On the initiation theme of Young Goodman Brown

On the initiation theme of Young Goodman Brown

论《年轻的布朗先生》成长主题

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all those who have given me their generous help, commitment and enthusiasm, which have been the major driving force to complete the current paper. My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my supervisor Chen Zhuo for her constant encouragement and guidance. She has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. Without her consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form.

Second, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my classmates and my best friend who have given me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.

Finally, my thanks would go to the professors and teachers at the Shengda College, they have instructed and helped me a lot in the past four years. I will never forget them.

On the initiation theme of Young Goodman Brown

Abstract Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in a declining family. He turned to writing after his graduation from Bowdoin College and later became the outstanding American novelist of 19th century. He had dedicated his life to exp lore human nature of good and evil as well as guilt, both in a public and individual sense.

Young Goodman Brow n is one of the best short stories of Hawthorne in which he unscrambles the growing up of Goodman Brown through “A Forest's trip” and “A Fores t's party”. In the story, Hawthorne reveals the soul journey of Brown who recognizes “evil is the nature of mankind” through the experience of believing to suspecting of his belief. This paper is intended to make an approach to the initiation theme from the protagonist's contradiction of self-consciousness and final degrading, so that it is expected to interpret the novel from a newer and broader point of view and bring out the active and realistic social significance of the novel.

【Key words】:Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown, initiation theme

论《年轻的布朗先生》的成长主题

【摘要】纳撒尼尔·霍桑于1804年7月4日出生在一个没落的世家，大学毕业即开始写作，后来成为19世纪美国最著名的浪漫主义小说家。一生致力于对人性的探索，无论是从公众意识出发还是从个人角度的探索，他都揭示了人性的好与坏，以及罪恶。

《年轻的布朗先生》是霍桑最著名的短篇小说之一。在这部小说中，霍桑通过布朗的“黑深林之旅”及“魔鬼晚会”等一系列经历，对主人公的成长进行了非常深刻的解读，同时也揭示了主人公在意识到人性的恶念之后，对自己信仰从坚信到怀疑的心路历程。本文主要通过对故事主人公的自我意识的矛盾和最后的堕落进行分析，从而揭示出作品的深远意义。

关键词:霍桑;年轻的布朗先生;成长主题

Contents

Chapter one Introduction (7)

1.1 Brief introduction of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Young Goodman

Brown (7)

1.2 Brief introduction of initiation story (8)

Chapter two The growing up of Young Goodman Brown (9)

2.1 Brown's traveling to the dark forest (9)

2.2 Brown's discovery of the “true” nature of his townsfolk during the d evil's

party (10)

2.3 Inner conflicts between good and evil (10)

2.3.1 Doubt about his faith and belief (10)

2.3.2 Experience of believing to suspecting (11)

2.4 Brown's final degrading (11)

Chapter three Analysis of initiation theme in Young Goodman Brown (12)

3.1 Reflection of initiation theme in Hawthorne's work (12)

3.2 Development of the growing up of Brown (14)

Chapter four Conclusion (16)

4.1 Conclusion of the story and its theme (16)

4.2 Significance of the thesis (17)

Bibliography (20)