Allegory And Symbolism In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born into a Salem family in which his ancestors were Puritans and had a very strict religious discipline. Being born into a Salem family affected his writing career tremendously and interested him into the way of life for Puritans. Hawthorne was an American fiction writer which was mostly from the history of his Puritan ancestors and New England. He later developed a style of romance fiction which came from his own beliefs. Hawthorne used themes such as psychology and human nature through his work of allegory and symbolism. During his time, which was the 19th century, this was a common type of work. Also being in the 19th century, there was not advanced technology like there is today and Hawthorne had to give lengthy visual descriptions since he could not print his pictures.

He often focused most of his writing on the inner struggles of a character rather than encounters between characters. An example of this is found in The Scarlet Letter, ‘Thou shall not commit adultery’ (Magill 1: 846). Hawthorne's repeated theme throughout his writing was his own view on human nature. He looked into an interesting type of human psychology through his study of the dark side of human consciousness. Hawthorne's theme that human nature is full of wickedness was present in 'Young Goodman Brown' when Goodman Brown himself experienced an abundance amount of difficulty in his own temptations (Magill:3 1143). A recurring theme also used by Hawthorne is isolation. It is said that Hawthorne was isolated himself and always felt alone and this is his reasoning for the theme of isolation throughout his writing. He also used this theme of isolation in The Scarlet Letter many times. All in all, Nathaniel