Young Goodman Brown: A Bitter, Lonely, and Bewildered Old Man Who Dies Alone and Unloved
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a strange and unsettling story of a young man who travels through a wood overnight and allows his experience to change him forever. There are many themes in this short story, including the age-old theme of good and evil, but a close reading of the work can make the reader thing Brown's journey is a symbolic acting out of his own sinful nature and his secret inclination toward evil, and many critics feel that way too. Brown very well could have dreamed the entire sequence in the woods, because there is a fantasy and dreamlike quality to it, but under it all was his own guilt at the evil that dwelt inside him.Young Goodman Brown is not an inherently evil character, but each person has some evil or hatred that lives within him or her. Many never allow it to show, but many feel guilty just knowing it is there, and that seems to be the message Hawthorne was sending with this story. Goodman Brown sees his father in the woods, he sees many of the townspeople, he sees his wife, and he sees the devil. While the situations seem very real to him, they have a dreamlike quality, too. Hawthorne writes, "His head being turned back, he pa
Hawthorne spreads religious language and motifs throughout the text, including Brown's wife, Faith. After his time in the woods, Brown says he has lost his "Faith," and indeed, he has. He is no longer loving or trusting of his wife because of his visions in the forest. Unfortunately, Brown has allowed the devil to live inside himself with his doubt and mistrust. Critic Maus continues, "Hawthorne removes the mask of piety from his characters to show that the real devil is the one lurking within each individual" (Maus, 2002, p. 76). The devil does live in each of us, and that is another theme Hawthorne is trying to show in this story. Brown is tormented and guilty because he knows the devil lives inside him. What is worse, he has seem him, and he has allowed him to do just what the devil wanted, change his life and his happiness because of his encounter (or alleged encounter) with the devil in the forest. The devil has actually won, and the evil inside Brown has come to the surface and made him a bitter, lonely, and bewildered old man who dies alone and unloved. At first, the reader simply wants to believe the night is a dream, but when Brown returns to his village, he
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Approximate Word count = 797
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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