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Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

            
             In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" Hawthorne wrote the short story to seem that it contains ambiguity. There are different meanings of how Goodman Brown spends his life, of how he sees the world afterwards. There is also question about what was the reason for the meaning of the forest. There are potential supernatural occurrences in the story. There is also a suggestion that the story is only in Goodman's head psychological. Although all the meanings have an allegory to it, it is still said that the story does make sense of its ambiguity.
             The meanings of why Young Goodman Brown goes to the forest is that he goes over to the devil. Reasons for why to meet in a "darkened forest with the gloomiest trees." Hawthorne emphasizes the split between convention and the unconscious by having Goodman move from the town to the forest as he follows his impulses. The deeper he moves into the forest, the more completely he becomes one with his evil. This is one meaning the readers may follow. Goodman Brown is lurking into evil. This also means that the leader, the stranger could have supernatural powers as he traveled from Boston to Salem in fifteen minutes. Then the forest contains the tree where the devil-like character sits under. The reader may suggest that it is the tree of good and evil as Young Goodman Brown is being tempted to go into the hands of evil. Like the tree the staff can also be connected to biblical times. The staff that Goodman's companion holds is made of scales suggesting that it could be a serpent of some kind, which represents evil. When Moses approached the Pharaoh he threw down his rod (or staff) and became a serpent. Goodman's companion is being linked or connected with the opponents of Moses and the God of Israel. The symbolism of all these happenings is a way of connecting "Young Goodman Brown" as a story of good versus evil.
             The way Young Goodman Brown lives the rest of his life after the occurrences is miserable.


Essays Related to Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

1. Young Goodman Brown

The Young in "Young Goodman Brown" When reading Hawthorn's "Young Goodman Brown", one can note why his main character was ironically nicknamed young good man Brown. " The story is all three: a dream vision, a conventional allegory, and finally an inquiry into the problem of faith that undermines the assumptions upon which the allegory is based."(Bloom, 115) Although Hawthorn tries to confuse the reader with his dreamy allegories, Brown still emerges with one main flaw. ... The depths of Young Goodman Brown's faith and goodness were shattered from one evening of embracing evil. ....

  • Word Count: 939
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Young Goodman Brown : Symbolism in setting

The story of "Young Goodman Brown" is allegorical. ... Hawthorn uses symbolism to convey the loss of innocence and the realization that evil exists all around Goodman Brown. ... If Goodman Brown's father fought in this war in 1675 his son would be of marrying age around 1690. ... Brown's life. ... In "Young Goodman Brown" we find our protagonist traveling down the long path into the deepest recess of his mind, questioning his spiritual strength. ...

  • Word Count: 704
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Goodman Brown

In "Young Goodman Brown," there are many layers to read through. Hawthorn uses symbolism throughout the story. ... "Young Goodman Brown," is a symbol in the story. ... For example, the names Faith and "Young Goodman Brown" symbolize more than a name. The name "Young Goodman Brown" symbolizes the average immature Puritan. ...

  • Word Count: 325
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Young Goodman Brown

YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN By: Anonymous YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN Nathaniel Hawthorne, famous for his short and children stories, took on the issue of evil in our minds, in his story, Young Goodman Brown. ... In the plot of the story, Young Goodman Brown, the protagonist, was pushed to the limit and had his religious faith questioned, when everything around him wasn't as it appeared. ... Young Goodman Brown soon discovers that all of the characters around him are all in with the devil. ... The climax occurs when Young Goodman Brown decides to take the devil up on his offer and join the satanic ...

  • Word Count: 702
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Young Goodman Brown

This is not true of Nathaniel Hawthorn's time. ... In "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne looks at one man's decent into the murky woods of doubt and illusion of uprightness. In the story, "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne shows a man who questions the backbone, which his community is assumedly built upon. ... Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" can be viewed in several ways. ... Goodman Brown was tempted with evil. ...

  • Word Count: 1650
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Young goodman brown

In Nathaniel Hawthorn's "Young Goodman Brown" and Flannery O" Connor's "Good Country People" the central characters, Goodman Brown and Hulga, are extremely arrogant people. ... In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown", Goodman Brown is a young professing Christian from Salem, Massachusetts, who prepares for a journey through the forest on an evil errand. ... The nature of Goodman Brown's arrogance stemmed his own self denial and his inability to look at himself. ... Consequently, Goodman Brown became a victim of his own arrogance. ... In summary, the nature of arrogan...

  • Word Count: 1369
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

7. nathaniel hawthorne A Good Man

A Good Man's Faith Nathaniel Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown", portrays an internal struggle with morality versus temptation, and uncovers the deceptive faces evil wears. Young Goodman Brown, sets out on an errand of a dark nature leaving his wife, Faith, at home. ... Young Goodman Brown and his wife Faith are both literal representations of their name. Young Goodman Brown begins as a young-good-man. ... it was a dream of evil omen for Young Goodman Brown." ...

  • Word Count: 1017
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Young Goodman Brown and The Devil and Tom Walker

Living in a time of slaughter, witchcraft and immorality, authors Washington Irving and Nathanial Hawthorn were influenced immensely. ... Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker ", and Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown " both generate gothic stories by expressing the misfortune of the devil's presence through seemingly alike stories using themes to show consequences, the importance of symbolism and the impact of tone. ... The main character, Young Goodman Brown commits one of the seven deadly sins, pride. ... Instead of concrete matters, Hawthorn expresses allegory through color. .....

  • Word Count: 721
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Fact from Fiction

William Shakespeare's "Macbeth," Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," and Richard Cavendish's "The Black Arts" all have stereotypical falsehoods that tarnish the good work of these earth worshipers. ... This is evident when, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown," the main character, Goodman Brown, meets an old man on a dark path. ... In addition Hawthorn also takes an honored tool such as a broomstick and turns it into a demonic devise. Hawthorne implies that these people whom Goodman Brown thought to be good Christian people are actually witches bec...

  • Word Count: 1486
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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