--Born July 4, 1804, in Salem, MA --Died May 19, 1864, in Europe --Great grandson of John Hathorne, a judge at the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692 --Ancestral guilt leads a young Nathaniel to add a W to his family name; thus, Hawthorne --General Consensus: “Having on one occasion described himself as ‘the obscurest man of letters in America,’ [Hawthorne] is now celebrated as having discovered…the sources and themes of a truly national literature at a time when a young America was trying to declare its literary independence from Europe.” (Profiles in Literature, Crowley) --Profile: “He dressed in black, and often wore a large mantel which on occasion he drew about himself, veiling is face and elongating his lithe body with black drapery, like a mysterious stranger out of a gothic romance…or a ravaged, furtive-eyed Hamlet out of nineteenth century romanticism.” (Salem Is My Dwelling Place, Miller) --Herman Melville on his friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne: he NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Biographical Information
Transcript
--Born July 4, 1804, in Salem, MA--Died May 19, 1864, in Europe--Great grandson of John Hathorne, a judge at the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692
--Ancestral guilt leads a young Nathaniel to add a W to his family name; thus, Hawthorne
--General Consensus: “Having on one occasion described himself as ‘the obscurest man of letters in America,’ [Hawthorne] is now celebrated as having discovered…the sources and themes of a truly national literature at a time when a young America was trying to declare its literary independence from Europe.” (Profiles in Literature, Crowley)--Profile: “He dressed in black, and often wore a large mantel which on occasion he drew about himself, veiling is face and elongating his lithe body with black drapery, like a mysterious stranger out of a gothic romance…or a ravaged, furtive-eyed Hamlet out of nineteenth century romanticism.” (Salem Is My Dwelling Place, Miller)--Herman Melville on his friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne: he has “a great power of blackness” and a “Calvinistic sense of Innate Depravity.” (Crowley)
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Biographical Information
CALVIN and the PURITANS
From John Calvin’s, The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) --“When we look at our wretched state since Adam’s Fall, all confidence and boasting melt away; we blush for shame and feel truly humble.” --“The contamination of our parents is transmitted to their children so that everyone, without exception, is depraved from their earliest moment.” --“We are crooked and corrupt in every part of our nature…we are rightly condemned by God.” --“Even babies bring their condemnation with them from their mother’s wombs; they suffer for their own imperfection and no one else’s.” --“To put it briefly, the whole man is in himself nothing but lust.”Delbanco on Puritans: under the “enormous pressure behind the imperative of faith…minds could and did break” (36).
SOURCES for “Young Goodman Brown”
--Young Goodman Brown was probably written in 1828 or 1829--Published in 1835, in the New England Magazine (Hawthorne was probably paid about one dollar per page--Local Witchcraft Folklore familiar to Hawthorne: the devil is Protean, always shifting shapes--Historical records on witches’ Sabbaths would have been available to Hawthorne at the Essex County Court--Goodman Brown’s name can be traced back to the diary of Samuel Sewall (a judge during the Salem with trials), and Goody Cloyse appears in historical records--Goody Cory, Martha Carrier and Deacon Gookin are all mentioned in Cotton Mather’s 1693 account of the Salem with trials, Wonders of the Invisible World--From Wonders: “The Devil, exhibiting himself ordinarily as a small Black Man, has decoy’d a fearful knot of proud, forward, ignorant, envious and malicious Creatures, to list themselves in his horrid Service, by entering their Names in Book by him tendered unto them. These witches have met in Hellish Rendezvous [sic], wherein the Confessors do say, they have had their Diabolical Sacraments, imitating the baptism and the supper of our Lord…”
Different Interpretations
Different Interpretations
--Brown as a victim of Puritanism--Historicist Perspective--Brown as an evil sinner
Argues that literary work embodies recurrent mythic patterns, or archetypes, which are fundamentally
unaffected by historical change Focus on a work’s symbolism or narrative structure
in order to connect it to ancient myths and religions or fundamental human experiences.
Argues that literary work embodies recurrent mythic patterns, or archetypes, which are fundamentally
unaffected by historical change Focus on a work’s symbolism or narrative structure
in order to connect it to ancient myths and religions or fundamental human experiences.
Faust “Young Goodman Brown”
♠ Ambition for knowledge♠ Interaction with the Devil ♠ Denied hope of Heaven
Creation Myth
The Standard Path of Mythological AdventureThe Standard Path of
Mythological Adventure SEPARATION
A hero ventures forth from the world of
common day into a region of supernatural
wonder.
