Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Novelist and short story writer, a central figure in the American Renaissance

• best-known works include The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of Seven Gables (1851)

• Obsessed with the effects of Puritanism in New England, with the dark side of human nature, with themes of sin, guilt and secrecy, and intellectual and moral pride.

(1804-1864)

Hawthorne’s life (1)

• Born in Salem, Mass.

• Descendant of prominent New England Puritans

• William – passed sentence on Quakers

• William’s son – a judge in the Salem witchcraft trial of 1692

• Grandfather – a Revolutionary War hero

• Father – a sea captain who died of yellow fever when Hawthorne was four years old

Hawthorne’s life (2)

• Mother lived a secluded life after his father’s death, which influenced her son’s solitary attitude

• Hawthorne spent most of his early years in Salem in a solitary fashion, starting to write here after college graduation

• In 1842 Hawthorne became friends with the Transcendentalists in Concord, Emerson and Thoreau, who also drew on the Puritan legacy.

Hawthorne’s life (3)

• At the Bowdoin College (1821-24), among his friends were Longfellow and Franklin Pierce, who became the 14th president of the United States.

• Hawthorne was unable to earn a living as a writer and in 1846 he was appointed surveyor of the Port of Salem.

• Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, in Plymouth, New Hampshire on a trip to the mountains with his friend Franklin Pierce.

Major short stories

• Among Hawthorne's most widely anthologized stories are

• 'Young Goodman Brown' (1835) • ‘The Black Minister’s Veil’ (1836) • 'The Birthmark' (1843) • 'Rappaccini's Daughter' (1844)

• Twice-Told Tales (1837)《重述的故事》• Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) 《古宅青苔》

Major long fictions

• The Scarlet Letter (1850)《红字》• The House of Seven Gables (1851)《带有七个尖角阁的房子》

• The Blithedale Romance (1852)《福谷传奇》• The Marble Faun (1860)《玉石雕像》

Features of Hawthorne’s Stories

• Romantic elements - sensibility: feelings vs. rationality - mysticism: unseen forces, spirits - adventure in the past to an ideal place or in quest of

enemies - melancholy / morbid - individual feelings vs. the society• Obsession with the dark side of human

nature: repressing effect of Puritanism on people, guilt, sin, secrecy

• Hate / Fear of intolerance, hypocrisy, incapacity for human sympathy as the pride-ridden scientist is inclined to

• Ambiguity: optional readings; uncertainty

Young Goodman Brown• Setting - Salem, MA around 1690s; night in the forest• Character - Goodman Brown; elder traveler, Faith• Narration - Omniscient narrator, more telling than showing• Conflict - man and nature? man and society? man and

him/herself?• Theme - An exploration of human nature? Mental disease as

a result of the suppression of the society? Problem of one’s personality?

• Atmosphere - gloomy• Language: formal

Setting

• New England colonies - Puritans

- 1620 Plymouth Mayflower Compact - 1630 Massachusetts Bay Colony Boston, Charlestown• Puritanism – Calvinistic doctrines

- Original Sin - Predestination - God's unconditional election

Historical-biographical considerations (1)

• Puritan New England:

- King William’s reign (1688-1702) (p.26)

- persecution of the Quakers by Brown’s grandfather (the 1660s) (p.27)

- King Philip’s War (1675-1676), in which Brown’s father participated (p.27)

- Salem, Boston, Connecticut, and Rhode Island

- ministers, elders, meetinghouses, communion tables, saints, selectmen (p.28), and lecture days

Historical-biographical considerations (2)

• Puritanism - Calvinism

- God’s supremacy

- man’s helplessness and sinfulness

- distinction between the elect and the damned

- predestination

Historical-biographical considerations (3)

• Witchcraft and Satanism Witches, witchcraft and an incarnate Devil were

realities to New Englanders of this period. - dialogue between Goodly Cloyse and the Devil

