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Young Goodman Brown

Page history last edited by William Patrick Wend 10 years, 1 month ago
  1. If we are to believe that Brown’s entire journey into the woods was a dream [“Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? . . .”], and only a product of his own imagination, what was he supposed to gain or learn from his experience? What are we supposed to learn from his experience? What role does religion play in Brown’s life? Is Brown as much a hypocrite as he believes the Deacon to be at the story’s end?
  2. Is YGB faithful to his religion, or is he just going through the motions to conform to the public sphere?
  3. Why is point of view important?
  4. What does "Faith kept me back awhile" mean?
  5. What other stories in classic literature share the themes of this story?

 

 


Biography 

  • 1804-1864

  • Born in Salem...added the W to distance himself from relative who'd been judge during witch trials--> http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Literature/Quakers&Witches/YoungGoodmanBrown/Introduction.html 

  • Short story collection Twice Told Tales

  • The Scarlett Letter + The House Of The Seven Gables

  • Biography of Franklin Pierce

  • Tanglewood Tales (Greek Myths)

  • His writing often takes place in New England

  • Puritan themes throughout his writing

  • Like Poe, involved with gothic romanticism

  • Also like Poe anti-transcendentalism 


Journal

  • If we are to believe that Brown’s entire journey into the woods was a dream [“Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? . . .”], and only a product of his own imagination, what was he supposed to gain or learn from his experience? What are we supposed to learn from his experience? What role does religion play in Brown’s life? Is Brown as much a hypocrite as he believes the Deacon to be at the story’s end? 

About


Summary

Young Goodman Brown starts out at his house with his lovely wife Faith. He is saying goodbye to her because he must go on a journey. The journey is unknown, but she begs him to stay because she has been having bad dreams lately. He leaves anyway with the thought that he will be the best husband when he returns home. As he is walking through the woods he feels the devil around him and eventually meets the devil, but he is in the form of an older version of John Goodman Brown. The devil accuses him of being late and he ironically responds “Faith kept me back awhile.” The devil is carrying a staff that resembles a black snake and John Goodman Brown states none of his family has ever been on such a journey. The old man convinces him that is not true and he helped both his father and grandfather commit awful crimes. They soon run into Goody Cloyse an old woman from Browns village. The old man offers her his snake like staff to travel faster. That is when Brown feels ashamed and will not go any farther on this journey. The devil attempts to lure Brown forward but he refuses to go any where but home. He then hears riders approaching and hides himself. He hears them talking about how they are excited about this young women joining them. He then gazes upward in the sky to hear all these different voices and one of them turn out to be his wife Faith. He tries to call out to her but all he hears is hear scream and the sound of laugher. Then her pink ribbon fell from the sky and that is when Brown loses it and goes to the dark side. He then reaches an almost wedding type area and sees the shape of his dead father and mother. He also sees a bride walking towards him, but cannot tell who it is. The devil tells him to look out into the crowd and says the misdeeds of the people in the crowd and has them look at each other. The bride is his wife Faith. Brown rebels just before they receive the baptism and tells his wife to “defy the wicked one.” After he cries out everything vanishes and he is alone in the woods again. He slowly walks home and really doesn’t know if what just happened was real or a dream. He doesn't know if his wife listened to him and really lives the rest of his life unhappy.


Questions?

  • Is YGB faithful to his religion, or is he just going through the motions to conform to the public sphere?
  • Point of view? (Limited Omniscient)  or others?

  • How does it change your conclusions about them?

  • YGB seems to have an idea what will happen in the forest? 

  • "Faith kept me back for awhile" double meaning

  • What sort of allegorical journey could YGB be going on?  A trip into his own heart/values?  Hypocriscy of the town?

  • How does the times in whcih YGB takes place affect the story?  (very puritan times)

  • What are YGB's values at the end?  Do you think he sticks to them?

  • "for his dying hour was gloom"

  •  How can this story be related to the story of Adam and Eve? 


Analysis

Three Big Ways To Look At This Story

YGB as induction into adulthood

  • If the gothic romanticism and religiosity is removed from the story, it becomes more of a traditional "coming of age" story ala Araby or A & P

 

Personal Responsibility versus "It takes a village"

 

As a test of values (can we relate this to ancient literature?)

  • Journey into woods is a test of values

 

 

Destruction of Social Contract

  • How can you relate the actions of Brown to Sammy in A&P?
  • YGB is about the corruption and hypocrisy of the public sphere.  
  • Despite their public Godliness, the puritans did not actually behave like that. 
  • Old man/Devil talking about YGB's grandfather setting fire to Indian villages exposes the darker side of the founding of New England.

Characters

John Brown

  • Bounces between simple minded innocence and corruptibility as he believes in the goodness of his community, but also that the Devil could have taken over the ones he loves...
  • Whether a dream or not, his corruption seems inevitable
  • The Devil/Old Man only enables his fall 
  • Believes in his father and grandfather, until he finds out that the Devil knew them both
  • Believes in Goody Cloyse and Deacon Gookin until the Devil shows him that she is a witch and he is her disciple
  • Believes that Faith is pure and good until the Devil reveals she is also corruptible. (oh, look at that Acme symbolism anvil falling toward us)
  • Brown's lack of true religion makes his beliefs very easy to shake 

 