INITIATION RETURN
HOGWARTS
Fabulous forces are there encountered
and decisive victory is won.
Privet Drive
The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the
power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
SeparationSeparationOrdinary World1. Call to
Adventure
2.Refusal of the Call
3. Meeting of the Mentor
4. Crossing the Threshold
I. Separation
1. “The Call to
Adventure,” or the signs of the vocation of the hero
2. “Refusal of the Call,” or the folly of the flight from the god
3. “Supernatural Aid,” the unsuspected assistance that comes to one who has undertaken his proper adventure
4. “The Crossing of the First Threshold,” or the passage into the realm of the night.
Separation as Recurrent Narrative
Separation as Recurrent Narrative
Leaves his wife Faith in order to discover some knowledge
THIS AMBITION IS SIMILAR TO FAUST’S GOAL She is very apprehensive that he should leave herSUGGESTS THE PROPER ACTION THAT SHOULD BE
TAKEN (IE. DON’T EAT THE APPLE) Is lead by the shape-changing Devil, who weilds a
snake-shaped staff DEVIL, IN THE FORM OF A SNAKE, LEADS ADAM AND
EVE INTO TEMPTATION AND BREAK FROM GOD
Leaves his wife Faith in order to discover some knowledge
THIS AMBITION IS SIMILAR TO FAUST’S GOAL She is very apprehensive that he should leave herSUGGESTS THE PROPER ACTION THAT SHOULD BE
TAKEN (IE. DON’T EAT THE APPLE) Is lead by the shape-changing Devil, who weilds a
snake-shaped staff DEVIL, IN THE FORM OF A SNAKE, LEADS ADAM AND
EVE INTO TEMPTATION AND BREAK FROM GOD
Crossing the Threshold
1. Tests, 2. Allies
and
3. EnemiesApproach
the Inmost Cave
4. The Ordeal
IIA. The Descent IIB. The Initiation
5. Reward
Road Back
1. “The Road of Trials,” or the dangerous aspects
2. “The Meeting with the Goddess,” or the bliss of infancy regained
3. “Woman as the Temptress,” the realization and agony of human suffering
4.“Apotheosis,” highest point in development, deification5. “The Ultimate Boon”
Initiation and the Creation Story
Initiation and the Creation Story
Knowledge after the fall: learns that everyone is not good (Calvanism)
Communion with the Devil and partake in “the mystery of sin”
Loses Faith/faith (signified by the pink ribbon) and hope of redemption
Knowledge after the fall: learns that everyone is not good (Calvanism)
Communion with the Devil and partake in “the mystery of sin”
Loses Faith/faith (signified by the pink ribbon) and hope of redemption
ReturnReturnOrdinary World
Return with Elixir
Resurrection
Road back
III Return
“Refusal of the Return,” or the world denied “The Magic Flight” “Rescue from Without” “The Crossing of the return Threshold,” or return to the world of the common day “Freedom to Live,” the nature and function of the ultimate reward.
ReturnReturn
Cynical to the good in man, harbors hatred for them.
Young Goodman Brown loses any hope of Heaven.
The role of the hero is subverted, instead of bringing back “good,” he spreads the mission of the Devil.
Cynical to the good in man, harbors hatred for them.
Young Goodman Brown loses any hope of Heaven.
The role of the hero is subverted, instead of bringing back “good,” he spreads the mission of the Devil.
Is it a dream?Is it a dream?
--Was Goodman Brown’s journey into the woods a dream? --Does it matter?
--Was Goodman Brown’s journey into the woods a dream? --Does it matter?
Where is evil?Where is evil?
The devil is present throughout the journey, but her does not manifest evil. Rather represents the mediator of a choice that every man must make
between good and evil. In allowing himself to deny his faith and the goodness in humanity, Young Goodman Brown
allows the devil to win. Unlike Goethe’s Faust, who ultimately received
redemption, Brown dies with no hope and in gloom.
This choice Brown makes in choosing to be blinded by the devil calls him away from God and good, and he is, therefore, a willing participant in evil.
The devil is present throughout the journey, but her does not manifest evil. Rather represents the mediator of a choice that every man must make
between good and evil. In allowing himself to deny his faith and the goodness in humanity, Young Goodman Brown
allows the devil to win. Unlike Goethe’s Faust, who ultimately received
redemption, Brown dies with no hope and in gloom.
This choice Brown makes in choosing to be blinded by the devil calls him away from God and good, and he is, therefore, a willing participant in evil.
