The question becomes, can such change occur in the one-hundred fifty or more years between the setting of the short story and the time of its being written? That is, has America in the nineteenth century accepted free will—rejected natural depravity—to the extent that it can shape its own destiny? And furthermore, will that destiny lead the nation to salvation: Hawthorne does not answer these questions, but he does pose them for application to and consideration in the nineteenth century.
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In other words, the situation of the reader in a later historical period than the seventeenth century is Brown's situation: Such a reality at least seems possible. And this possibility is not the faith in progress in nineteenth-century terms of Manifest Destiny nor in seventeenth-century terms of Mission, but it is faith in democracy—in freedom of thought and spirit that allows one to question and therefore more fully understand and possibly subvert the determining forces of the ideologies one lives in and with.
He continues to note the onset of populism during the Jacksonian era: In full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages, artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers. Recall, Brown argues to the devil that he Brown has nothing to do with the government, but, as I have said, the government has to do with Brown—in the seventeenth century of American Puritanism and in the nineteenth century of Hawthorne.
Aloft in the air, as if from the depths of the cloud, came a confused and doubtful sound of voices. The next moment, so indistinct were the sounds, he doubted whether he had heard aught but the murmur of the old forest, whispering without a wind. Then came a stronger swell of those familiar tones, heard daily in the sunshine, at Salem village. There was one voice, of a young woman.
And all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward. This new democratic voice could certainly sound dissonant after the educated eloquence of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution. The result could be self-determination, self-government, for the greater good.
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Though Brown denies his connection to the government, he is, perhaps it is not too much to suggest, part of the government. Second, consider the description of the crowd gathered around the rock altar in the woods near the end of the story: Some affirm that the lady of the governor was there. At least, there were high dames well known to her, and wives of honored husbands, and widows, a great multitude, and ancient maidens, all of excellent repute, and fair young girls. But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes.
It was strange to see, that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints. Scattered, also, among their pale-faced enemies, were the Indian priests, or powows, who had often scared their native forest with more hideous incantations than any known to English witchcraft. But the heathen and profane beings are only so in the eyes of the Puritans, such segregation being another sign of Puritan hypocrisy, I would suggest.
Another way to see this group is as a cross-section of a nineteenth-century American democracy in its ideal inclusiveness. It includes peoples of different continents, races, cultures, genders, ages, social ranks, and marital and sexual status. But not loathful because blasphemous. Loathful because self-prescribed and self-condemned.
Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"
Is it as valid, for instance, as an historical account of the Puritan endeavor and the dilemma imposed by their doctrine as a history by George Bancroft, or William Bradford, or Cotton Mather? It is certainly an extremely fanciful, even fantastic, story, with staffs crawling away like snakes, with trees and rocks ablaze only to be damp and cool to the touch in the passing of an instant. The narrator of the story asks a similar question: And Brown continues thus until his dying hour of gloom. It is the effect that counts.
And, as is the relation between dream and reality, so is the relation between the unconscious and reality—between the collective unconscious of the community or nation and the reality that unconscious constructs. Past events influence our present lives. Whether the history is personal, familial, regional, or national; whether it occurred within our view or beyond it so that we had to hear or read about it; whether it occurred during our lifetime or before so was brought down to us written or spoken, implied or explicit; no matter our direct or indirect relationship to the event, so long as we act according to its precepts, its existence is realized.
Likewise, constructed principles, doctrines and ideology influence our present lives. Whether an event actually occurred or not, whether a principle was actually manifest or not, is of little consequence. So long as we act according to its dictates or principles, it was and is real. The result was a moral confusion of truth, right and wrong, good and evil. Its national character was still being defined—created. Since Hawthorne accepted the historical view that the Puritan founders of the nation passed on their character to the national identity and that that character would be passed on to their national descendents, this psychological portrait becomes that of America itself.
The allegorical symbolism suggests that America in the first one-third of the nineteenth century, because of its intellectual and psychological inheritance, was in danger of confusing—and thereby forsaking—its basic principles of justice and equality for the individual. It could confuse its good principles of right with evil ones. It could become hypocritical. Nor is it merely a rendition of the psychological state of third generation Puritans, nor a diatribe against American Puritanism, nor a recounting of waning religious passion.
It is a short history of an evolving America as Hawthorne saw it from his early nineteenth-century, New England vantage point. Studies in Hawthorne's Fiction.
Young Goodman Brown
History of the Colonization of the United States. An Examination of the American Conscience. Port Washington, NY; London: Hawthorne and the Historical Romance of New England. The Office of The Scarlet Letter. Johns Hopkins UP, Nina Baym et al. Fiction and Historical Consciousness: The American Romance Tradition. Hawthorne and the Interest of History. Moral History in Hawthorne's Early Tales. The Sins of the Fathers: Hawthorne's Reoccupations of History. UP of Mississippi, American Literature and the American West. Race, Authorship, The Scarlet Letter. The Elixir of Life Manuscripts: Ohio State UP, True Stories from History and Biography.
A History of the United States. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. Hawthorne's Condemnation of Conformity. Hill and Wang, The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Art of Authorial Presence: A Life, Volume 1, U of Missouri P, Young Goodman Brown Explore popular and recently added TV series available to stream now with Prime Video.
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Related News Forbidden Tomes: Share this Rating Title: The characters' names ultimately serve as a paradox in the conclusion of the story. The inclusion of this technique was to provide a definite contrast and irony. Hawthorne aims to critique the ideals of Puritan society and express his disdain for it, thus illustrating the difference between the appearance of those in society and their true identities.
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Literary scholar Walter Shear writes that Hawthorne structured the story in three parts. The first part shows Goodman Brown at his home in his village integrated in his society. The third part shows his return to society and to his home, yet he is so profoundly changed that in rejecting the greeting of his wife Faith, Hawthorne shows Goodman Brown has lost faith and rejected the tenets of his Puritan world during the course of the night. The story is about Brown's loss of faith as one of the elect, according to scholar Jane Eberwein.
Believing himself to be of the elect, Goodman Brown falls into self-doubt after three months of marriage which to him represents sin and depravity as opposed to salvation. His journey to the forest is symbolic of Christian "self-exploration" in which doubt immediately supplants faith. At the end of the forest experience he loses his wife Faith, his faith in salvation, and his faith in human goodness. Years later he wrote, "These stories were published Modern scholars and critics generally view the short story as an allegorical tale written to expose the contradictions in place concerning Puritan beliefs and societies.
However, there have been many other interpretations of the text including those who believe Hawthorne sympathizes with Puritan beliefs. Author Harold Bloom comments on the variety of explanations; Stephen King has referred to the story as "one of the ten best stories written by an American". He calls it his favorite story by Hawthorne and cites it as an inspiration for his O. A short film directed by Donald Fox is based on the story. In , the story was adapted for the CBC radio program Nightfall. Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps. In , playwright Lucas Luke Krueger, adapted the story for the stage.
It was produced by Northern Illinois University. In , Playscripts Inc.