Analysis Of Hawthorne 's ' The Forest '

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very important and symbolic role.  Hawthorne uses nature to convey the mood of a scene, to describe characters, and to link the natural elements with human nature.  Many of the passages that have to do with nature accomplish more than one of these ideas.  All throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. The deep symbolism conveyed by certain aspects of nature helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the plight and inner emotions of the characters in the novel.

The Salem witch trials were trials for people who were being accused of worshiping the devil. They believed the witches were out to harm others in supernatural ways. They were believed to be able to turn into animals, cause others to become possessed by looking at them, and were accused of being the cause of illness or miscarriages. However, there are many false theories about the Salem witch trials causing many controversies. One of the bigger controversies was if people were really being possessed by the three women. Often times, if doctors could not find a cause to an illness they will blame it on witchcraft. “Laurie Winn Carlson argues that in the spring of 1691 and winter of 1692, some of the accusers exhibited these symptoms, and that a doctor had been called in to treat the girls. He could not find an underlying physical cause, and therefore concluded that they suffered from possession by witchcraft, a common diagnosis of unseen conditions at the time”. They believed there had to be a cause to everything and if something

In the Salem Witch Trials, evidence of someone being a “witch” was often miniscule, individuals were determined as witches by suspicion, weird behaviors and association, two little girls were pressured into accusing 3 individuals of witchcraft because they were said to be acting supernatural by doctors (Blumberg, 2007). Similar to the Scottsboro Boys Trials because the ladies were pressured into falsely accusing nine black individuals for rape and since they were blacks

The academic explanations of behavior as a cause of the events in Salem range from economic self-preservation of the accuser's parents to social anxiety concerning the Puritan leaders’ need to keep noncompliant women in a constant state of oppression. The Puritans viewed women as instruments of Satan because of Eve’s role in the first sin and thought it exemplified women’s inherent moral weakness. This could be one of the reasons they jumped to conclusions so easily and quickly that women and young girls were practicing witchcraft. Based on the historical context, the court’s reliance on the witness statements of the girls’ afflictions is perplexing (Ray 66).

Young Goodman Brown then finds himself alone in the forest, wondering whether he has awakened from a dream or if he really did attend the witches’ sabbath. Brown chooses to believe that his dream is true, and that everyone around him is involved in witchcraft. “The next morning, young Goodman Brown came slowly into the street of Salem village staring around him like a bewildered man.” (Paragraph 70) Because of this, Brown spends the remainder of his life being, "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man” (Paragraph 75). Goodman Brown now looks for the devil behind every bush and in the hearts of all those around him, never recognizing that his own soul is now hopelessly corrupt and blind to the light and goodness of God. The forest, the devil and his staff, and Faith and her pink ribbons are the main points to prove young Goodman Brown of a story full of symbolism. There is no doubt that the traveler meeting Brown is the devil and the devils staff is clearly the symbol of a serpent. Faith is both Brown’s wife and religion. The pink ribbons discussed are symbolized as innocence because his faith in God is the right thing to do. Unlike following the devil, which led Brown to sin and guilt. “Ha! ha! ha!” roared Goodman Brown, when the wind laughed at him. “Let us hear which will laugh loudest! Think not to frighten me

Nathaniel Hawthorne comes from a bloodline that is associated with the Salem witch trials in 1692. His great-great-grandfather was a puritan that took part in the executions during the witch trilas, explaining Hawthorne’s fondness with the religion. Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his interest in the News England Puritan past. Most of Hawthorne’s writings implement the Puritan ways and faith in which most of the characters act upon or main faith is revolved around. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Scarlet Letter” are both one of Hawthorne’s many pieces that are prime examples of the Puritan religion affecting his writing. Through the story Hawthorne uses many allegories representing Christian, but also puritan faith and many symbols relating to them also.

