A Formal Analysis of Young Goodman Brown
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is an interesting short story that creatively tells two stories at once. One story is of a man leaving his wife one night and venturing into the woods, and the other is of his struggle with his religious faith. In reading this story, it is beneficial for one to look at it from a formalistic point of view. Formal analysis makes the reader look closely at how a story is written to see its deeper meaning. Hawthorne takes advantage of careful word choice and images to create a picture of one man's journey that can easily parallel our own.
The word choice of every story plays a key role in understanding the story. In "Young Goodman Brown" almost every word contains a special meaning. The title Hawthorne gives to his story is simple and informative; it tells the reader right away that the focus of the story is a young man. The use of the name Brown is also significant. The name is universal so that it can relate to anyone (Rhetoric 102L class discussion, January 15 2001). The fact that his title is Goodman, instead of Mister, suggests that it took place around colonial times. The name of his wife, Faith, is a clue held in the opening paragraph of the text that gives the reader and idea of what the story is about. Though out the story Goodman Brown says phrases such as, "Faith kept me back a while," which on the surface looks as though he is talking about his wife; however just below the surface he is talking about how his faith in God that kept him from heading towards the Devil. (HCAL 376). Caref...
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...odman Brown goes is also significant. The Puritans believed that the witches and even the Devil lived in the woods, which can be a hint foreshadowing what Goodman Brown will find in the forest.
"Young Goodman Brown" is full of carefully selected words. Each place, item, and name described is significant to the story. The word, faith, has two functions, a name and a belief. Images such as the pink ribbons and the staff are useful for more than their everyday function. Hawthorne knows the power of words and chooses wisely, thus creating a story that, when looked at beyond the surface, has a completely new meaning.
- (Guerin, Wilfered; Labor, Earle; Morgan, Lee; Reesman, Jeanne; Willingham, John, A Handbook of Critical Appraches to Literature, New York, Oxford University Press, 1999.)
The use of symbolism in "young Goodman Brown" shows that evil is everywhere, which becomes evident in the conclusion of this short story. Hawthorne's works are filled with symbolic elements and allegorical elements. "Young Goodman Brown" deals mostly with conventional allegorical elements, such as Young Goodman Brown and Faith. In writing his short stories or novels he based their depiction of sin on the fact that he feels like his father and grandfather committed great sins. There are two main characters in this short story, Faith and Young Goodman Brown. "Young Goodman Brown is everyman seventeenth-century New England the title as usual giving the clue. He is the son of the Old Adam, and recently wedded to Faith. We must note that every word is significant in the opening sentence: "Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street of Sale, Village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young w2ife.
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.
Young Goodman Brown is a story written by a well known Dark Romanticism writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne is known for his unique symbolism and dark writing.Part of Nathaniel Hawthorne's influence in writing Dark Romanticism is Hawthorns embarrassment of his family and the ways of his ancestor.While on one's journey towards faith and religion, they have to face it themselves and understand what they are doing. In Young Goodman Brown there was many symbolisms including Goodman Brown's wife, the snake staff,the forest and Faiths pink ribbon
In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne published the tale of “Young Goodman Brown,” a tale that illustrates many configurations of symbolism used to leave the reader planting the pieces together through his characteristics of detail and imagery. Hawthorne’s prime analogy expressed throughout this tale is the loss of vulnerability and pureness when reaching maturity.
Guerin, Wilford L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1979.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” manifests a duality of conflict – both an external conflict and an internal conflict. It is the purpose of this essay to explore both types of conflict as manifested in the story.
The short story, "Young Goodman Brown" is a fascinating rendition of the battle between good and evil. The reader must delve into the depths of his/her own beliefs to understand what the symbolism is. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes an entire lesson in life as one big symbol using allegory. The various examples are fruitful and will be presented throughout this essay.
Kurt Vonnegut was born November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis Indiana. His parents were Kurt Vonnegut Sr. and Edith Leiber. He graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis where he was editor of the school newspaper. After graduation in 1940, he moved on to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where he took classes for biochemistry. In 1942, he enlisted in the army as an Infantry Battalion Scout. Later he was trained by Carnegie Institute and University of Tennessee to become a mechanical engineer. In 1944, Kurt’s mother committed suicide on May 14. He returns home briefly, then was captured in the Battle of the Bulge. While working in a factory in Dresden, Germany, Vonnegut picked up his materials for Slaughterhouse Five. After this he married Jane Mary Cox on September 1, 1945. Working as a police reporter, he studied Anthropology at the University of Chicago, but his thesis was rejected. In 1947, his son Mark was born, later, in 1949 his daughter Edith. He then became a publicist for General Electric in Schenectady, New York, but in 1950 he quit GE, and moved to Cape Cod to write. He published Player Piano in 1952. His third child, Nanette was born in 1954. Between 1954 and 1956 he taught English at Hopefield school, worked for an ad agency, and opened the very first Saab dealership in the great United States. Next, Kurt was rocked with a number of close deaths. His father passed away in 1957 on October 1, his sister and his brother-in-law die in 1958. He then adopted his three oldest nieces and nephews. Kurt still found time to write and Cat’s Cradle was published in 1962. From 1965 to 1967, he took up a residency at University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and published Pearls Before Swine. Vonnegut wanted a closer look in Dresden before he wrote the novel Slaughterhouse Five, to he went back to Dresden on a Guggenheim Fellowship. He finished the novel in 1969. His education was furthered after he taught creative writing at Harvard and received his master’s degree from University of Chicago for Cat’s Cradle.
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 125-156.
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses different people as symbols throughout "Young Goodman Brown." The largest symbolic roles in the story are goodman Brown and his wife Faith. Both of the characters' names are symbolic and representative of their personalities. "'With Heaven above and Faith below, I will stand firm against the devil!' cried goodman Brown," is just one of many quotes that directly relates goodman Brown's personality with his name (189). Goodman Brown is truly a good man. Faith, goodman Brown's wife, also has a name that is indicative of her nature. The story directly supports this point in the phrase "Faith, as the wife was aptly named . . . " (184). Faith is persistent in trying to keep goodman Brown off the path of sin in the first part of the story: " . . . pr'y thee, put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night" (184). Hawthorne does an excellent job of turning the main characters into symbols that are prominent throughout the story.
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.
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.
The use of dark imagery throughout the story gives you a sense of fear of the unknown that lies ahead of Goodman Brown on his journey. The beginning sentence of the story illustrates an image of a sunset and the approaching of night as Goodman Brown sets off on his mission. ?Young Goodman Brown came forth, at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold.? (196) Here, the light of the sun represents the knowledge that Goodman Brown already has. The imagery of darkness setting in is the unknown knowledge Goodman Brown is out to discover. Goodman Brown must first travel through the darkness of the unknown before he reaches the light of enlightenment and truth that is why he is embarking on his journey throughout the night hours. ?My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done ?twist now and sunrise.? (197)
Guerin, Wilfred L., et.al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Young Goodman Brown is a short story where the main purpose is to show the social issue of religion during the Puritan time. Although the author Nathaniel Hawthorne had not being living in that time, he came from a long line of Puritans. He wrote Young Goodman Brown to show the flaws of the Puritans’ view of religion. They made God seem heartless and mean spirited, someone who just used humans for entertainment. The short story Young Goodman Brown demonstrates that people should test their faith of their religious beliefs and even people considered upright can fall short of their own religious faiths from temptations and imperfections. In addition, the story shows that there is some degree of evil nature in everyone because of the freewill to choose right or wrong.