Young Goodman BrownBy Nathaniel Hawthorne

Think about those images….

…do not forget them.

Summary

A young puritan man reluctantly left his loving wife to meet with a very suspicious unnamed man in the forest around his home town. After meeting this curiously dark individual, they talk about how Goodman’s ancestors were friends with the cloaked man. The dark man is trying to convince Goodman to follow him like so many other people, including very powerful holy men, have chosen to do. Hawthorne nearly stated that the man that Goodman is talking to is the devil himself. Goodman however is not convinced that he should follow the mysterious man. An old woman that had taught Goodman about the church talks of witchcraft with the devil while Goodman hides in the bushes. Goodman is still unconvinced that following the old man is a good idea.

Summary (continued)

However as he waits by the path as he was told to do, his pastor comes and makes known that he is in the devil’s ring of friends. Mr. Brown is wavering but does not give in because of his wife. That is until he hears a crowd of people chanting before hearing his wife’s screams. He then is forced into a temporary insanity and runs into a group of people from his town in a ring singing an evil song. Goodman’s pastor then brings him out to the middle along with his wife. They are forced to accept the evil of the world. Goodman then screams at his wife to stay true to the lord and finds himself in the middle of the forest. He doubts whether this actually happened and is forever distrustful and hateful of everyone.

Characters

Young Goodman Brown

Faith

Unnamed Man in the Forest

Goody Cloyse

Minister

Old Goodman Brown

Goodman Brown and his “Faith” Goodman Brown leaves his Faith (his wife)

at home. Although she asks him to stay , there is something he must do.

Faith- very childlike, wears pink ribbons in her hair.

Faith is innocence also she is Goodman Brown’s innocent faith.

Goodman is a “good man”

Literary Devices

• Symbolism

• Allegory

• Imagery

Symbolism

o Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.

o Symbolism can take different forms. Generally, it is an object representing another to give it an entirely different meaning that is much deeper and more significant. Sometimes, however, an action, an event or a word spoken by someone may have a symbolic value. For instance, “smile” is a symbol of friendship. Similarly, the action of someone smiling at you may stand as a symbol of the feeling of affection which that person has for you.

Faith’s Pink Ribbons

o Symbolism: Faith’s pink ribbons represent the difference between the positive and negative aspects that Brown sees when he sees his wife Faith. The pink representing the positive.

o This is also a comparison between his own faith/religion.

o Brown tells the man he meets in the woods that “Faith kept me back a while.” This statement contains two meanings:

o His wife, Faith, made him late.

o His religious Faith almost kept him from the journey.

Allegory

o Allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures and events. It can be employed in prose and poetry to tell a story with a purpose of teaching an idea and a principle or explaining an idea or a principle. The objective of its use is to preach some kind of a moral lesson.

The Fall of Man

o Allegory: “Young Goodman Brown” functions as an allegory of the fall of man,.

o Brown gives in to temptations and desires.

o Hawthorne sets up a story of a man who is tempted by the devil and succumbs because of his curiosity and the weakness of his faith. 

o Brown says to his wife before the altar in the woods:“Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!”

Differences between Symbolism and Allegory

o Although an allegory uses symbols, it is different from symbolism. An allegory is a complete narrative which involves characters, and events that stand for an abstract idea or an event. A symbol, on the other hand, is an object that stands for another object giving it a particular meaning. Unlike allegory, symbolism does not tell a story.

Imagery

o Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses.

o Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual representation of ideas in our minds. The word imagery is associated with mental pictures. However, this idea is but partially correct. Imagery, to be realistic, turns out to be more complex than just a picture. 

The Woods/Forest

o Imagery :“He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately.

o Forest: isolated and unpredictable

oGoodman Brown: secluded and uncertain

Literary Connections

Hawthorne’s life vs. work Hawthorne’s guilt of ancestors’ judgment of the Salem

trails shows through his work.There’s a constant reference to the Salem trials.The stories show the harshness of Puritan times.

Goodman Brown vs. other stories There were similar settings.

All stories took place in Puritan times.Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter took place

in Salem There were similar conflicts within the stories.

The main character in the stories had to confront sin in some way.

Some characters hid beneath their sin and were secluded from life, or they were (in the case of Goodman Brown) trying to be converted to being controlled by their sin by Satan.

Literary and Life Connectionso The major overall relation Yong Goldman Brown has to our

daily lives is that not everyone is perfect. Going into the story when Goldman meets all the people he knows including his wife at the meeting with the devil, he understands that even though they were good people, anyone can be tempted to do bad.

o We tend to do what the people close to us are doing. Goodman finally gave in and went to the meeting after knowing that his wife was attending it as well. Not knowing that, he would have resisted the temptation and still walked with the Lord.

o Basically in life, we go through certain situations for a reason. Even though he never knew what had happened that night whether or not he was dreaming, but in the end he learned something from that experience. We shouldn’t take things for granted and accept that we can’t be perfect but try to do things perfectly.

Young Goodman Brown Passages

Paragraph 13, 14:

But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light.

“Come, Goodman Brown,” cried his fellow-traveler, “this is a dull pace for the beginning of a journey. Take my staff, if you are so soon weary.”

After finishing the story, the reader might realize that this is important to the plot for several reasons:

The man, who is revealed to be the devil at the end of the story, carries staff which looks like a snake. The snake is a symbol commonly associated with the devil, or with trickery and deception, and it is stated that the way the staff imitates a snake is just a trick of light.

When the man offers Goodman Brown his staff, he is, in a very subtle way, trying to tempt the Goodman, as Satan is constantly trying to tempt humanity. In the bible, specifically the book of Job, Satan is allowed to tempt Job away from God by torturing him and taking away everything he has, short of actually killing him. In the book of Matthew, chapter four, Satan tries to tempt Jesus after he has been fasting in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights.

Discussion Questions

1. Could this story be all a dream?

2. Who can we infer the man that Goodman Brown walking with is? Satan?

3. What was significant about the wide variety of people portrayed to be demonic?

4. What is the significance about the wife’s name?