Young Goodman Brown - Research Paper Example

“Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory of the fall of man, in which Hawthorne portrays the story of a man, a Puritan Faust figure, who is tempted by the Devil and succumbs because of his curiosity and weakness of his faith, which he perceived to be impenetrable. From this, Hawthorne draws to illustrate what he believes is the inherent fallibility and hypocrisy of American Puritan religion. In the book she co-edited with Dane Anthony Morrison, entitled Salem: Place, Myth and Memory, Nancy Lusignan Shultz states that “Hawthorne set Salem firmly into our imaginations by emphasizing two main aspects of the town’s history: the witch hysteria and the rise and fall of Salem’s glory days… his fascination with Puritan imagination and temperament informed his treatment of Salem past and present” (167). During the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692, one of the most nightmarish episodes in Puritan history, twenty-five innocent people were accused of being witches and killed mercilessly. This witch hunt craze was based on accusations involving revenge, jealousy and any other reason that might have been perceived as witchcraft to the distraught and frightened populace of Salem. Hawthorne even goes to such lengths as to appropriate the names of Goody Cloyse and Martha Carrier, to of the supposed witches murdered at Salem. By including these historical references, he does not let the reader forget the dubious history of Salem and the legacy of Puritans, and he also accentuates the historical roots of Goodman Brown’s fascination with the Devil and the dark side that so lusciously leads him into the forest, despite him being fully aware of the fact that he is on an evil endeavor. John Hardt states that “Brown’s retreat into nature is at least partially a retreat from his wife, but by naming Brown’s wife “Faith,” Hawthorne further presents his journey into the forest as a trip away from faith (both theological and epistemological) towards realms of uncertainty and doubt” (37). She represents the importance and stability of the domestic sphere in the Puritan dogma. From the moment he leaves the security of his home and Faith, who begs him to stay and not to go, symbolizing his own faith keeping him from succumbing to darkness, and delves into the forest, he has simultaneously commenced a journey into the dark side of his mind and soul. The beginning of this tragic journey is marked immediately by fear of the wilderness, a dark and evil place where no good takes place. This also echoes another predominant belief of the seventeenth century Puritans, who blindly believed that the New World was something to be feared, converted and then controlled. Aligning himself with his fellow Puritans, Goodman Brown associates the forest with Indians and he sees one behind every tree: “There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree” (Hawthorne 112). The Indians were perceived as savages, the devil’s servants, lacking moral and religious ideologies attributed to Puritanism, and thus were doomed to go to Hell for not praising the name of the Lord during their lifetime. They were associated with all that is dark and unholy, while the wilderness they resided in was an epitome of their own existence: devilish, frightening and dark. Goodman Brown honestly believes that the Devil could easily be present in such a place: “What if the Devil himself should be at my very elbow!” (Hawthorne 112). He fears meeting the dark lord, yet he willingly and consciously embarks on this unholy journey: “as if a dream warned [Faith] what work is to be done to-nigh. But, no, no; ‘t would kill her to think it” (Hawthorne 111). He knows the stakes of his perilous wager, yet he continues on, as if this is something that needs to be done, without something his life will be deficient. He enters the forest and eventually sees the waiting Devil. This image of evil lurking in the guise of an ordinary man symbolizes the idea that every man, including such a seemingly pious figure as Goodman Brown himself, has the capacity for evil. Because, evil is always present, always around, always waiting for the perfect moment to strike. When Goodman Brown sees the Devil in the forest, he is astonished to see him wearing decent clothes and bearing a slight resemblance to any other man residing in Salem Village. Brown comes to realize that the Devil can take on any disguise in any context and perfectly blend in, not appearing even slightly out of place. The Devil’s chameleon like nature suggests that the Devil is an embodiment of the worst parts of man. He is never out of place, because he is omnipresent; silenced by the shackles of the Puritan faith, but still present. By stating that the Devil appears as though he might be Goodman Brown’s father, Hawthorne creates an impermeable link between them, raising a question of whether the two of them are related somehow, or if the Devil might be the embodiment of Goodman Brown’s dark side, in the manner of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where a most sophisticated façade conceals a most devious wickedness. The Puritans feared that the “Indians of their mind” and the Devil are always following them and temptation is never