ipl-logo

The Theme Of Serpent In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

437 Words2 Pages

In the short story of “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I noticed the Hawthorne established the idea of serpent in pages 1 through 4. In page 2 it says, “sayest thou so? Replied he of the serpent, smiling apart.” Perhaps Hawthorne established the idea of “serpent” because these individuals are sneaky. In addition, when you aren’t expecting they will turn their back against you. Nevertheless, I don’t comprehend why Hawthorne established the idea of serpent next to his staff? These two ideas don’t relate to one another, but the author must have done it for a specific reason. In page 2 it says, “could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake.” Furthermore, I noticed the way Hawthorne described the road in the forest. He uses descriptive words in order to create a visual of the forest. In page 1 it says, “He taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest...narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind.” The descriptive words the author establishes makes readers visualize the forest. As I kept on reading further, I didn’t comprehend why Brown and the man decided to meet in the forest? It seemed Brown was afraid of the forest because he mentioned there being a devilish Indian behind …show more content…

It says, “I have been as well acquainted with your family...I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker women...I brought your father a pitch-pine knot.” However, Brown says that it cannot true because their family are people of prayer and good works. The man was talking about helping his father and grandfather kill innocent people. Overall the questions that I have, concerning these ideas, are why did the man therefore lie to Brown? Was it to gain his trust? Moreover, why did the family kill

Show More
Related

  • Dreaming Or Awakening In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    127 Words  | 1 Pages

    Nathaniel Hawthorne leaves it to our own opinion to believe if Goodman Brown was dreaming or awake. In the beginning of the story it’s believed they saw Goodman Brown was awake before going into the forest. Then when he going into the forest, Goodman Brown had fallen asleep. So, the story has us believe that his worst fears came to reality. In the end it leaves us to question in what we thought from the beginning.

    Read More

  • Goodman Brown Vs Misfit

    2225 Words  | 9 Pages

    (Maus 2005) In the story of “Young Goodman Brown”, the traveler carries a serpentine staff and towards the climax of the story, he makes a new stick by stripping twigs, wet with dew. However the moment his fingers touch them they withered and dried up. The traveler is as destructive as they come; he is feared by Puritans. The whole point of the Puritan’s journey into that forest, although each individual’s is different, is so they can get a glimpse of this traveler and what he is capable of and in turn realize how much they actually need God. The serpent on his staff is a symbolization that he is like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

    Read More

  • The Struggle With Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    1072 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Struggle with Faith “Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is meant to hold a larger truth about society. This story is comprised of many different symbols that work together to make that truth all the more clear to the reader. Hawthorne will accentuate the fact that faith is a choice, and each individual faces a struggle whether or not to accept faith as a part of who they are. He uses each character and event in the story as a representation of different influences that people are impacted by in the process of making a decision on faith.

    Read More

  • The Thing In The Forest

    976 Words  | 4 Pages

    There was undergrowth—a mat of brambles and bracken. There were no obvious paths. Dark and light came and went, inviting and mysterious, as the wind pushed clouds across the face of the sun.” (355) The "thing" in the story was symbolized as the terror

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of The Scarlet Letter

    534 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Prison Door In this Chapter from The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne introduces the setting of the book in Boston. He uses a gloomy and depressed tone in the beginning of the chapter. He is able to convey this tone using imagery while describing the citizens, the prison, and the cemetery. However, as he continues to discuss the rose-bush, he uses parallelism to shift the tone to be brighter and joyful. To create a gloomy and depressed tone, Hawthorne uses imagery.

    Read More

  • Syntax In The Scarlet Letter

    1592 Words  | 7 Pages

    Hawthorne’s writing style provides readers with a more vivid and colorful reading experience that hopefully pushes them to be more engaged in what they are reading. In having to decode the majority of the novel, it leaves a mysterious and open effect on the entire book. With all this in mind, it is important to recognize Hawthorne’s subtle use of literal devices like alliteration such as “married, happy, and mindful of her mother” (Hawthorne, 360) in his writing. Slight additions such as this spice up his typically repetitive language and peak interest on readers by keeping them on their toes. In having all the skills to represent the darkness and beauty in life in remarkable ways, Hawthorne uses syntax in The Scarlet Letter to improve and enhance the overall quality of his

    Read More

  • Sexism In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Sexist Young Goodman Brown

