Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown" forces the reader to use their imagination to interpret what exactly happened to Goodman Brown during his night in the woods. The overall story is very vague, Hawthorne never revealed exactly what happened to Goodman Brown, whether his experience in the woods were in fact real, what was the meaning behind the woods scene, and what is the moral behind the story. Although there is a lot of ambiguity in the story, many facts hinted at the idea that Goodman Brown's experience was just a delusion constructed by the Devil himself to mislead him and ultimately change his outlook on life. The very fact that Goodman Brown's whole experience was very vague and ambiguous supports the idea of a delusion. For example, once Goodman Brown returned back to town, everyone he claims to have been at the Devil gathering were behaving normally, as before he had witnessed them at the gathering in the woods. Faith loved him as much as before he had left (as well as before she went to the gathering) and the old minister was working on his sermon (as he did before Goodman witnessed him at the gathering). Everyone was behaving as they normally did, everyone except Goodman Brown himself.
Goodman Brown changed after he returned to town. Goodman was forever under the impression that everyone in town worshipped the Devil, everyone except himself. "He shrank from the venerable saint (the old minister), as if to avoid an anathema" (p 241). When Goodman cringed from the blessings of the minister, he acted as if having a blessing placed upon him was harming him, to others it may seems as if he was against Christianity and the Devil himself is against Christianity (God). Goodman also lost his passion and love for Faith when he returned to town. He rejected and resented Faith's love and joyfulness when he once embraced and enjoyed Faith's company. In fact, Goodman resented everyone; he resented life after his experience. "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become" (p 241). Goodman died a lonely, bitter, unfriendly, and gloomy old man, having lived a life which Hawthorne seemed to hint at as a sad and unfulfilled life. Goodman's outlook on life was dramatically altered after his experience, as if the Devil had gotten to him and turned him away from all the pleasures in life (love, religion, friendship, etc.).
Although it was never directly stated, the change in Goodman's character insinuated that he had indeed been touched by the Devil, even if he was unaware of it. After the experience, Goodman's life was turned upside down until the point of his death. He seemed to think that everyone around him was Devil's follower, causing him to resent everyone and life; Goodman isolated himself from life, even Christianity ("on the Sabbath-day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen, because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear, and drowned all the blessed strain" (p 241)). It could very possibly be that the Devil's intention from the very beginning was to have Goodman Brown become this way; from the experience Goodman unconsciously destroyed his life himself (which is what the Devil aimed for). Ultimately, Goodman became Devil’s follower by obeying the Devil’s wish.

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