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Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” Gauthier’s “The Mummy’s Foot,” and Mérimée’s “The Venus of Ille,” put forward the idea that the fantastic genre is a reflection and a critique of societal issues. In the aforementioned short stories, the authors reflect on and critique societal issues that troubled people of the mid-nineteenth century: religion, commercialism and intellectualism.
First, Hawthorne blatantly critiques religion and its hierarchy of power; the protagonist in “Young Goodman Brown” is convinced (in a dream state or not) that those in his community, including the higher ups of the church, defect to the devil.
Second, the protagonist in Gautier’s “The Mummy’s Foot” is consumed by the idea of owning a “special” paperweight, one that
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The protagonist, a young Parisian writer, purchases a mummy’s foot, on that would “suit [him] as a paper-weight; for [he] cannot endure those trumpery bronzes which the stationers sell, which may be found on everyone’s desk” (Gautier, 13). This conflicts with the protagonist’s previous comments, complaining that “every petty stockbroker” (12) must have his own collection of rare antiques. This critique, within the story, as well as the protagonist’s obsession with a unique paperweight, reflects on the idea of commercialist desires being petty and unnecessarily materialistic. Further into the story, the protagonist is thrust into “a fluid and grayish expanse” (15) and later arrives in what seems to be ancient Egypt and consults with the pharaoh Xixouthros, the father of Hemonithis, whose foot the protagonist restores. In this portion of the story, it seems as though the protagonist no longer owns his prized paper-weight, but that his paper-weight owns him. He is invited to consult with the pharaoh, rejected by him when he asks for the hand of his daughter, claiming “the last particles of your dust will have been scattered abroad by the winds” (17) when Xixouthros would “be present on the last day of the world” (17). This contrast and reversal of “ownership” exemplifies, symbolically, the challenge to the new commercialist society that was developing in France at the
Young Goodman Brown was a man who was naïve to the world around him. Ever since he was a child, he had always practiced a very Godly life. Not only does he believe that everyone around him follows the same path, but he also believes that it is the only path. This naivety and innocence was taken from him by the Devil, who opened his eyes to the world of evil around him. After the pagan ceremony, which Brown attends, the Devil even states “Now are ye undeceived! Evil is the nature of mankind” (Hawthorne 9). By saying this, Hawthorne is trying to say that it is better to know the whole truth than to live a lie. By not knowing the truth about evil existing in Salem village, Brown has essentially been living a life that is not complete or accurate. This perfect and fair world that was found in the Bible is not the real world that surrounds him. When his innocence is stolen from him so abruptly, he begins to lose both his faith and stability in the world.
One’s self image of morals allows a person to accurately determine what they believe is wrong and vice-versa as is the case with Young Goodman Brown; the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown” who sees a disturbing vision in which all of the supposedly good townsfolk enter into a pact with the devil. In Goodman Brown’s vision, while following the unholy worshippers to their meeting place, he proclaims “With heaven above and fa...
In “Young Goodman Brown” the author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a story about how Young Goodman Brown, who is a recent Christian man and was going to test his faith against the devil, but the devil was not going to make it easy since he test Young Goodman Brown along the way.
In D.H. Lawerence's short story, “The Rocking Horse Winner”, and Grahm Greene's “The Destructors, there are many truths to consider. Although these two stories are considerably different, the message is the same. Whether in a life-like story, such as “The Destructors”, or a fantacy, like “The Rocking Horse Winner”, the seeds of materialism are planted and nourished in lives of the characters. The aspects of materialism in these two stories develop desired conclusions by its characters. In order to understand the similar message of Greene short story “The Destructors” and Lawerence's “The Rocking Horse Winner”, one must scrutinize the various aspects of each story.
In Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, the main character, Young Goodman Brown, jumped to the conclusion that everyone in his village was working with the devil after he had a dream about a meeting in the forest. The first piece of evidence that Young Goodman Brown jumped to conclusion is how he treated his wife when he came back from the forest compared to how he treated his wife in the beginning. In the beginning, Faith was “a blessed angel” (“Young Goodman Brown” 1) and he said when he got back he would follow her to heaven. Then afterward, often at mi...