In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne analyzes the Puritans’ consciousness and the hidden wickedness of their nature. He takes a naïve Puritan man and takes him on a journey into the dark forest to meet an old man whom we presume, is the devil. As the naïve Puritan embarks on his journey, his wife "Faith" kisses him good bye. The Puritan has an overwhelming feeling of guilt as he is entering the forest to meet with the Devil. He realized what he is doing was forbidden and none of his forefathers or fellow Puritans would ever commit such a sin. During his meeting with the Devil his naïveté dissolves. He sees Deacon Gookin, his old catechism teacher, and other upstanding members

Finally, Goodman Brown arrives at the initiation ceremony only to be confronted by the image of his wife at the unholy altar. Although Hawthorne never offers any true evidence that Goodman Brownâs experience in the woods was anything more than a dream or hallucination, the Puritan passes judgment on Faith, and forever doubts her goodness. By allowing his audience to internally assess Faithâs guilt or innocence, Hawthorne forces his reader into a role of complicity with Goodman Brown (McFarland 37). Thus, Hawthorne has created a troubling character with both light and dark facets.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is an excellent example of the use of allegories and symbolism as a form of satire on Puritan faith. According to Frank Preston Stearns, author of The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Hawthorne may have intended this story as an exposure of the inconsistency, and consequent hypocrisy, of Puritanism” (Stearns 181). Throughout the story of “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne tries to infuse as many symbols and allegories as he can to enhance the overall meaning of his story. He uses the village, Goodman Brown, Faith, the man in the forest, and the time spent in the forest as either a symbol or an allegory to get his point across that Puritans are not always what they seem to be.

Brown believes that his wife should be excluded from the meeting so she will remain pure, yet somehow believes that his presence is mandatory and gives no thought to his own purity. He believes that Faith's immediate acceptance into heaven will pull him along with her, regardless of his sinful actions. Brown's nervousness about his journey shows that he is conscious of the risks, yet he refuses the possibility of remaining home because he believes in his own ability to resist corruption, even if he does not believe in Faith's. Brown's willingness to make an exception for his own actions while refusing the same exception for Faith is one of Hawthorne's first scornful examples of hypocrisy. Similarly, Hawthorne highlights the hypocritical juxtaposition of Brown's actions during and after the ritual. When Brown discovers Faith's pink hair ribbon and realizes the Devil has taken her, he is terrified and continuously searches for her as the Devil speaks. However, upon finding her and waking up from his dream, he treats her differently because of her attendance: "Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith; and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a timeless classic with many symbolic meanings. Such as the forest which symbolizes much more than one might imagine. In this mysterious dark landscape Hester and Dimmesdale met once again and this time they let their guard down profess their love to one another and committed adultery here. Nathaniel Hawthorne, created a literary masterpiece. He took a landscape and made it a place of morally astray, and a place for natural innocence.

The woods represent the devil’s playground, a journey into sin and darkness; a path Brown takes on his journey. “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 behind” (Hawthorne p.387). As mentioned earlier, Brown wants to strengthen his faith with Christ and Believes a journey into the forest is the best way to do it. However, he does not anticipate members of his own community participating in black masses and other sinful acts in the forest. Kim Becnel delves deep into the historical context of “Young Goodman Brown” and discusses how trying to look for the evil in others can lead to destruction, as he explains in the following quote "’

" This could be his way of proving himself worthy in some way due to the fact that he say that neither his father nor his grandfather had completed his task at hand. The second idea is in the reasoning that Hawthorne had simply utilized it as the setting and forged the story around the forest and its characterized darkness and evil notions compared to that of the town which is light and absent of evil until Goodman Brown returns. This is a definite formalistic observation in the contrast of forest and the town. The forest is used as a setting which Hawthorne utilizes to expose the faults in all of mankind, including the self professed religious. No matter which way you believe, Hawthorne has successfully left the issue as a mystery and an undeclared element of the narrative.

The journey that Brown takes permanently alters his outlook on life as it is revealed that those around him and even close to him are sinners, so there is no redemption for Brown. His own beliefs about morality pushed him into a state of cognitive dissonance, where everything he has ever believed has been proven to be wrong but he cannot accept it. Thus, Hawthorne warns that strict Puritan-like faith can be very dangerous to a person’s mental

Thus when Goodman Brown leaves his "faith", it is not a departure from virtue, but a departure from deception.  To continue the allegorical analysis, Goodman Brown represents any naturally good human being caught in puritanism's web.  His journey through the evil forest is a journey into truth - into Hawthorne's reality of evil puritanism. He discovers that all the "pious" members of the community are actually evil, which, when interpreted directly, tends to suggest the true nature of puritanism.  And when these same upstanding puritans mingle with those of  "dissolute lives" and "spotted fame(384)," Hawthorne is suggesting that Puritans are on the same level as these individuals in that there actions are no less morally repugnant.  Brown's conversation with Satan suggests that Puritans have always unconsciously committed sin in their