Communities of Lantern Yard and Raveloe's Influence on the Development of Silas Marner's Character

A character arc is essential in any story, showing what the character has gone through and learned. Usually, this process involves the growth and gained knowledge of the character throughout the story, in a good way. However, in the case of ‘Young Goodman Brown”, the character arc is almost backwards in a sense. He does gain knowledge about the society in a bad way and this affects his perception of the town throughout the story. It is evident that in the text, Goodman Brown is mentally toyed with by the devil and the townspeople so much to the point of breaking down near the completion of the story and is not able to tell what is real anymore. This is evident by his relationship with the devil throughout the story, his motivations for following him into the dangers of the forest, and his changed perspective of the townspeople and clergymen concluding the text. The battle between Brown’s id and his ego and superego, relating to Freudian psychology, greatly affects the outcome of the text.

In the play Fences, by August Wilson, the main character, Troy Maxson is involved in numerous relationships with family members throughout the entire eight years that the story takes place. Troy is a father, husband, and brother to other characters in the play. Unfortunately for Troy, a strong-minded and aggressive man, he constantly complicates the relationships with his family members. Troy's hurtful actions and words make it nearly impossible for him to sustain healthy relationships with not only his two sons, but also his wife and brother.

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were writers of the American gothic genre. They both used the elements of horror and mystery in their writing styles, writing about the dark side of humanity and the evil that lives within the human mind. Gothic writing focuses on the dark side of humanity and both Poe and Hawthorne captured this style well in their use of themes, symbols, and narration that focused on darkness and evil with their characters fighting various psychological issues. However, Poe’s stories are told in the first person narrative and he focuses on one human psychological effect, looking at man’s thoughts from within his mind and how his behavior then affects his surroundings. He also tends to build a sense on impending doom somewhat stronger than Hawthorne. Hawthorne, on the other hand uses the third person and focuses more on how man’s thoughts and behaviors are the results of what is happening around him. His stories also tend to be more of a romantic nature than Poe’s and he tends to create stories of conflicting interpretations to share lessons of life.

Straying off the path can lead you so far down another path that you may never have wanted to go down in the first place. Except there is no way back because once you plunge off you can’t expect to cling onto someone and expect them to have enough faith for the both of you. Especially if you are going against your beliefs. However, even though he knows leaving his wife is wrong, he still believes that he is still an elect that will go to heaven. [Goodman "felt justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose" (Hawthorne 3) either way.] It would seem like even though he really doesn’t want to leave his wife, this is something that he really needs to do in order to come back and be fully committed to his faith and his wife. Just as the forest is in some odd way calling out to him. Little does he know as soon as he enters that forest his world is going to be turned upside down forever.

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, “I do not want to be a doctor and live by men’s diseases, nor minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer and live by men’s quarrels. So, I don’t see that there is anything left for me but to be an author” (Nathaniel). This statement describes Hawthorne’s personality and life in a way that no other quote could. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an Anti-Transcendentalist writer meaning that he had a negative view of all humans. The Anti-Transcendentalist movement was a pessimistic branch of Romanticism and it began in mid 1800s and lasted until late 1800s. Nathaniel Hawthorne was influenced greatly by his childhood, which is what caused him to be an anti-transcendentalist, yet in his novel The Scarlet Letter there was a bridge created between anti-transcendentalism and utopian transcendentalism.

my privity, He gain admittance to my hearth, I pray. The curse I laid on

demon, Screwtape, addressed to his nephew, Wormwood. Wormwood is assigned his first “patient” and it is his skilled Uncle Screwtape’s job to help him through the process. A patient is the demon’s human that they are assigned to keep away from God and to constantly face with temptation. Screwtape receives reports from Wormwood each week and then responds with advice and techniques. Screwtape highlights many different ways to keep us from following God, especially with limiting our understanding of “real” to mean only the material (23). In other words, demons don’t want us to think about the spiritual world around us, only about real materials lacking the meaning of the purpose of life so that we don’t ask questions about what will happen to us after death.

Nathaniel Hawthorne never really presented a solution to any of his protagonist’s problems, all we were left with questions of what is to become of them next? How did their actions help bring their problems to an end? These problems that aren’t solved are deep internal problems that can be solved by simply researching Hawthorne 's life and all the things going on in his life around the time he wrote the story. Most of these problems are given to the protagonist because of problems Hawthorne face in his own life, problems that he faced while he was a child. These were problems that shaped him into the person he was when he was writing these fascinating stories.

The innocent are compelled to commit to seeing the devil, but then name another honest person unfairly, so they will not be punished. The Puritans have to be careful of their actions and words, because the girls could accuse them at any point. This is paramount for John Proctor, who is accused when Mary Warren tries to speak out and end the drama with Abigail and the girls. Mary Warren is part of the group which danced in the woods, and told Abby and the girls to stop. However they refuse, knowing that if they told the truth now they will be punished for all the innocent lives they damaged. They keep proving Mary Warren wrong when she and Proctor are close to exposing them, and this pressure finally ends up drawing Mary Warren over to their side. Mary now sets her sights on blaming John Proctor. As Mary Warren says on page 952 of The Crucible, “You're the Devil's man!...My name, he want my name. "I'll murder you," he says, "if my wife hangs! We must go and overthrow the court"”. John Proctor is shocked by this false accusation that Mary Warren declares, but goes along with it, knowing there is no more God in the town to save his

Fences by August Wilson is a play that covers the life of Troy Maxson from the 1950s through the mid 1960s. The main character Troy is an aging man who formerly played in the negro leagues and is now working as a garbage man. Troy struggles with racism, taking care of his family and dealing with the reality that times have changed. Maxson is a strong character with very prominent traits displayed throughout the play. He can be described as hardworking, responsible, and troubled. Those traits attest to who he his, how he lives and play a role into his relationships with family and friends.

William Dean Howells wrote many important things in a realistic style during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His work, “The Rise of Silas Lapham,” exemplified realism and impacted Americans as one of the first novels to study American businessmen. The Realism movement served American literature as an attempt of truthfully portraying life in all literary works.

Short stories did not begin to develop as a dedicated, intentional genre until the early 1800s, when authors such as Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe began to attract readers with them. These authors were from the Romanticism period. Three characteristics of Romanticism are having a profound love of nature, passionate nationalism, and a fascination with the supernatural. Stories by these authors share dark times and mysterious events.

In the novel, The Rise of Silas Lapham, William Dean Howells makes a particular point about the morals of an individual in the business world. His point is that an individual, such as Silas, must check their morals at the door if they have any plans to make it in the business world. The novel has always been popular, partly because it presents Lapham's financial and social failure as "consciously and deliberately chosen" when he has to decide whether he shall cheat and stay on top in business or tell the truth and fail irrecoverably (Gibson 283). The Rise of Silas Lapham is a novel that deals with the potential moral corruption of a man by money. The outward signs of Silas Lapham's

With most writers, readers can identify what topics they tend to write about, how long their pieces often are, and what personal style these authors develop. While this is true of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are different elements that influence his writings. His life included many times of trials, many joys, and many ancestors that caused some turmoil within his mind. Two of his major works are influenced almost directly by his background (Werlock). Nathaniel Hawthorne threw his life into every single piece of his writing. His experiences, background, and the setting in which his life took place are prominent

are linked in a way that is very important in the point of the story.