Young Goodman Browne 霍桑

Hawthorne’s writing Style
1. His stories are allegory – to teach a lesson. 2. Use ambiguity to keep the readers in the world of uncertain – multiple choice of view.
Evolution of GB’s Faith Exchange a parting kiss with his young wife (Faith) Leave her (Faith) With the heaven above, and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil. My faith is gone. Where is Faith?
Plot
Analysis of the structure
At sunset, Goodman Brown leaves his wife Faith, spends the night in the forest, and at dawn returns a changed man. Within this basic structure, the story further divides into four separate scenes, the first and last of which, that is, the departure from and the return to Salem, are balanced. The night in the forest falls naturally into two parts: the temptation by the Devil and the meeting of the witch. The climax of the story comes when Brown calls upon his wife to look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one, which is cut off abruptly by anticlimax as the meeting vanishes in a roaring wind, and Brown leaning against the rock finds it chill and dant of view
Black vision of human nature: Obsessed by the Calvinistic concept of the original sin, Hawthorne believes human beings are evil-natured and sinful and this sin and evil is ever present in human heart and will pass on from one generation to another. His writings are to show how we are all wronged and wrongers, and avenge one another.
Purse the goodness, we will be saved though we have sins. Otherwise, fall into the devil or be trapped in totally despair.
Tedia
Do you agree we all have some inside sin? Are you totally despaired about our dark facts in your mind? Is the sin same to the crime?
SO …… Love God, love all the men. Believe in God, believe in all the men.
Theme
Are men born to be evil ? Is the faith frail while encounter the human nature?
The story is often read as a conventional allegory in the sense that Young Goodman is everyman, and his journey to the dark forest and his encounter with the devil are symbolic of man’s life journey from innocence to knowledge, from good to evil. Faith, if taken as an allegorical figure, is the incarnation of Christian belief.
Everyone possesses some evil secret ……
BUT……
The events of the night are actual or dreamlike? Brown is lost to the devil or saved by Faith? Goodman had fell into devil’s trap ?
Life experience
Born to a family with a long Puritan tradition in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a descendant of a long line of Puritan ancestors including John Hathorne, a presiding magistrate in the Salem witch trials.(塞 勒姆女巫审判案) When he was 4, his father, a sea captain, died. He was brought up by his uncle. He graduated form Bowdoin College in 1842 in the same class with Longfellow and Franklin Pierce (the 14th U.S President). After graduation, he returned to Salem to live in his mother’s house and to pursue his literary career. His life experience had great influence on his character, as well as on his writing career.
Symbol
Goodman? Faith ? The fellow traveler Forest ? Sunset ? Dark figure ?
Pink ribbon of Faith’s cap?
day and the town: human convention and society night and forest: symbols of doubt and wandering red: Sin or Evil black: doubt of the reality of either Evil or Good that tortures Brown
Themes of Hawthorne’s writing
1. Explore the relationship between the past and the present 2. Explore the hidden motivations of his characters. 3. Examine the effect of hidden sin and secret guilt 4. Moral or immoral, right or wrong is the question Hawthorne always talks about in his works.
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Young Goodman Brown
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
李晓月 20112496
Nathaniel Hawthorne YGB Plot Symbolism Theme & Appreciation
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Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804—1864)
Major Works
The Scarlet Letter Twice-Told Tales Which includes ―The Minister’s Black Veil‖ Mosses from an Old Manse Which included ―Young Goodman Brown‖ The Houses of the Seven Gables The Marble Faun