    566 Words  | 3 Pages

    Brown reflect this when returning home from the forest and see Faith in which his reaction was “ But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without greeting” (70). He displays this further by “Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away.” (72) because his wife caused him to his loss of faith which he displays by not praying publicly or privately showing faith in

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices Used In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

    437 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mood in the first chapter is set immediately in the first line, "...in sad colored garments and gray. " Just this description shows readers that the story being told will be one of much emotion. When a person begins to read this book he will swiftly be drawn in by Hawthorne's attention to detail. Once the reader knows the mood of a chapter he will be eager to learn more. Hawthorne

    Read More

  • Young Goodman Brown Rhetorical Analysis

    675 Words  | 3 Pages

    For many years, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing of “Young Goodman Brown” has been used frequently when discussing the topic of a moral allegory. This story is both a literal and metaphorical journey of a man who is walking to a spiritual crisis, with the devil himself. The use of symbolism and imagery help to set the tone for the reader, when going along with Goodman Brown on his “soul-searching” journey. Herman Melville once wrote that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” has only been improving over time. He said “like wine, was only improving in flavor and body.”

    Read More

  • Theme Of Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    512 Words  | 3 Pages

    Goodman Brown loses his faith in his humanity when evil prevails itself in many forms, leaving him to speculate the behavior and beliefs of everyone encircles around him. This story also contains similar Biblical characteristics of the sinful nature in man. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to define that wickedness exist in all humanity and nothing is the way it seems. The story begins with Goodman Brown and his wife named Faith bartering a goodbye kiss.

    Read More

  • Sin And Guilt In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    1728 Words  | 7 Pages

    During his journey of sin, Young Goodman Brown and the devil come upon Goody Cloyse, Young Goodman Brown's catechism teacher, and, still believing that she is a “pious and exemplary dame” Goodman Brown tries to stay away from the woman by pleading with the devil “I shall take a cut through the woods… being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with” (3). Because of Young Goodman Brown’s beliefs of her innocence, it is even more jolting to him when she “knows her old friend,” the devil, and speaks about stolen broomsticks, recipes including “the juice of smallage and cinquefoil and wolf’s-bane,” and even the same devilish meeting that Young Goodman Brown and his accomplice are to attend (3). With signs that all point to sin and witchcraft, Young Goodman Brown’s shock in saying “That old woman taught me my catechism” had “a world of meaning” as he cannot possibly believe that a woman known to be so holy and righteous in the community could be so evil within. As Goodman Brown moves past the shock of Goody Cloyse’s actions, he is exposed to the sins of the holiest members of their Puritan community, the minister and Deacon Gookin. While Goodman Brown shamefully “[conceals] himself within the verge of the forest… he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin” who speak of the same evil “meeting” as Goody Cloyse and even remark that “several of the Indian powwows” will even be present (4,5).

    Read More

  • Imagery In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    467 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first example of imagery that Hawthorne uses is when Young Goodman Brown is walking through the woods and he was trying to resist the devil’s temptations. “On he flew among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to an insperation of horrid blasphemy, and now shounting forth such laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around

    Read More

  • Pride In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    1043 Words  | 5 Pages

    Set as a common aspect within each story, the complex passages of sin and life later yield the protagonists’ sudden realization of the imminent nature of life and suppression of their initial pride. When Goodman Brown embarks on a journey through the woods, he initially encounters an old man, who closely resembles Brown himself. Goodman Brown, alongside the second traveller, sets off on a “dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest” (Hawthorne 1), represented as the principal setting and symbol of sin’s path. The atmosphere is instantly set as the path is illustrated “as lonely as could be” (1) with a “peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the

    Read More

  • Reading Response To Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

    1146 Words  | 5 Pages

    Nathaniel Hawthorne did not always speak positively toward the Puritans, but he has respect for the group. The main symbol that stands out is the scarlet letter “A” that was stuck on Hester Prynne for her actions of adultery which is a theme for this book. Another symbol is the rose bush that grew right outside of the old, rusty, decaying prison

    Read More

  • The Inevitability Of Sin In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    706 Words  | 3 Pages

    My broomstick hath strangely disappeared, stolen, as I suspect, by that unhanged witch, Goody Cory, and that, too, when I was all anointed with the juice of smallage and cinque-foil and wolf's bane–”” (3) She started speaking of a recipe as if the man had been her friend for years. Goodman Brown could not believe that a woman of the church would follow the devil. This was the same woman who taught him his catechism. This point was when Brown did not want to continue, wishing to go back to his

    Read More

More about The Theme Of Serpent In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Open Document