Theme Of Betrayal In Young Goodman Brown

“Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides.

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.

Hawthorne’s writings reflect the Puritan culture and history in a new way. In the past the Puritans culture was one that revolved around god and god’s providence. The idea that if you believe in god and have a good moral mindset, you will prosper and god will always be by your side. Although, if you were against god and made some immoral choices god would always find you and smite or punish you. So you could imagine the change in tone when Hawthorne writes about a witch meeting. The theme “things are not always as they appear” plays a huge role in the story. The one symbol that expresses the theme is Faith. She is the main character’s (Goodman) wife. In the beginning of the story on page 386 Faith is trying to hold back Goodman. Faith knows

"There is no one righteous, not even one.” This is the theme present throughout the short stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The minister's black veil”. Nathaniel Hawthorne crafts two stories that not only look at the characters in the stories, but also forces the reader to examine human nature and their own self-righteousness; whether it be from the perspective of Goodman Brown or the townspeople of Salem. Nathaniel Hawthorne offers a peek behind the black veil that everyone wears.

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne was known for his many ways of writing including hidden messages, allegory meanings and symbolism. Nathaniel also brought back Puritan style writing by discussing religion as a main focus in his texts with everyday people good or bad, also known as religious symbolism. In “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne symbolically illustrates the dark and bright sides of characters throughout the story in order to teach the moral lesson of man and the conflict within, the hidden evil among everyone represented in the mysterious man and Goody Cloyse, Goodman's unknown past, and his unknown future with his wife.

Young Goodman brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne undergoes the hero’s journey, which is a theory by joseph Campbell that involves a hero that goes on an adventure and in a decisive crisis wins a victory and comes home changed and transformed. The hero’s journey undergoes 7 main stages the hero, herald, mentor, threshold guardians, trickster, shapeshifter and shadow. Which the story of young Goodman brown undergoes

This quote shows a turning point in the story. The devil has been using methods of persuasion to make Young Goodman Brown feel isolated. Once he sees his catechism teacher, Goody Cloyse, he begins to feel isolated in the world which the devil has entrapped him in. In addition, he feels frightened because the devil has had influence on him indirectly through Goody Cloyse. The most understandable emotion Young Goodman Brown goes through is betrayal. In his Puritan community, Young Goodman Brown felt a sense of security and nourishment. When he sees his catechism teacher, he is forced to reevaluate everything that she has told him and he feels that everything she has said has influenced him to partake in this journey.

Have you ever thought about the concept of freedom? Freedom is a point of perspective and not a point of a state of being. This can be seen in the story comparison in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown and Phillis Wheatley’s To the University of Cambridge, in New-England. You take Yong Goodman Brown, a man living in an area and time where it is deeply rooted in their Christian beliefs. Then you have Phillis Wheatley who is an African slave who is writing to privileged white men in Cambridge. Both are planted firmly in their Christian faith and the difference is one of them is a slave, and the other one is a free man with a wife and family. Yet, after reading Young Goodman Brown, it seems that only one of them

The Danger of A Walk With the Devil: The Consequence of Sin and Guilt in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”

Good and evil are present within every person one will encounter in his/her life. Is it better for to just solely focus on the good and live life blissfully ignorant, or to focus on just the bad and live life aware and depressed? Is it easier to focus on the bad in others and ignore its presence in oneself? Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays both of these situations in his stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister’s Black Veil,” showing the reader that the world is not simply black and white. There is a grey, blended area for one to live in that allows him/her to live peaceful but not ignorant.

In his short story “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism and imagery to show the concept of good versus evil. Symbolism is essential to literature because it helps create meaning and emotion in a story. Imagery is crucial to literature because it helps create a vivid experience for the reader. Hawthorne uses both to draw the reader in.

The desires of humanity often reflect the temptations residing in the heart’s depths. Evil’s lure is a strong pull felt by all, regardless of the appearance put on through the conscious mind. In literature, temptation is explored thoroughly, especially in the short story, “Young Goodman Brown”. “The tale becomes in great part, thus, a record of temptation” (Pualits 578-579). The author of “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. His family has a long standing history in Salem, as his relative John Hathorne was a judge in the Witch Trials. Soon after the trials a ‘w’ was added to the family’s last name to distance themselves from the horrors of the time (Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography). Set during

mother. Paul wanted that his mother could celebrate her birthday diligently and dignity by having all facilities leaving aside past deprivation. He managed handsome money indirectly through lawyer in the name of some unknown relative who deposited this money on the condition to pay Paul mother at the time of her birthday in instalments. His mother received a letter from lawyer and when she approached lawyer, she insisted to receive whole money at a time that was one thousand pounds. This showed that Hester thought of only herself and she wanted to get all the money at once on the proclamation that she had to pay back her debts but instead of paying her debts, she spent all money in extravagant. She gave more preference on money than her family and she declared that her husband was unlucky.

American currencies, specifically coins, have two sides: a head and a tail. The head and tail are different, yet they are still part of the same coin. Two American authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, represent two sides of the same coin: Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism swept through America as a new worldview in the 1900’s. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material, that deals with aspects of nature. Men committed their lives to the study of nature. Nature became a religion. Emerson, a transcendental optimist, claimed that each person is inherently good. Hawthorne, a transcendental pessimist, demanded that man was corrupt and inherently evil. Emerson