Nathaniel Hawthorne- Young Goodman Brown

- There are three integral elements in his stories and novels:

o His sense of past, which aforded him materials for his
works about the Puritans of the 17
th
c ew !ngland"
o His moral sensibilit#, a re$nes and compassionate
version of his ancestors Puritan conscience
o % rare capacit# for creating vivid, dramatic s#mbols of
man&s moral and ps#chological e'perience"
- His interest in histor# of (alem has a personal basis"
- )n long introduction to The (carlet *etter +1,-./, titled 0The
1ustom House, he describes his Puritan ancestors, the
Hawthorne&s
o The $rst was a leader in the 2assachusetts 1olon#
03 who came so earl# 4156.7, with his 8ible and his
sword3had all the Puritan traits both good and evil9 and
persecuted dissidents with 0hard severit#9"
o His son, a :udge, earned a notorious place in histor# in
(alem in 15;< b# sentencing to death 1; persons
accused of witchcraft, whose 0blood ma# fairl# be said
to have left a stain upon him9
- Hawthorne felt guilt and shame for the misdeeds of these two
men"
- Hawthorne personall# knew three of his contemporaries who
are now ranked with him as ma=or 1;
th
c >omantic writers-
!merson, Thoreau, 2elville"
- Hawthorne and 2elville where friends and shared an ideolog#
that was diferent from the other two contemporaries"
o !merson ? Thoreau believed in the perfectibilit# of man:
)n their works the# called a sweeping awa# of the @aws
and corruptions of the societ#, and the# urged man to
rel# on his own intuitive self and to ful$ll himself in
natural harmon# with the universe and with other men"
o Hawthorne ? 2elville on the other hand believed in the
innate depravit# of man- i"e" the# believed that man is
inherentl# @awed and his life doomed to be a tragic
struggle between the good and evil in him and in the
societ#, which is his creation" %n# other view the#
considered wishful or super$cial"
o Aor Hawthorne and 2elville an awareness of evil is
essential to maturit#, essential to a realistic knowledge
of the whole of life"
Ben#on, a character in Hawthorne&s The 2arble Aaun, asks,
Is sin, then, like sorrow, an element of human education,
through which we struggle to a higher and purer state than
we could otherwise have attained?---- Hawthorne&s answer
seems to be in aCrmative as is evidenced through all his
works"
- 2elville sensed in Hawthorne 0a touch of Puritan
gloom939this great power of blackness in 4H7 derives its force
from its appeals to that 1alvinistic sense of )nnate Depravit#
and Eriginal (in, from whose visitations, in some shape or
other, no deepl# thinking mind is alwa#s and wholl# free3
Perhaps no writer had ever wielded this terri$c thought with
greater terror9" %nd according 2elville no stor# better
illustrated the power of blackness than 0Foung Goodman
8rown9 H 0 as deep as Dante9
- 8ut all these writers commonl# shared the view,
o That the best source of wisdom is not reason but the
supra-rational faculties- intuition, the 0heart9, moral
vision"
o That outer realities e'press inner truths: i"e" there is a
correspondence between the ph#sical and the spiritualI
between material and essence----- %n idea which is of
vital importance for H&s use of s#mbols, especiall# with
regard to the wa# inner truths about a human being
manifest themselves in tangible, visible forms"
- Hawthorne is considered as the founder of ps#chological novel
in %merica
On Young Goodman Brown
Some Facts:
- JGoodman&, JGoodwife& +Good#/ were eKuivalents of J2r"& ?
J2rs"&" The former was used for persons of middle class or
below, and the latter for those of higher social position"
- J8rown& is one of the most common %merican surnames" The
appellation 0Foung Goodman 8rown9 suggests as ever#man"
- The stor# is set in 17
th
c" (alem and includes characters who
were actuall# e'ecuted in the witchcraft persecutions"
- Hawthorn&s principle concern is with 8rowns mind and soul
and not with literar# histor#"
Notes:
1" Old South H a church
<" King Williams !ourt- Bing Lilliam ))), Bing of !ngland from
15,;-17.<
6" "uaker Woman- the Muakers are members of a religious sect
founded about 15-." Aor adhering to the conviction that divine
revelation comes through an 0inner light,9 the Muakers were
accused b# the Puritans of blasphemous disrespect for the
8ible and the ordained clerg#, and were accordingl#
persecuted"
N" King #hilips war- 0Bing Philip9, an )ndian 1hieftain, was the
last leader of the )ndian war of resistance against the settlers
of ew !ngland"
-" $reat and $eneral !ourt- the legislature of the colonial
2assachusetts"
5" %ecture da&- da# of midweek sermon, usuall# Thursda#"
7" $ood& !lo&se- Good# 1lo#se and Good# 1or# were historical
characters" 8oth were tried for witchcraft and sentenced to
death in 15;< b# a court of which Hawthorne&s great-great-
grandfather was a member"
," 'g&ptian (agi- The ET of the 8ible in !'odus 7: ,-1<, tells
how, when the people of )srael were held captive in !g#pt,
God commanded 2oses to perform a miracle before the
!g#ptian Pharaoh" 0%nd 2oses and %aron went unto Pharaoh,
and the# did so as the *ord had commanded: and %aron cast
down his rod before Pharaoh3and it became a serpent" Then
Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the
magicians of !g#pt3The# cast down ever# man his rod, and
the# became serpents: but %aron&s rod swallowed up their
rods"9 Hawthorne seems to suggest that in this 8iblical contest
between people of God and their enem#, the devil rent his
own rod 0to the !g#ptian magi9"
;" 1atechism- elementar# moral and religious doctrine in the
form of a set of Kuestions and answers