Essay, Research Paper
The Dangers of the Norm and Beliefs in Young Goodman Brown
One of the most unsafe things that a individual can make to themselves is become wholly set in their ways. A individual become so set in their manner of life that if something comes along and alters it in the slightest small manner it can upset them psychologically. A great illustration of this is in Nathaniel Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s short narrative, & # 8220 ; Young Goodman Brown. & # 8221 ; In the narrative, the character Goodman Brown is highly set is his belief construction. He believes deep down that all people are Devout Christians and they lead wholly moral lives. Then all of a sudden, his universe is thrown into upheaval when what could & # 8217 ; ve been a dream, but was in fact world, interfered with his beliefs and he could no longer swear his fellow adult male. Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s narrative & # 8220 ; Young Goodman Brown & # 8221 ; trades with the dangers of life in the norm by demoing the stringency of the Puritan faith, enticement of adult male, and loss of religion.
To cite the film Dogma, It s good to hold beliefs, but I merely think it s better to hold thoughts. I mean, you can alter an thought. Changing a belief is a small trickier. Peoples die for them. Peoples kill for them. Now, it is a good thing to hold beliefs, but in choosing a belief construction one should be careful. What one individual believes might conflict with what another believes and it could do a rift. That is one of Brown s ruins. He has himself so wrapped up in his manner of life and what he believes that it clouds his head from the world that his fellow townsfolks do non walk the same line that he does.
On thing that is present in Hawthorne s authorship is his disgust for the Puritan
faith. Their life of persecution and non-diversity is somewhat helter-skelter. He presents Brown
with an anal memory to Puritanism, which he follows to a T. But, he is susceptible to enticement like all worlds. Which is why he goes on his midnight journey with the cryptic journey.
During the twenty-four hours, Mr. Brown is a hawkish Puritan. He is strong faithed and believes in the goodness of society. But at dark he is led into a enticement that forever changes his life. When he comes upon the midnight rite he is shocked and appalled. The full experience makes him acrimonious and forever untrusting of his fellow Samaritans.
Throughout the short narrative Brown is seeking for religion in what appears to be an progressively corrupt universe. Faith takes on a dual significance in this narrative, for Faith is used both as the name of Young Goodman Brown & # 8217 ; s reasonably immature married woman and the religious devotedness of Young Goodman Brown to the Puritan Faith. The double use of Faith in this short narrative, along with its subject of devil worship amongst Puritan society draws the reader in, and leaves the narrative imprinted on his encephalon for a long clip to come. As the narrative opens, Young Goodman Brown is about to come in the wood to partake upon an & # 8220 ; evil purpose. & # 8221 ; He leaves behind his Sweet, reasonably, immature married woman of three months, who wears reasonably pink threads in her hair, pressing her to & # 8220 ; Say thy supplications, beloved Faith, and travel to bed at twilight, and no injury will come to thee. Young Goodman Brown is hesitating about go forthing his Religion behind to travel on such an errand, to venture into the forest where & # 8220 ; the Satan himself could be at my really elbow!
Once in the wood, Young Goodman Brown is met with & # 8220 ; the figure of a adult male, in
grave and nice garb, seated at the pes of an old tree When questioned as to why he has dallied in run intoing this figure, Young Goodman Brown answers Faith kept me back awhile. In the actual sense, Young Goodman Brown & # 8217 ; s reasonably immature married woman delayed him from his meeting with the dark figure by imploring him to & # 8220 ; put off his journey until dawn and slumber in his ain bed to-night. In a symbolic sense, Young Goodman Brown & # 8217 ; s devotedness to all that is merely in the universe has made him hesitating to come in the corrupt world of the forest. When going down the dark way, with he who carries a staff resembling a great black serpent, Young Goodman Brown is told he is & # 8220 ; but a small manner in the wood yet. . To this Young Goodman Brown answers it is & # 8220 ; excessively fa
R, ” and that “his male parent ne’er went on such an errand. In world, Young Goodman Brown’s male parent has walked the really same way, beside the adult male transporting the snake. In fact, all of the extremely moral people of the town walk in the wood at dark.
