The Dark Forest of Ones Mind: A Journey inside the Subconscious
The human mind is both a fascinating and complicated system. Thousands of neurons firing away like workers in their cubicles at a crowded corporate office; producing complicated thoughts and feelings and emotions. Indeed this complexity of the brain is a powerful tool used by some of the greatest authors within the cannon of American Literature, particularly, Nathanial Hawthorne. Hawthorne crafted stories with tense pacing and dramatic events, but he also employed literary devices that brought to light the emotional complexities of his characters. In Young Goodman Brown (1832), Hawthorne depicts a Puritan young man who must suddenly leave his wife, Faith in the middle of the night, and venture out into the wilderness where he finds all of the members of his town and church seemingly worshipping the devil in the heart of the dark forest. The story, while seemingly about a young man getting lost in the forest or simply having a bad dream, seems to be something deeper in the eyes of Hawthorne. The story suggests that Goodman Brown’s trek into the forest represents his physical journey into the realm of his unconscious mind.
One of the ways in which the story shows Goodman Brown’s journey into his deepest and darkest thoughts is through the forest itself, with all of its vast darkness and uncertainty. The narrator asserts early in the story: “It was all as lonely as could be; and there is peculiarity in such a
Thesis: Goodman Brown’s state of mind between good and evil could have been caused by a combination of Puritanism obsession with the devil, its resemblance, and other prejudices such as ergot poisoning.
“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story centered around the psychoanalysis of Young Goodman Brown. Hawthorne was an American Novelist who wrote exceptional short stories, many of the Dark Romantic genre. The genre is characterized by dark, gloomy, psychologically crazed, romanticisms that often don’t have that typical happy ending. Throughout “Young Goodman Brown” his mental capacity is put to the test as he is forced to endure a battle between 2 conflicting emotions. Ambivalence is shown throughout the story as well, due to these conflicting emotions. Young Goodman Browns departure on his journey outlines the power struggle of good and evil within himself and the sinful nature his psyche imposes on the members of his community.
Faith attempts to hold Brown back from his journey, yet for reasons unknown, he insists upon going. As Young Goodman Brown embarks on a journey into the forest without Faith, he also leaves behind his faith in society. Repeated images of the road Brown takes and the dark forest around him, add to the allegory. “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. It was all as lonely as could be, and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead, so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.” (Hawthorne 198). As Brown wanders down the dark foreboding path that closes behind him, the potential for spiritual danger arises, foreshadowing the loss of his spiritual faith.
In “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne’s uses imagery to gets the reader attention. In the parable of “Young Goodman Brown,” the reader is set into a twist of good versus evil. Hawthorne depict evil in terms that describe the forest and the old man with the staff. The reader believe Goodman Brown is walking into evil when the woods was mention. Puritans believe woods to be the territory of the devil. In “young Goodman Brown” the forest is a symbol of the devil's home. “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. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be
In the story “young Goodman brown” the woods seem to symbolize the woods having life and being able to interact with brown. “Ha! Ha! Ha! Roared Goodman brown when the wind laughed at him let us hear which will laugh the loudest. Think not to frighten me with your devilry” (Hawthorne 142).This explains that the woods frighten brown supposedly by screaming at him and scared him. This symbolizes the wind which is part or if not also considered the woods to be a person screaming and frightening
The main focus of the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the triumph of evil over good. A supposedly good man is tempted by evil and allows himself to be converted into a man of evil. This is much like the situation that arises in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, where two people are tempted to sin and give in thus submitting themselves to the power of the devil. In this novel, the area where the devil resides is strictly parallel to that in “Young Goodman Brown”.
Written in 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” was first published in the April issue of ‘New England Magazine” and it was later included in Hawthorne’s collection of short stories entitled ‘Mosses from an Old Manse’ in 1846. Brown is a pious, young man with strong religious convictions who embarks on a journey through a deep, menacing forest in Salem, Massachusetts amidst seventeenth century Puritan society; which forever alters his self-perception and his view of all mankind in an adverse manner. Hawthorne uses descriptive imagery and symbols to create an environment of foreboding and eeriness which helps to show Brown’s emotional and spiritual struggle on his expedition.
“Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835, is a short story about a man named young Goodman Brown who leaves his wife, Faith, to go on an errand into the woods with the devil. Faith begs Goodman Brown to not leave her alone, but he chooses to go anyways. This short story shows many signs of symbolism, such as the forest, the devil, the staff, the pink ribbons, Faith, sin, and guilt. These symbols help in understanding the story of young Goodman Brown and his unconscious struggle with his religion. The trip not only takes Brown onto a journey of sadness, but also into the deepest parts of his soul. Goodman Brown wishes to enter the dark forest of sin, to satisfy his
... feel trapped in the forest, as it had closed in behind him every step of the way. When he decided to continue on with his journey, the forest quickly began to intimidate and overcome him as "the road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced, and vanished with length." This is significant due to the fact that Goodman Brown start to realize that he was destined to come face to face with evil and there appeared to be no turning back. As he fights his innermost fears and weaknesses, he continues on with his journey, and slowly comes to the realization that the world that he is living in is not as perfect as he had once thought.
In the story of Young Goodman Brown, as a reader we see many circumstances where Hawthorne uses irony in straightforward situations. I have learned from reading several of the author’s works that it is up to the reader to decide the meaning behind his stories. In this paper, I will be discussing the significance of the title, Young Goodman Brown and how I believe there is more to the story than what Hawthorne writes. Young Goodman Browns journey within the forest revealed truths not only within him, but within human nature and society. On page, 1103 Goodman Brown states “there may be a devilish Indian behind every tree.”
“Evil is the nature of mankind.”(Nathaniel Hawthorne). The story of “Young Goodman Brown” depicts what Hawthorne believes the nature of mankind is, which is evil. Goodman is a man of attempted good who comes face to face with the supposed inherent evil of humanity. He cannot realize, through any normal means, whether or not this awareness is something of his tormented mind, or based on something he stumbled upon while deep within dreary, haunted forests.
When analyzing Young Goodman Brown, The Birthmark, and Rappaccini’s Daughter, it is apparent that setting is an indispensable component in each of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories. The setting is important in Young Goodman Brown as the forest is key to depicting the Puritan philosophy of refusing to explore the unknown. Hawthorne’s short story explains the journey taken by Goodman Brown through the woods as he solicits answers to the unknown. As Goodman Brown traverses deeper into the forest, “the road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil” (Young Goodman Brown). Hawthorne’s visual image
"Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? (387)" The story "Young Goodman Brown" is portrayed as a straight forward tale of a man on a venture. It is not overly difficult to comprehend or interpret, however it does have several great ambiguities. As Hawthorne's tale has a great deal of symbolism, it is all in retrospect to the ambiguous entities within the tale. The formalistic approach will be used to analyze the ambiguities in the story, mainly focusing upon the use of dark and light contrasts. The questions of why did Goodman Brown leave his wife Faith and venture into the forest and was his journey into the forest a reality or a dream bring a grand weight of ambiguity upon the
Perceiνed through the archetypal lens, the short story, Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne asserts the uniνersal idea that eνil lurks within eνery man. Taken as a whole, the work conνeys that humanity can easily fall νictim to innate selfish instincts as well as society’s damaging influences. The main character, Young Goodman Brown, treks on a journey that challenges him to uphold his innocence and his belief in a decent mankind as he discoνers corruption in people. The allegory—a story that utilizes symbolism in order to represent human characteristics, situations, and νalues—portrays man’s fading connection to his image of a pure world. The short story’s many archetypes serνe to unfold the protagonist’s recourse to eνil. In an effort to reνeal Brown’s and in essence, eνery man’s weakness to resist the darkness within people and within themselνes, Hawthorne uses two major archetypal images: the journey and the fall; both of which follow chronologically with the story’s plot.
Goodman Brown didn’t finish the journey the evil thoughts were taking over his mind and he could bare to witness anything else on this journey that was not like God. Before returning to Salem Village he stops and rest. While resting his mind begins to wander and evil thoughts take over once again, Brown notice this large mass of a dark cloud over his head, within that cloud he heard familiar voices that were heard every day in the daylight in Salem Village. Still wondering what to make of this cloud through some forest he notice a rock rising from the ground, and people from the village that claimed to be “pure” were gathered around. Goodman Brown was now witnessing the Witches Sabbath, at the Sabbath they were participating in some ungodly