Romanticism in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, The Birthmark, and Rappaccini's Daughter

Hawthorne endows each of his heroines with both light and dark elements. Although each one is inherently pure, none of these women are entirely free from the accusations leveled by the men in their lives. In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne presents Faith as the ideal

     In Hawthorne's revered novel The Scarlet Letter, the use of Romanticism plays an important role in the development of his characters. He effectively demonstrates individualism in Hester to further our understanding of the difficulties of living in the stern, joyless world of Puritan New England.  It is all gloom and doom.  If the sun ever shines, one could hardly notice.  The entire place seems to be shrouded in black.  The people of this society were stern, and repressed natural human impulses and emotions than any society before or since.  But for this reason specifically, emotions began bubbling and eventually boiled over, passions a novelist

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne presents the tale of a young man from Salem, Massachusetts during colonial America. One night, Brown accidentally witnesses a witches meeting in the forest where he sees the rest of the town, including his wife Faith, in attendance. This comes as quite a shock to Brown and the next morning but he cannot remember whether or not the scene was real of simply a dream. Regardless, from then on Brown lives his life in opposition to the rest of the town. Although it may seem that the meaning of the story comes simply from an evaluation of Brown himself, and the actions he takes against the towns people, more needs to be done to fully comprehend the totality of Hawthorne’s

The dialogue, action and motivation revolve about the characters in the story (Abrams 32-33). It is the purpose of this essay to demonstrate the types of characters present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” whether static or dynamic, whether flat or round, and whether protrayed through showing or telling.

Leavis says in “Hawthorne as Poet” that “It is a journey he takes under compulsion, and it should not escape us that she tries to stop him because she is under a similar compulsion to go on a ‘journey’ herself” (36). So the main male and female characters are manifesting similar (equal?) characteristics. But thinking only of himself, Goodman abandoned Faith to an evening of loneliness at home, or so it initially seemed. Alas, they had been married but three months when he rejected her thus. After a rather hostile accusation of distrust by Brown, Faith wished him well, “May God bless you!” And he, feeling perhaps that he had been a bit harsh, tried to assuage her fears of spending the night alone by reassuring her, “Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee.” Then he left her alone.

hours work a day, women were limited to 10 hours work a day in textile

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” demonstrates how Goodman Brown leaves his wife, Faith, to do an errand within the woods with a man that is believed to be the devil. During the time period in which this took place, the 1620’s, many of the people from the village were practicing Puritanism. Puritanism is an intense practice of religion retrieved from Protestants, only removing its Catholic influence. When Goodman Brown entered the woods to meet the devil, he soon turned into a man who was corrupt within his faith. When Mr. Brown left his wife and entered into the dark woods, it displayed a form of symbolism. In continuation, symbolized a Puritan man straying away from his faith in God which is his wife in this case. Moreover, when Brown entered the woods and followed the devil, it represented his faith diminishing away with every step he took in the forest. Hawthorne demonstrates Brown becoming a skeptic of his own religion through his actions.

Hawthorn’s use of dramatic irony in Young Goodman Brown succoring suspense build up, divulging the sanctimonious comportment of Puritans.(1) For instance, when Young Goodman Brown did not recognize the old man traveler, the devil in disguise when clear demonstrations stood in front of him.(2) As the pious old women passed the traveller he touches her with his staff and she she she cried out, “The devil"(pg.5).(3) Knowing the denouement of the story, Young Goodman Brown unknowingly encounters the devil and goes farther into the "unholy" forest.(4) In addition, Young Goodman Brown ponders over the fearful possibility the devil watches him.(5) Goodman Brown half-heartedly questions, "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow"(pg.2).(6)

Science is one of the most important factors that many science fictions deal with. Some of them describe the positive and useful side of science such as the description of sciences like mathematics, physics, chemistry and many other fields of study. While some of the other science fictions describe the dangerous sides of science that can hurt and even kill human beings. Concerning this idea, Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the American writers of the mid-nineteenth century who writes about art and science. This paper will describe the sort of science that need to be interrogated and how is combined by comparing “Rappaccini’s daughter” and “The Birthmark” by the role of the scientists, Dr. Aylmer and Dr.

  “Almost all literary theorists since Aristotle have emphasized the importance of structure, conceived in diverse ways, in analyzing a work of literature” (Abrams 300). This essay will explore some interesting points in the structure of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” considering the time-frame, foreshadowing, suspenseful incidents, climax and denouement (Axelrod 337).

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.

Romanticism is categorized as “a preference for simplicity and naturalness, a love of plain feelings and truth to common place reality, especially as found in natural scenes”. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an anti-transcendentalist and believed in the dark side of man, hence his dark romantic novel The Scarlet Letter. This allegorical novel depends heavily on symbol and character. The novel is chock full of symbolic dimension of images, characters, and descriptions. The Scarlet Letter defines the American Romanticist movement while using symbolic characters and places that give the book seemingly two different stories. The first story denotes the story going on in the book, including the characters. The other story has symbols that speak on

“Young Goodman Brown” is a story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835. This was the period around the crazy incidents of the Salem Witch Trials. This piece is covered with topics that can be described as having alternative meanings. Through the symbolism in the story, the audience is able to make ties between the old relationships Goodman Brown had with the other townspeople. The series of event in the story bring him to believe that his entire life was a lie and no one was worthy of his trust. All of the misconceptions in his life were brought on by the occupations and actions that his fellow townsfolk underwent while Goodman Brown was around them. Through the regards of symbolism, new meanings of this nighttime experience are

Are all human beings destined for evil? In the novel Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he explores the idea that all human beings have the potential to become evil. A man named Young Goodman Brown goes out on Halloween night, which is considered one of the most dangerous nights of the year. Brown takes a walk through a forest to meet with the devil but later realizes that he needs to change his faith and commit his life to God. Brown wakes up the next morning as a changed man with new beliefs. In the novel Hawthorne uses archetypes such as color, cycles, and garden imagery to fully develop the theme that all humans are inheritably evil.

Goodman Brown’s conflicts of interest are represented throughout story through the characters. All his evil desires are his id and his reason for avoiding his sin such as the views that his society will have on him is his ego.  Levy said in his essay “The Problem of Faith in “Young Goodman Brown””, “His submission to evil suggests that the demands of the id have overtaken the ego” (379). When the highly respected people in his