No More, Young Goodman
No More, Young Goodman
-Young Goodman Brown By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
To worship or not to worship the Devil is what Young Goodman
Brown had to face. In a Puritan driven society, Young Goodman goes on a journey
of finding or perhaps losing his faith. Throughout Puritan society’s there is
big emphasis on public morality rather than individual faith. Goodman is
attracted to the forest, only to be faced with the Devil himself. Goodman gives
the impression to others in the town that he has faith in their religion, but
secretly meeting with the Devil in the forest. So why is he hiding his true
intentions of becoming one with the Devil? Perhaps this is not his own decision.
Goodman loses his faith when he takes the walk along side the Devil, and with
that he loses his innocence to society. The Devil tells Goodman that his
fathers before him stood where he stood as they lost their own innocence and
faith in society.
Even though Young Goodman loses his faith, why would someone
want to write a story about it? Nathaniel Hawthorne though, was no ordinary man
by any means. Hawthorne enjoyed writing about loss of religious faith, presence
of temptation, and social ills of Puritan communities. With this, is Hawthorne
one that worships the Devil himself? Can one man lead others into temptation to
lose their faith, and worship a Satan figure? Hawthorne wanted to put the fear
into a society, and show that if everyone believed the same moral, it could be
easily crushed. So is Hawthorne a Devil worshipper, that exposes Puritan views
in his stories to get someone to convert over?
That is for you to decide.
Feel free to leave a comment below!
-Tim Mitchell
Interesting post here Tim. How do you interpret the ending of this story regarding this theme of perceived public morality?
ReplyDeleteThe ending of the story goes to show that Young Goodman Brown was susceptible to putting on a poker face in a society, when in reality he did not reach his own faith, his faith becomes weak and eventually lost in the society due to the public morality. The public hides a person true colors, but it is also up to the individual to stand apart from the rest of the crowd.
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