Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown's Apocalypse Essay
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Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown's Apocalypse
Most criticism and reflection of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young
Goodman Brown centers on a good versus evil theme. Critics also debate
interpretations of the main character's consciousness; is Brown awake or
dreaming. What is certain is that he lives and dies in pain because his
belief in his righteousness isolates him from his community. It is also
certain that Hawthorne's interpretation of Brown's "mid-life crisis" has
ambiguity and leaves a reader with many different feelings about what and
why certain things have happened. Hawthorne's use of symbolism in his
allegorical tale Young Goodman Brown causes the main character's…show more content…
What he considers moral and "good" in his
life he finds in the forest. This torments his perception of practically
everything.
A good man in Hawthorne's day was a person of proper lineage. This
very lineage Hawthorne capitalizes on as he begins the goodman's conference
with the devil. The Goodman claims that he is from a family of upright and
moral men that have never and would never go into the forest on a trip
such as the one he is participating. "Hawthorne depends upon this defense
to criticize the patriarchal lineage upon which a person places his worth"
(Segura). The devil disproves Brown's theory by stating that all of
Brown's ancestors accompanied him and tortured women in Salem or burned to
the ground Indian villages. Afterwards the devil and his ancestors would
go for a friendly walk. With this, Hawthorne has mocked the institution of
Young Goodman Brown's lineage and his society's view of honor by stating
his family's past. The question remains whom or what is the devil. If the
devil points to the painful truth of the past and the reality of people in
the present, is this the allegorical face of evil (Seg ura)? Perhaps
Hawthorne playing upon the reader's disposition to see the devil as evil
and stand next to the "good man" and his fate?
Distraught, disappointed and confused, Brown leaves the company of
the devil. He
Most criticism and reflection of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young
Goodman Brown centers on a good versus evil theme. Critics also debate
interpretations of the main character's consciousness; is Brown awake or
dreaming. What is certain is that he lives and dies in pain because his
belief in his righteousness isolates him from his community. It is also
certain that Hawthorne's interpretation of Brown's "mid-life crisis" has
ambiguity and leaves a reader with many different feelings about what and
why certain things have happened. Hawthorne's use of symbolism in his
allegorical tale Young Goodman Brown causes the main character's…show more content…
What he considers moral and "good" in his
life he finds in the forest. This torments his perception of practically
everything.
A good man in Hawthorne's day was a person of proper lineage. This
very lineage Hawthorne capitalizes on as he begins the goodman's conference
with the devil. The Goodman claims that he is from a family of upright and
moral men that have never and would never go into the forest on a trip
such as the one he is participating. "Hawthorne depends upon this defense
to criticize the patriarchal lineage upon which a person places his worth"
(Segura). The devil disproves Brown's theory by stating that all of
Brown's ancestors accompanied him and tortured women in Salem or burned to
the ground Indian villages. Afterwards the devil and his ancestors would
go for a friendly walk. With this, Hawthorne has mocked the institution of
Young Goodman Brown's lineage and his society's view of honor by stating
his family's past. The question remains whom or what is the devil. If the
devil points to the painful truth of the past and the reality of people in
the present, is this the allegorical face of evil (Seg ura)? Perhaps
Hawthorne playing upon the reader's disposition to see the devil as evil
and stand next to the "good man" and his fate?
Distraught, disappointed and confused, Brown leaves the company of
the devil. He
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