Among the Satan believers are & # 8220 ; faces that would be seen the following twenty-four hours at the council board of the state, and others which, Sabbath after Sabbath, looked piously heavenward. Deacon Gookin, who preaches from the dais about righteousness, is the leader of the Devil worship, and Goody Cloyse who teaches the catechism excessively walks the dark way. It seems that in this town of deceitful Puritans, no 1 is immune to the power of the dark one. No 1, that is, but Young Goodman Brown, for he entirely has his Faith. As Young Goodman Brown continues down the dark way, he is continually seeking for his lost Faith. His Faith would non let him to come in such a dark wood where the Devil reigns as male monarch.
He screams for Faith in torment and despair, but the reverberations of the forest mock him, and something wavers & # 8220 ; lightly down through the air and caught on the subdivision of a tree. It is a pink thread ; the last leftover of Young Goodman Brown & # 8217 ; s lost Faith. The pink thread in a actual sense proves that Young Goodman Brown & # 8217 ; s married woman is lost in the wood, for her hair is ever adorned with & # 8220 ; pretty tap ribbons. & # 8221 ; The fact that it is being tossed upon the air current is symbolic of Young Goodman Brown & # 8217 ; s interior religion, which has been blown off the minute he entered the Devil & # 8217 ; s resort area. Sing the pink thread float down and catch upon the subdivision of a tree, Young Goodman Brown is cognizant that his inner Faith has deserted him and he proclaims & # 8220 ; My Faith is gone! There is no good on Earth: and wickedness is but a name. Come, Satan ; for to thee is this universe given. & # 8221 ; Coming upon the firing alter of the Devil, Young Goodman Brown recognizes & # 8220 ; a mark of the church members of Salem small town celebrated for their exceptional holiness. Sing them, he inquiries & # 8220 ; But where is Faith? & # 8221 ; both seeking for his married woman and his doomed inner morality.
The sighting of his married woman among the Devil & # 8217 ; s fold proves that even the strongest Religion can be tempted into darkness. Young Goodman Brown begs his married woman to & # 8220 ; look up to heaven, and defy the wicked one. & # 8221 ; In a symbolic nature he is imploring himself, his really being, his ain Faith, to defy the enticement of the wicked 1. & # 8220 ; Whether Faith obeyed, he knew non. Young Goodman Brown awakes to a composure Salem small town, with & # 8220 ; The good old curate taking a walk along the cemetery to acquire an appetency for breakfast and chew over his discourse, and Goody Cloyse catechising a small miss. He spies the caput of Faith, with the pink threads, staring uneasily forth, and spliting into such joy at the sight of him
that she skipped along the street and about kissed her hubby before the whole village. & # 8221 ; Young Goodman Brown looks severely and unhappily into her face, and base on ballss on without a salutation. & # 8220 ; Had Young Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the wood and merely dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? & # 8221 ; It does non count, for Young Goodman Brown becomes & # 8220 ; a after part, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if non a despairing man. & # 8221 ; He shrinks from the bosom of Faith, and he dies a & # 8220 ; grey cadaver & # 8221 ; It does non count that Young Goodman Brown rejected the Devil at his fiery communion table that dark in the wood. The Devil has claimed his Religion in humanity in another manner.
Brown is faced with the interior convulsion of his religion because what he one time used a s crutches have now been knocked out from under him. He now has a new mentality on adult male, God, and faith. Brown s religion has changed from his original beliefs in God and that his religion would take him to heaven to one that showed him the deepnesss of Hell.
Young Goodman Brown is an first-class illustration of a strong religion that has been crippled. Everyone can associate to this narrative because Brown has dealt with the same devils that all work forces and adult females face & # 8211 ; merely on a different degree. His religion is gone and his life has changed everlastingly. He has faced a sad, cold world. He has learned eventually that while beliefs are a good thing, it s non good to establish your life around them.