Faith Brown

  • Has dreams too (Paragraph Six) 
  • Faith represents the stability of the home in the Puritan domestic sphere
  • Her name suggests she is the most pure hearted in the story
  • Also, religious symbolism
  • Brown clings to her, almost like a God(dess), when he questions the goodness of everyone in their community
  • He says that he will "hold onto her skirts" for the rest of his life
  • During this time period, a very popular notion was that a man's wife/mother could redeem them 
  • Faith is worth fighting the temptation
  • Once he sees Faith can be corrupted, Brown believes in absolute evil at the heart of man.
  • His estrangement from Faith is the worst consequence of his change of heart
  • If he can even be suspicious of Faith, Hawthorne suggests then he has truly become estranged from the goodness of God 

 

The Old Man/Devil

  • Appears as an ordinary man
  • ...is a symbol of what is to come for John Brown 
  • Suggests that everyone, including YGB, has a capacity for evil
  • Appears in regular clothes, which YGB learns is one of his powers...to appear in context and never out of place
  • Says that YGB's father whipped Quakers
  • Says YGB's grandfather set fire to Indian villages 

Symbolism

The Staff 

  • The Old Man/Devil's staff is encircled by a carved serpent, which is drawn from the Bible (Genesis)
  • To travel faster, YGB takes the staff, condemning himself, like Eve, to a loss of innocence.  
  • YGB is damned, like Eve as well, for his curiosity  

 

Faith's Pink Ribbon  

  • Does the ribbon represent purity?
  • Pink is often associated with innocence and femininity.  
  • Ribbons are very modest decorations
  • When the ribbon falls from the sky, YGB perceives that Faith has fallen to the Devil. She is no longer pure or innocent.

Gender


Point of View

  • How does POV affect secondary characters like Faith and others? 
  • Consider gender: what if the story was told from the perspective of Faith? 

Irony


Ending

  • At the end of the story, Faith still has her ribbons. This could suggest that it was only a dream.   

Adaptations


 

Bibliography

  • Tompkins, Jane. "Masterpiece Theater: The Politics of Hawthorne's Literary Reputation." The Book History Reader. 2nd ed. Routledge, 2006. 337-44. Print.  

As for whether the writing is fatalistic, there is evidence to say that yes it is fatalistic. Brown seems to have feelings that he is going to meet someone in the woods (610) who will change his life. At one point Brown even asks, “what if The Devil himself should be at my very elbow?” (611). Brown seems to be fated to learn the truth about those of his faith; they are not perfect and pure, they are flawed and human. Instead of learning from this revelation, amongst others, Brown is destroyed as a man.

 

Hawthorne wishes the reader to examine their own values. Are the righteous and pure values you espouse really just a facade? Can someone truly be pure if they abuse women and those of other ethnicities? The remedies to the problem here is simple: look at your values and try to become a better person. Just because you, or your society, say they are good people does not necessarily mean they are. To truly be good, you must continue to constantly examine your beliefs and the actions of yourself and those around you.

 

Hawthorne wishes the reader to examine their own values. Are the righteous and pure values you espouse really just a facade? Can someone truly be pure if they abuse women and those of other ethnicities? The remedies to the problem here is simple: look at your values and try to become a better person. Just because you, or your society, say they are good people does not necessarily mean they are. To truly be good, you must continue to constantly examine your beliefs and the actions of yourself and those around you.  

 

 

 

In some of the stories we have read, there are moral judgments made about characters. This can be seen in Young Goodman BrownThe StormHarrison Bergeron, and others. Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how moral judgments are used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far. 

 

There have been a number of stories that we are reading dealing with gender or where gender stereotyping is a potential issue for close reading and discussion. Some of these include The StormHarrison BergeronHappy EndingsYoung Goodman Browne, and others. Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how gender is used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far. 

 

A theme we seem to be coming back to is whether individuality is "sincere," or part of a larger motive for a character. We have seen this inHarrison BergeronYoung Goodman Brown, and A Good Man Is Hard To Find (others?). Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how individuality, or conformity, or both, is used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far. 

 

Another issue we have seen come up in various stories (Young Goodman Brown, The Ones Who Leave Omelas, Harrison Bergeron, The Storm) is how violations of the "social contract" play out in various stories we have read. Related, is the issue of the role, or facade, of "polite society," and how it relates as well. Pick at least one of these stories, but perhaps more, and write about how the social contract, and the myth of polite society, is used to affect one of the themes which we have covered in the course so far. 

 

  1. How does gender performance affect men in these stories? We see typical, and not so typical, women throughout the stories we have read (Young Goodman Brown, Happy Ending, The Yellow Wallpaper). Their performances of femininity in the stories greatly affect the behaviour and characterisation of men. Write a paper where you engage with how gender performance affects the perception and behaviour of men in one, if not more, of these stories.
  2. An issue we have seen a lot this semester is how "mob mentalities" play out in the various stories we have read. We have seen this inYoung Goodman Brown, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Harrison Bergeron, A Rose For Emily, and The Yellow Wallpaper. Write a paper where you engage with the symbolic nature of mob mentalities. What is the significance of mobs in the stories? What is being conveyed symbolically by them?
  3. How does gender performance affect men in these stories? We see typical, and not so typical, women throughout the stories we have read (Young Goodman Brown, Happy Ending, The Yellow Wallpaper). Their performances of femininity in the stories greatly affect the behaviour and characterisation of men. Write a paper where you engage with how gender performance affects the perception and behaviour of men in one, if not more, of these stories. 
  4. An issue we have seen a lot this semester is how "mob mentalities" play out in the various stories we have read. We have seen this in Young Goodman Brown, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, Harrison Bergeron, A Rose For Emily, and The Yellow Wallpaper. Write a paper where you engage with the symbolic nature of mob mentalities. What is the significance of mobs in the stories? What is being conveyed symbolically by them? 

 

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