his work Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to convey the corrupt and evil truth behind the otherwise highly religious Puritan town. Through his main symbol usage of Faith’s pink ribbons, Faith’s name and appearances throughout the story, and the woods in which the story is set, readers see the façade slowly fade through the story and reveal the truth about the town.
BIOGRAM The man Nathaniel Hawthorne, an author of the nineteenth century, was born in 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. It was there that he lived a poverty-stricken childhood without the financial support of a father, because he had passed away in 1808. Hawthorne was raised strictly Puritan, his great-grandfather had even been one of the judges in the Puritan witchcraft trials during the 1600s. This and Hawthorne’s destitute upbringing advanced his understanding of human nature and distress felt by social, religious, and economic inequities.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown illustrates vividly how society and culture can very much influence a person’s sense of identity and belonging, or in the case of Young Goodman Brown the lack thereof. Being a Puritan man in a society that scorned the ways of witches and the devil, Young Goodman Brown grew up with a very pious outlook on life. Yet when it occurs to him to look at life a little bit differently, Young Goodman Brown receives more than he has bargained for. The journey he embarks on sheds a whole new light on his society that not only creates a struggle between himself and his fellow men but also one within himself.
The puritan roots that ran in the northeastern part of the country was a way that Hawthorne used to show his underlying messages in many of his works. However, as opposed to the previous works that the country produced, Hawthorne’s used the puritan religion as a means to an end, not as an example or testimony of how to live. A keen example of this is in Hawthorne’s 1835 work, “Young Goodman Brown.” The symbolism is evident as first simply from the title. Hawthorne is attempting to write a story about a young, good man, creating this persona by creating the image of a devout person, first hinting at this through his location, Salem (Hawthorne 87). Salem is the location of the witch trials that Hawthorne’s ancestors were a part of, and from this location Hawthorne is showing that Brown is a puritan, but also that he is a part of a society that can lose sight of their shortcomings. This is something that would not be evident in earlier American writings. Writing about the shortcomings of devout people was not widely recognized as religion to these people was life
Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism throughout his short story Young Goodman Brown to impact and clarify the theme of good people sometimes doing bad things. Hawthorne uses a variety of light and dark imagery, names, and people to illustrate irony and different translations. Young Goodman Brown is a story about a man who comes to terms with the reality that people are imperfect and flawed and then dies a bitter death from the enlightenment of his journey through the woods. Images of darkness, symbolic representations of names and people and the journey through the woods all attribute to Hawthorne's theme of good people sometimes doing bad things.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is an excellent example of the use of allegories and symbolism as a form of satire on Puritan faith. According to Frank Preston Stearns, author of The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Hawthorne may have intended this story as an exposure of the inconsistency, and consequent hypocrisy, of Puritanism” (Stearns 181). Throughout the story of “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne tries to infuse as many symbols and allegories as he can to enhance the overall meaning of his story. He uses the village, Goodman Brown, Faith, the man in the forest, and the time spent in the forest as either a symbol or an allegory to get his point across that Puritans are not always what they seem to be.
To truly comprehend the themes in "Young Goodman Brown" you must first understand the influences on Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing. According to the website Hawthorneinsalem.org, Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, son of also a Nathaniel Hawthorne, was actually a descendant of John Hathorne, one of the judges who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials. Because of Hawthorne's Puritan upbringing, much of writings are moral allegories set in colonial New England. Hawthorne returns again to Salem in "Young Goodman Brown" and deals with the theme of the loss of innocence. This theme works to argue the benefits and consequences of Goodman Brown's beliefs before and after his encounter with the devil as well as the beliefs of the Puritans as a whole.
It is surprising, in a way, to discover how few of the many critics who have discussed "Young Goodman Brown'' agree on any aspect of the work except that it is an excellent short story. D. M. McKeithan says that its theme is "sin and its blighting effects." Richard H. Fogle observes, "Hawthorne the artist refuses to limit himself to a single and doctrinaire conclusion, proceeding instead by indirection,'' implying, presumably, that it is inartistic to say something which can be clearly understood by the readers. Gordon and Tate assert, "Hawthorne is dealing with his favorite theme: the unhappiness which the human heart suffers as a result of its innate depravity." Austin Warren says, ''His point is the devastating effect of moral scepticism." Almost all critics agree, however, that Young Goodman Brown lost his faith. Their conclusions are based, perhaps, upon the statement, "My Faith is gone!" made by Brown when he recognizes his wife's voice and ribbon. I should like to examine the story once more to show that Young Goodman Brown did not lose his faith at all. In fact, not only did he retain his faith, but during his horrible experience he actually discovered the full and frightening significance of his faith.
When the news came of his father’s death, Hawthorne’s mother withdrew into her upstairs bedroom, coming out only rarely during the remaining forty years of her life. The boy and his two sisters lived in almost complete isolation from her and from each other (29).
The story setting is the impetus in The Scarlet Letter because New England during the mid- 17th century had unique customs and values that impelled conflicts and character transformations. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne accentuates certain settings within New England to portray the strictness and hardships in the town, while he counters with the forest and the isolated cottage settings. Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter portrays a strict, rigid Puritan town through utilizing both the physical and historical settings of the time period.
The author of this novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne, grew up in Salem so the setting cof this novel played a large role in his life. Hawthorne was the “great-grandson of the Salem Witch Trials judge John Hathorne” (Brooks). However, he changed his last name, adding a “W” because he was “haunted by his connection to his ancestor” (Brooks), and possibly because he wanted to distance himself from his family name. His family had a very large past in the Salem Witch Trials; it is said all of the following members of his family were somehow related to the trials: “Mary and Philip English, John Proctor and Sarah Wilson, as well as one of the accusers: Sarah Phelps. Nathaniel’s great uncle...
Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The House of Seven Gables, was born on July 4, 1804 in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. He was a proud son and grandson of New England seafarers. His father pass away leaving his mother widowed. Hawthorne and his family consist of his mother, and his two sisters. After finishing college, he returned to Salem determined to be a writer. He fought twelve years to perfect his literary skills. Then in 1851, he wrote The House of Seven Gables. On May 19, 1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne met his death. Hawthorne describe his work, The House of Seven Gables to be a romance: “the point of view in which this tale comes under the Romantic definition lies in the attempt to connect a bygone time with the very present that is flitting away from us.” (pg 7, Hawthorne) A romance works to relate with the readers by creating a mixture of historical events and fictional events. It invokes humans' consciences by getting the readers to reflect back on their past actions “usually through a far more sub-tile process than the ostensible one.” (pg 8, Hawthorne) Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon and Clifford Pyncheon are two of the main characters in the book, The House of Seven Gables; it allows the readers to re-evaluate the nature of human character.