Reality and Experience in Young Goodman Brown

In reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, many issues come up that arouse interest in topics of knowledge, evil, reality, amongst other things. During my experience reading this text, how Goodman Brown's outlook changed based on information revealed to him that may not even be the "reality" of the people he knows was fascinating. That knowledge gained outside traditional and physical realms can affect the mind and the perception of the world is a fascinating subject. I also found this interesting in conjunction with some of the concepts of literary critics we reviewed this week, as the question of what literature is and what it should do becomes important in the discussion of what happens to Goodman Brown, but subsequently what happens to the reader of his story.

To begin, the introduction to Goodman Brown begins with introducing characters that seem to exemplify youthfulness, earnestness, and innocence. Interactions between Goodman and Faith, such as the "parting kiss" (Hawthorne 239), and even the description of Faith, whose cap contains pink ribbons that the wind plays with contains a sense of whimsy and playfulness that sets the reader up thinking of the young couple in positive terms. However, Goodman changes this quickly with his discussion of leaving, as well as his parting. At this point, we see the conflict within the characterization of Goodman Brown emerge, referring to himself as "a wretch...to leave her on such an errand" (239), a contrast to the initial idea presented of him. This is the beginning of what interested me so much, as the appearance of Goodman Brown was presented ambiguously and painted to be "good" by his interactions with Faith, who was described in a bit more detail.

The same can be sa...

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...or they were representations within an offshoot of "reality" within his own mind based on his experiences in the world. Furthering this, the reader has the same experience with the fictitious world of Goodman Brown, as even though it is a work of fiction, it is grounded in reality based on its ideas alone.

All in all, I found the exploration of reality in Young Goodman Brown to be pivotal in its own right, as the function of "reality" and what defines it in literature and its effect not only depends on the author and the content of the work itself. Instead, the transactional nature of art requires a meshing of ideals and experiences to come together to create meaning independent of a single idea or concept.

Works Cited

Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.

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