THE FORMALISTIC

APPROACH TO
LITERATURE
…and to Young Goodman Brown
What is the Formalistic
Approach?

…what is
formalism?
Formalism
 The term formalism describes an emphasis on form

over content or meaning in the arts, literature, or

philosophy.

 A practitioner of formalism is called a formalist. ...

Formalism/New Criticism
 The formalist movement began in England with the

publication of I.A. Richards’ Practical Criticism

(1929).

 American critics (such as John Crowe Ransom, Robert

Penn Warren, and Cleanth Brooks) adapted

formalism and termed their adaptation “New

Criticism.”
So the Formalistic Approach
is…
 A critical approach that analyzes, interprets, or

evaluates the inherent features of a text. These

features include not only grammar and syntax but

also literary devices such as meter and tropes.

Formalism
 Has the advantage of forcing writers to

evaluate a work on its own terms rather than

to rely on “accepted” notions of the writer’s

work

 Works best when applied to poetry and short

fiction.
Formalism
 Attempts to discover meaning by close reading of a work of

literature. Focus is on:

 Form, organization, and structure

 Word choice and language

 Multiple meanings

 Considers the work in isolation, disregarding author’s intent,

author’s background, context, and anything else outside of

the work itself.


The Formalistic Approach DOES NOT
look at…
 The name of the author.

 The nationality or era of the composition.

 The speakers background, or biographical

information.

 Whether or not the author the had adapted this work

from a past experience.

A formalist does not look at the

who, what, when, where or

why…

They look at the how

Formalistic Approach
Summary
 The object of formalistic criticism is to find the key to the structure

and meaning of the literary work

 We search for form which is necessary for real understanding

 A unifying pattern is the pattern that as modern critics say,

informs or shapes the work inwardly and gives its parts a

relevance to the whole

 We must narrow our attention to what the literary work says but

we must first consider how it is said


Formalistic Approach
Summary
 Suggests that the reader see what is in the poem, novel, or

the play rather than to consider what is outside it.

 First step in explaining the literary work is to discover

what the words actually mean in their full denotative

and connotative value.

 Principle by which content and form inseparable—

○ Imagery, tone, meters, rhymes, etc


Formalism/New Criticism
 New Criticism varied from formalism in that New Criticism

focuses on image, symbol, and meaning. Traditional

formalists often attacked New Critics for their lack of

attention to the form of the work.

 Seminal works on New Criticism include John Crowe

Ransom’s The New Criticism (1941) and Cleanth Brooks’

The Well Wrought Urn (1947).


Impact of Formalism
 Today, few critics adhere only to the
formalist or New Criticism theory.

However, its back-to-the-basics approach

pervades many other critical theories.


Young Goodman Brown
 …and how to view it via the formalistic approach…
 In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown,

there are numerous formalistic approach concepts.

This method to reading, which is one of the most

common, has three main points: symbolism, allegory,

and allusion. Even though these main points are most

prominent, there are other points such as, ambiguity,

and organic form.

Ambiguity in YGB
 Ambiguity Allows for two or more

simultaneous interpretations of a word,

phrase, action, or situation, all of which

can be supported by the context of a

work.


Ambiguity in YGB
 Deliberate ambiguity can contribute to the

effectiveness and richness of a work, for

example, in the open-ended conclusion to

Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown."

However, unintentional ambiguity obscures

meaning and can confuse readers.

What is the meaning behind the pink
ribbons?

 Are they emblematic of love, of

innocence, of good?
 Conversely, do they suggest evil or
hypocrisy, or the ambiguous and
puzzling blend of good and evil?
 Faith vs. faith


 Does Goodman Brown lose Faith or

faith?
Allegory in Young Goodman
Brown
 The story Young Goodman is allegorical,

meaning that the characters and

objects in the story represent abstract

ideas.
Allegory and Faith
 In Young Goodman Brown, we have

Brown’s wife Faith and the spiritual

faith which contribute to the ambiguity

of the short story.

Allegory and faith
 If the tale is allegorical, for example, it may be that

Goodman Brown gained his faith three months

before the action of the story, when he and Faith

were married. The allegory may further suggest

that Goodman Brown shortly loses his new faith,

for “he shrank from the bosom of Faith”

Allegory in YGB
 Allegory is difficult to maintain, often requiring a

rigid one-to-one equivalence between the

surface meaning and a “higher” meaning.

Thus if Faith is faith, and Goodman Brown

loses the latter, how do we explain that faith

remains with him and even outlives him?

Allegory in YGB
 Strict allegory would require that she disappear,

perhaps even vanish in that dark cloud from which

the pink ribbon apparently falls. On the other hand,

a pattern of symbolism centering on Faith is easier

to handle, and may help by offering more

pervasive, and more subtle interweaving ideas.

