Young Goodman Brown Symbolism (1423 words)

Young Goodman Brown SymbolismNathaniel Hawthorne is a nineteenth-century American writer of the Romantic
Movement. Hawthorne was born is Salem, Massachusetts, and this is the place he
used as the setting for some of his works: such as ?The Scarlett Letter?,
?the Blithedale Romance? and ?Young Goodman Brown?. In writing,
Hawthorne was known for his use of allegory and symbolism, which made his
stories a joy for everyone to read. Hawthorne was said to be the first American
writer who was conscious of the failure of modern man to realize his full
capacity for moral growth. His stories contain much about the life he knew as a
child being brought up in a Puritan society. As Hawthorne’s writing continued
it was filled with the same amount of sin and evil as his first writings. Evil
that was revealed through his works. ?Young Goodman Brown? was said to be
one of the best stories ever written by Hawthorne (Adams70). ?The Marble Faun:
and ?the Scarlett Letter were some of the other stories written by Hawthorne,
and they were said to be ?Young Goodman Brown? grown older. In this
selection there is a question of maturity for Goodman Brown and whether he is
good or evil. There is also a transition from childishness to adolescence to
maturity. This short story in particular has a feeling of adultery, betrayal,
and deception as in some of his other works. It was said by Richard P. Adams
that ?young Goodman Brown? was a germ for nearly all his best work that
followed (Adams 71). The use of symbolism in ?young Goodman Brown? shows
that evil is everywhere, which becomes evident in the conclusion of this short
story. Hawthorne’s works are filled with symbolic elements and allegorical
elements. ?Young Goodman Brown? deals mostly with conventional allegorical
elements, such as Young Goodman Brown and Faith. In writing his short stories or
novels he based their depiction of sin on the fact that he feels like his father
and grandfather committed great sins. There are two main characters in this
short story, Faith and Young Goodman Brown. ?Young Goodman Brown is everyman
seventeenth-century New England the title as usual giving the clue. He is the
son of the Old Adam, and recently wedded to Faith. We must note that every word
is significant in the opening sentence: ?Young Goodman Brown came forth at
sunset into the street of Sale, Village; but put his head back, after crossing
the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young w2ife. ?She begs him
to ?put off his journey until sunrise,’ but he declares he cannot?. [It]
should not escape us that she tries to stop him because she is a similar
compulsion to go on a journey’ herself-?She talks dreams, too, ?Young
Goodman Brown reflects as he leaves her. The journey each must take alone, in
dread, at night, is the journey away form home and the community from conscious,
everyday social life, to the wilderness where the hidden self satisfies or
forces us to realize its subconscious fears and prompting in sleep. We take that
journey with him into the awful forest. Noting the difference between the town
and the forest. We see Hawthorne using the Puritan association of trees and
animals. When Young Goodman associates returns to Salem Village, his eyes are
opened to the true nature of his fellowmen, that is human nature; he inescapably
knows that what he suspected of himself is true of all men? Hawthorne has made
a dramatic poem of the Calvinist experience in New England. The unfailing tact
with which the experience is evoked subjectively in the more impressive concrete
terms, is a subordinate proof of genius. I should prefer to stress the wonderful
I control of local and total rhythm, which never falters of stackers, and rises
from the quest but impressive opening to its poetic climax in the superb and
moving finale. Hawthorne has imaginatively recreated for the reader that
Calvinist sense of sin, that theory did in actuality shape the early social and
spiritual history of New England. But in Hawthorne by a wonderful feat of
translation, it has no religious significance; it is as a psychological state
that it explored. Young Goodman Brown’s faith in human beings, and losing it
he is doomed to isolation forever (Peabody 331).? Young Goodman Brown is the
main character and the protagonist, and Faith Brown, his wife is said to be one
of the antagonists in this selection. Young Goodman Brown is a husband of three
months and is still said