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Young Goodman Brown

Introduction

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," collected in Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), is an intimate allegory about a young married couple and their separate experiences with diabolism. Much praised by Herman Melville, the subdued dreamscape juggles two extremes—light against dark and moral goodness against evil— in the mid-17th century, when belief in witchcraft was a given among New England's Puritans. In an ambiguous half-light, Faith bids farewell to her husband, but regrets his night-time journey "this night, dear husband, of all nights of the year," a reference to All Saints' Eve (Hawthorne, 1033). Implications of a witches' sabbath deep in the forest contrast Faith's cap with a pink ribbon, a frail emblem of childlike innocence. In a nagging state of ambivalence, Goodman Brown clings to his wife's tender sensibilities and morality as he debates his entry into a witches' coven led by Satan, a wily shape-shifter.

Thesis Statment

“The human nature is packed with concealed evilness”.

Discussion

“Young Goodman Brown” is an ideal model of Hawthorne's favorite theme: that the nature of human is packed with concealed evilness. In the story, the hero's tour is representative of one's tour in life, in which each person slowly drops her or his innocence and good due to this contact with lust, greed, perversion, envy, and the other sins of humankind. (Bell, 15-30)

The highest blow to Brown's puerile notion of the humanity comes when he finds that Faith, his own innocent and meek wife, is among the celebrants at the “Walpurgis Night orgy”. As usual, Hawthorne treats his theme with a tongue-in-cheek humor which arises mainly from the contrast between people's real characters and the false faces they present to the world. The humor is vital to this story; the reader is enticed along the forest pathway by an illusion of frivolity and comes to realize the full horror intended only after finishing the last page. (Bloom, 56-60)

Stories such as this entitle Hawthorne to be considered one of the principal founders of the modern short story, a form of literature in which American authors have excelled. The essence of a modern short story, as defined by Edgar Allan Poe in a newspaper review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, is that every detail contributes to a single effect. Prior to Hawthorne's time, short stories tended to be episodic and loosely structured, often resembling essays. The single effect of a modern short story can be produced by the overall mood, as is often the case in the works of the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, or by a surprising or shocking ending, as is usually the case in the stories of the French writer Guy de Maupassant and the American writer O. Henry. In “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” the effect of terror and dismay is produced by the surprise ending. In “Young Goodman Brown,” the effect of horror and disillusionment spiced with sardonic humor is produced by the overall mood. (Hawthorne, 20-25)

Hawthorne stresses Brown's curiosity and boldness, two human failings that give meaning to ...