...ssed though the use of setting, foreshadowing, and symbolism. William Graham Sumner once said “Men never cling to their dreams with such tenacity as at the moment when they are losing faith in them, and know it, but do not dare yet to confess it to themselves.” (brainyquote.com). This statement holds many truths to the thoughts and actions of the young Goodman Brown in Hawthorne’s allegorical story. Brown was quick to go on his foreboding quest, knowing what his meeting with the devil may lead to, and only when threatened and scared attempted to turn back to hold on to both Faith physically and psychologically. Whether his journey into the forest was an illusion or not, Brown’s perception of faith in society have been dramatically altered, as he may have lost all faith in humanity.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an extraordinary writer, who used real life experiences in every one of his stories. However, growing up in a Puritan society during a reformation gave Hawthorne a distorted view on God’s character. Hawthorne was intelligent, but by no means a people person, which created a pathway for him to become an author. There were a few key points in his life growing in a religion zealous society that lead him to abandon his faith. Hence, the short story of “Young Goodman Brown” representing that humans are cynical and evil, and the dangers of losing your faith in God.
Truth is constantly sought out in Fountain and Tomb. Our young narrator is often like a detective, listening attentively to conversations, making keen observations of situations, and seeking out answers to questions he doesn’t know. “The day is lovely but redolent with mystery,” our narrator says, identifying all the unknowns in the world around him (Mahfouz, 15).
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 “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...
!n Nathaniel Hawthorne short story "Young Goodman Brown,” The author describes objects and events as source of further readers’ effects under his own religious point of view. However, the well known fact that the religion has a multitude of faces, a adversity of interests, and evil mysteries, causes more than one interpretation analyzing Young Goodman Brown’s settings. The protagonist is a pious man, whose mind is full of dogmas from the dominant religions of 1800s in the Christian world, Catholic Apostolic Roman and Catholic Orthodox, also, Catholic Apostolic but not Romans or Protestants. Brown leaves his wife Faith at home and starts a journey to explore the other side, the dark side, of his
“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, delves into the classic battle between good and evil; taking the protagonist, Goodman Brown, on a journey to test the resolve of his faith. Goodman ventures out on his expedition deep into the sinister forest, in order to repudiate the attempt of the devil to sway him from Christianity; a test he believes his devout faith is prepared to confront. Goodman Brown is forever altered in ways unforeseeable by taking a stroll with the ultimate antagonist, the devil himself. The prevailing theme in this literary work, which is common in Hawthorne’s gothic writing, is the realization that evil can infect people who seem perfectly respectable. Throughout the course of his journey, Goodman Brown discovers that even highly reputable people of Salem are vulnerable to the forces of darkness.
In his ancestor’s world, communal and mythical values prevail over individualism and materialism. When he is in Danville, Milkman learns that place is significant because it “makes the past real”(231). When he arrives in the South he wears a “beige three – piece suit, button down light–blue shirt and black string tie (and) beautiful Florsheim shoes”(227). But stripped of his three piece suit and dressed in worn hunting clothes he enters the woods outside Shalimar and immediately stumbles upon his uncharted self. For the first time he considers his behaviour in relation to the others: “Under the moon, on ground alone… the cocoon that was ‘personality’ – gave way…..there was nothing here to help him - not his money, his car, his father’s reputation, his suit or his shoes… His watch and his two hundred dollars would be of no help out here, where all a man had was what he was born with, or had learned to use. An endurance”(276-277). Reduced to the essentials for the first time in his life, Milkman begins to question his surroundings and as he listens, noise becomes language or “what there was before language”(278). Milkman here comprehends a mythic dimension as he reaches back toward a time when humans and animals shared
Janwillem Van De Wetering says, “Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough.” Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” tells of Mrs. Mathilde Loisel’s longings for the finer things in life. Her desires are so intense she risks her husband’s affections, the friendship of an old chum, and even her mediocre lifestyle to pursue these cravings. One small decision based on an ill-placed desire causes a slow drawn out death of the spirit, body and relationships.
Goodman Brown is clearly undergoing several struggles involving sex, religion, demons, and his own shadow, his unconscious id and superego, and his purely conscious ego. It is about how a man’s life, faith, and beliefs were shaken by a night’s dream, whether this has been a reality or an illusion. The story proves the power of the mind. It talks about how the mind governed the man’s actions. The piece was great because it allows us, readers, to have a different interpretation every time we read it. The story is well written and is easily understood. I think the main focus of Hawthorne is to show the conflict, rather than to impress the readers with language.