(ll.16-32, p.29) - a satanic worship / witches’ Sabbath attended by

witches, devils, and lost souls (ll.12-20, p.31; ll.21-19, pp.33-36)

- Hawthorne’s great-grandfather was a judge in the Salem witch trials of 1692

Historical-biographical considerations (4)

• Suppression and Intolerance of Puritanism

- lashing of the Quakers - slaughtering of the Indians - persecution of the “witches” Goody Cloyse (p.28) Goody Cory (p.29)

Discussion Questions for Young Goodman Brown

Questions

1. What is the significance of the setting?2. What dramatic change happens to Goodman

Brown? Why the change?3. What is the theme of the story?4. What are some of the major symbols?

Goodman Brown’s Change

• From a good man to a bad man - from a faithful Christian who loves his wife and his neighbour

to a person who becomes disgusted with everybody in his doubts about his own faith as well as his fellow townspeople’s faith

• From happy to unhappy - anxious about man’s salvation in general if sin is so prevalent

in human nature; human hypocrisy - unbalanced in mind• Why the change? - losing faith in God, losing hope for salvation - intolerance of the Puritan society: hypocrisy; losing balance

of the mind

Significance of the Setting

1. Explains why Brown is so curious about and concerned with the hidden sin in people

2. Intolerance of Puritanism is largely responsible for the hypocrisy of the townspeople

3. Suppression of the Puritanism leads to Brown’s unbalanced mentality

Structuralist approach:Plot prototype

• Gothic tale: supernaturalism and horror

- spirit-haunted habitations, diabolical villains, secret doors and passageways, terrifying and mysterious sounds and happenings

- workings of the evil in a person

• Faust legend:

- a bargain with the Devil for some desirable thing

- man’s courage to challenge the limit and explore the unknown world

Moral-philosophical considerations

• An allegory: a narrative in which each character represents an abstract moral quality of human beings at large.

• Brown is Everyman.

• Faith is religious belief.

• Brown’s fellow traveler and his Staff represents Satan / the evil force in general.

• Brown’s story is every man’s experience. His contemplation or exploration of human nature reveals our common problem in life.

The Psychological approach

“Young Goodman Brown”: Id versus Superego• Superego (Conscience)

- village: A place of light and order (social and moral / spiritual order)

- Faith: Projection of a part of Brown’s psyche

• Ego - Brown

• Id

- Forest: A place of darkness and unknown terrors

- Satan: Projection of another part of Brown’s psyche

Imbalance in Brown’s Psyche

• Brown’s id gains the upper hand. He yields to the wild evil in the heart of darkness and becomes “himself the chief horror of the scene” (p.32). “In truth, all through the haunted forest there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown …” (p.32-33)

• Cf. resemblance between the elder traveler and Goodman Brown (p.26)

Themes: symbolic meanings of the journey to the forest

• A journey bravely taken for more knowledge of the unknown / dark world

• A journey of discovery of the evil nature of human beings:

- Brown becomes a misanthrope - Brown is anxious about people’s

salvation• The inner workings of an imbalanced

mind under the suppression of the Puritanical society

Assignments for Walt WhitmanAssignments for Walt Whitman• Read Whitman’s poems in the textbook.

• Which poem do you like better? And why?

• Identify amazing / unique images, metaphors, lines, etc. and explain why you think they are amazing.

• Imitate one of the poems to write a poem of your own.

• Paraphrase a stanza of the poems and compare in detail the different effects between the original stanza and your paraphrase, such as the sound, rhythm, image, tone, style, theme, etc.

• Think about the questions in the textbook.

67

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne’er succeed.

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need.

 

Not one of all the purple Host

Who took the Flag today

Can tell the definition

So clear of Victory 

As he defeated – dying –

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Burst agonized and clear!

288

I’m Nobody! Who are you?Are you – Nobody – Too?Then there’s a pair of us?Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know! How dreary – to be – Somebody!How public – like a Frog –To tell one’s name – the livelong June –To an admiring Bog!