¶ … Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne suggests that a young man's nightmare about his wife being sucked into a witch's cult sours him on his wife as well as their larger community, and causes him to live out his life as a bitter and suspicious man. However, other points in the story argue against the events being a dream. Near the end of the story, Nathaniel writes,
Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? Be it so, if you will. But, alas! It was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown. A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream."
Like the Devil, the mysterious stranger does not appear to be evil initially. Similarly, at the destination of the walk through the trail, Goodman encounters a flaming alter that is also reminiscent of biblical stories. In his dream, the flaming alter probably represents a complete indoctrination into evil ways. Fundamental Conflicts The most important conflict in the story is represented by Goodman's decision about whether or not to forsake all that
Young Goodman Brown Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a strange and unsettling story of a young man who travels through a wood overnight and allows his experience to change him forever. There are many themes in this short story, including the age-old theme of good and evil, but a close reading of the work can make the reader thing Brown's journey is a symbolic acting out of his own sinful
HAWTHORNE'S BIRTHMARK AND YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN Hawthorne was born 1804 and brought up in Salem, Massachusetts to a Puritan family. When Hawthorne was four, his father died. After this incident he was mostly in the female company of his two sisters, an aunt and his retiring mother who was not close to her offspring. Hawthorne was known as a reserved personality but during four years at college he established close friendships
Therefore in the remarkably persistent debate over whether Young Goodman Brown lost faith in human redemption or not, which critics have apparently quarreled over for a century and a half now, this reading takes the side that Brown did in fact retain some core belief that human redemption was possible, or else he would not have been alienated, tried to save the girl or had a family. The resulting message
Young Goodman Brown In the story "Young Goodman Brown," much of the story is centered on Goodman Brown and his struggle to use his faith to suppress his evil impulses and his internal doubts. This struggle is undoubtedly a representation of some of the same struggles that Nathaniel Hawthorne must have faced within his own life in which he embraced the Puritan way of life and its beliefs. Given Hawthorne's background
Young Goodman Imagines Himself an Excessively Badman Young Goodman Brown will become a bitter and hopeless man, "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man," whose "dying hour was gloom," and who cannot even smile and be joyful with his own wife and children. This perpetual foul mood is attributed in the story to the ill effects of his "fearful dream." Indeed, at the story's
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