Symbolism - Faith
 Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, symbolizes

Brown's spiritual faith. When he sees her

in the forest at the witches' sabbath, he

realizes he is in danger of losing not only

his wife but also his spiritual faith.

Symbolism and
The Forest as Eden
Symbolism – The Forest as
Eden
 Goodman Brown appears to represent human

beings confronted with temptation–that is, he

wishes to enter the dark forest of sin, so to

speak, to satisfy his curiosity about the

happenings there and perhaps even to take

part in them.
Symbolism – The Forest as
Eden
 The man who meets Brown in the forest appears to represent the

devil; his staff is a symbol of the devil as a serpent. Thus, we

have Adam (Brown, curious to learn forbidden knowledge)

facing the serpent in the Garden of Eden. It was, of course, a

tree—the Tree of Knowledge—that enticed Adam. Goodman

Brown is enticed by an entire forest. Like Adam, he suffers a

great fall from innocence.

 Symbolism – The Forest as
Eden
 Faith appears to represent Brown’s religious faith and his faith in others; her pink

ribbons stand for innocence. But when she also appears at the witches' sabbath

—apparently, like Eve, desiring forbidden knowledge—she too loses her

innocence. At the last moment before his and his wife's baptism into the evil

society gathered in the forest, Brown urges his wife: "Look up to Heaven, and

resist the Wicked One." He then finds himself alone in the forest, wondering

whether he has awakened from a dream or really did attend the witches'

sabbath. But the damage is done, and he becomes "a stern, a sad, a darkly

meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man."

Allusions within
Young Goodman Brown
 Goodman: Husband or master of a household.

 Goody: (1) Housewife, especially an elderly one, of a lower class;

(2) any lower-class woman; (3) housewife or mistress of a
household.
 King William (Paragraph 13): William III, king of England from
1689 to 1702.

 Wot'st: (Paragraph 15): Know.

 King Philip (Paragraph 18): Nickname of the Wampanoag Indian

chief Metacom (or Metacomet). Maltreatment of Indians by
whites provoked him into waging what came to be known as
King Philip's War against New Englanders in 1675-1676. His
defiance instilled fear in the white inhabitants of New
England.
Allusions within
Young Goodman Brown
 Lecture-Day (Paragraph 21): Weekday on which a sermon was given.

 E'en Go Thy Ways (Paragraph 25): Just (righteous) be thy ways.

 Cinquefoil (Paragraph 32): Flowering plant of the rose family that has
white, red, or yellow petals.

 Wolf's Bane (Paragraph 32): Wolfsbane, a poisonous plant.

 Devil's Staff (Paragraph 36): The narrator says, "So saying, he threw it
[the staff] down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being
one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian
magi." This passage alludes to verses 8-12 in Chapter 7 of the
Bible's Book of Exodus. According to these verses, God directs
Moses to tell Aaron, his brother, to cast down his staff before the
throne of the pharaoh of Egypt. When he does so, it transforms itself
into a serpent. The pharaoh's magicians (magi) then cast down their
staffs, which in like manner turned into serpents. However, Aaron's
staff consumes the staffs of the magicians.
One characteristic we must
look at when analyzing
Young Goodman Brown is
form;
the structure or style of a
text.
Young Goodman Brown - Form
 A short story like YGB, as opposed to a long novel, is

structured in such a way that there are a few

notable characters and only one major situation.

 As a result, a short story like YGB reaches its climax

and solution and thus quickly comes to an end.

Young Goodman Brown - Form
 A short story is restricted in scope, like a news story, but

unlike the news story, the short story possess the

balance and design-the polish and finish, the

completeness which we associate with the work of art.

 In brief, like any other imaginative literary work, the short

story possesses form.

Organic Form
 The organic form has two parts:
The local texture
The logical structure.
Local Texture
 The local texture is the comparison that is

made between things. A comparison in this

story would be the description of red fire and

a man who is mean and controlling. A

comparison can be made to the devil and

hell.
Logical Structure
 The logical structure of this story is a young man that has a wife, who

ironically is named Faith, goes out one night on a journey. His wife

begs him not to go but he does anyway. On his journey he

encounters the devil, and because of this devil he loses his wife

Faith, and his own faith. When he comes back from his journey he is

a changed man for the worst, in a sense that he treats everyone as a

sinner, and forever treats people with disgust.

Virtues and Vices
 If you use your prior knowledge of Puritans you would or

should have come to the conclusion that this would be a

stereotypical story where the protagonist (Goodman)

would be tempted by the devil or some evil creature that

somehow makes the faithful protagonist lose their faith

and then somehow regain it. However as this story

progresses it is shown that this was not the case.