too far away for even the best of Lord’s servants to fall from his grace. This is what Goodman Brown comes to realize on this fateful night. He considers it a matter of family honor that none of his ancestors have ever taken such a walk as this, and is crushed by the knowledge that this was not true. With this, Hawthorne manages to portray the hidden corruption of Puritan society. They managed to blind everyone by public professions of utter faith and belief in societal structures that are built upon this faith. But, behind this face of godliness, it is more than obvious that their actions were not always Christian. The easiest way of hiding one’s evil side is by putting a mask of religion. The masses blindly follow and believe everything they are told, while the morally corrupted leaders do onto the public whatever they please, always and under every circumstances being given justification for their actions. And, if their actions might have seemed cruel at the time, they always had one goal in mind: the Heavenly Kingdom. For them, their religion was justification enough. For example, the Devil in the story says he was present when Brown’s father and grandfather whipped Quakers and set fire to Indian villages, actions that can by no means be considered Christian like. This is exactly what Hawthorne wanted to reveal: the story of New England does have a very dark side that religion fails to explain. In the same manner, Goodman Brown believes in the pure, Christian nature of Goody Cloyse, the minister and Deacon Gookin, until his dark companion shows him that Goody is a witch and the other two his followers. And finally, his rootless faith undergoes the final blow, shattering it to pieces, in the witnessing of corruptibility of his beloved wife Faith. This changes all his ideas about good and bad in the world, and he becomes powerless to resist the wicked temptation. Female purity was a paragon of Christian virtue in Puritan New England and men relied heavily on their wives’ faith to keep their own. When Faith’s purity dissolves into thin air, Goodman Brown loses any chance he might have possibly had of resisting “the devil on his elbow”. He enters the forest thinking the journey will strengthen his, as he perceived it, unshakeable faith. But, what Goodman Brown failed to realize was that his religious convictions are rooted in his belief that all those around him are also religious. Although, he decides to enter the forest willingly, he still hides when he sees people he knows, because he fears their opinion and judgment on having seen him in the forest at this time of night. It is as if he fears public reproach more than he fears the very possible downfall of his soul, and this kind of blind faith, which is utterly dependent on other people’s views, is effortlessly weakened and broken. One witnesses how easily Goodman Brown decides that he might join the parishioners he sees in the forest. This is due to the fact that he does not reach his own moral conclusions, but rather mirrors the beliefs of people around him, making his faith become weak and rootless, while “the devil on his elbow” has more than an easy job to corrupt the seemingly pure. In the end, Goodman Brown is uncertain of whether the devilish events of the night were real or not, but it does not matter. He made the choice in the beginning, and this is the reason of his true fall from grace. The choice was the true threat, while the Devil only smoothes the progress of Goodman Brown’s demise. If the nightly events were a dream, then Goodman Brown needs fear nothing outside himself, but rather his own inner demons. If they are real, then he has beyond doubt witnessed the revelation of truth: all those around him, seemingly pious, are actually corrupt. And one realizes that the reality of the events is second to the importance of the fact that his loss of innocence was inevitable. His sentence at the very beginning of his epic journey of the soul reveals itself as prophetic: “There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree,” said Goodman Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him as he added, “What if the Devil himself should be at my very elbow!” (Hawthorne 112) Hardt states that “Brown journeys into a rural setting which has paradisal associations, only to encounter doubts and uncertainties… Hawthorne’s Brown becomes paralyzed by them… He can no longer trust himself or those around him; in particular, he no longer trusts the appearances which his senses offer him” (38). Having been taught by the black and white Puritan set of values that life is exactly so: black or white, good or bad, he is left faithless, in a grey world of insecurities. His simplistic faith in absolutes and the inability to distinguish between appearance and reality finally leaves him a broken man. Works cited: Hardt, John S. “Doubts in the American Garden: Three Cases of Paradisal Skepticism.” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown. Ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Print. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales. Oxford: Oxfor University Press, 1998. Morrison, Dane Anthony and Nancy Lusignan Shultz. Salem: Place, Myth and Memory. New England: University Press of New England, 2005. Print. Read More