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This document provides background information on Nathaniel Hawthorne and his short story "Young Goodman Brown". It discusses Hawthorne's sense of the past which influenced his works, his moral sensibilities as a descendant of Puritan ancestors, and his ability to create symbolic representations of the human experience. It also notes that Hawthorne felt guilt over the misdeeds of his Puritan forebears and that he was friends with other major 19th century writers like Emerson, Thoreau, and Melville with whom he shared ideological views emphasizing the innate flaws and struggles of human nature.
This document provides background information on Nathaniel Hawthorne and his short story "Young Goodman Brown". It discusses Hawthorne's sense of the past which influenced his works, his moral sensibilities as a descendant of Puritan ancestors, and his ability to create symbolic representations of the human experience. It also notes that Hawthorne felt guilt over the misdeeds of his Puritan forebears and that he was friends with other major 19th century writers like Emerson, Thoreau, and Melville with whom he shared ideological views emphasizing the innate flaws and struggles of human nature.
This document provides background information on Nathaniel Hawthorne and his short story "Young Goodman Brown". It discusses Hawthorne's sense of the past which influenced his works, his moral sensibilities as a descendant of Puritan ancestors, and his ability to create symbolic representations of the human experience. It also notes that Hawthorne felt guilt over the misdeeds of his Puritan forebears and that he was friends with other major 19th century writers like Emerson, Thoreau, and Melville with whom he shared ideological views emphasizing the innate flaws and struggles of human nature.
- There are three integral elements in his stories and novels:
o His sense of past, which aforded him materials for his works about the Puritans of the 17 th c ew !ngland" o His moral sensibilit#, a re$nes and compassionate version of his ancestors Puritan conscience o % rare capacit# for creating vivid, dramatic s#mbols of man&s moral and ps#chological e'perience" - His interest in histor# of (alem has a personal basis" - )n long introduction to The (carlet *etter +1,-./, titled 0The 1ustom House, he describes his Puritan ancestors, the Hawthorne&s o The $rst was a leader in the 2assachusetts 1olon# 03 who came so earl# 4156.7, with his 8ible and his sword3had all the Puritan traits both good and evil9 and persecuted dissidents with 0hard severit#9" o His son, a :udge, earned a notorious place in histor# in (alem in 15;< b# sentencing to death 1; persons accused of witchcraft, whose 0blood ma# fairl# be said to have left a stain upon him9 - Hawthorne felt guilt and shame for the misdeeds of these two men" - Hawthorne personall# knew three of his contemporaries who are now ranked with him as ma=or 1; th c >omantic writers- !merson, Thoreau, 2elville" - Hawthorne and 2elville where friends and shared an ideolog# that was diferent from the other two contemporaries" o !merson ? Thoreau believed in the perfectibilit# of man: )n their works the# called a sweeping awa# of the @aws and corruptions of the societ#, and the# urged man to rel# on his own intuitive self and to ful$ll himself in natural harmon# with the universe and with other men" o Hawthorne ? 2elville on the other hand believed in the innate depravit# of man- i"e" the# believed that man is inherentl# @awed and his life doomed to be a tragic struggle between the good and evil in him and in the societ#, which is his creation" %n# other view the# considered wishful or super$cial" o Aor Hawthorne and 2elville an awareness of evil is essential to maturit#, essential to a realistic knowledge of the whole of life" Ben#on, a character in Hawthorne&s The 2arble Aaun, asks, Is sin, then, like sorrow, an element of human education, through which we struggle to a higher and purer state than we could otherwise have attained?---- Hawthorne&s answer seems to be in aCrmative as is evidenced through all his works" - 2elville sensed in Hawthorne 0a touch of Puritan gloom939this great power of blackness in 4H7 derives its force from its appeals to that 1alvinistic sense of )nnate Depravit# and Eriginal (in, from whose visitations, in some shape or other, no deepl# thinking mind is alwa#s and wholl# free3 Perhaps no writer had ever wielded this terri$c thought with greater terror9" %nd according 2elville no stor# better illustrated the power of blackness than 0Foung Goodman 8rown9 H 0 as deep as Dante9 - 8ut all these writers commonl# shared the view, o That the best source of wisdom is not reason but the supra-rational faculties- intuition, the 0heart9, moral vision" o That outer realities e'press inner truths: i"e" there is a correspondence between the ph#sical and the spiritualI between material and essence----- %n idea which is of vital importance for H&s use of s#mbols, especiall# with regard to the wa# inner truths about a human being manifest themselves in tangible, visible forms" - Hawthorne is considered as the founder of ps#chological novel in %merica On Young Goodman Brown Some Facts: - JGoodman&, JGoodwife& +Good#/ were eKuivalents of J2r"& ? J2rs"&" The former was used for persons of middle class or below, and the latter for those of higher social position" - J8rown& is one of the most common %merican surnames" The appellation 0Foung Goodman 8rown9 suggests as ever#man" - The stor# is set in 17 th c" (alem and includes characters who were actuall# e'ecuted in the witchcraft persecutions" - Hawthorn&s principle concern is with 8rowns mind and soul and not with literar# histor#" Notes: 1" Old South H a church <" King Williams !ourt- Bing Lilliam ))), Bing of !ngland from 15,;-17.< 6" "uaker Woman- the Muakers are members of a religious sect founded about 15-." Aor adhering to the conviction that divine revelation comes through an 0inner light,9 the Muakers were accused b# the Puritans of blasphemous disrespect for the 8ible and the ordained clerg#, and were accordingl# persecuted" N" King #hilips war- 0Bing Philip9, an )ndian 1hieftain, was the last leader of the )ndian war of resistance against the settlers of ew !ngland" -" $reat and $eneral !ourt- the legislature of the colonial 2assachusetts" 5" %ecture da&- da# of midweek sermon, usuall# Thursda#" 7" $ood& !lo&se- Good# 1lo#se and Good# 1or# were historical characters" 8oth were tried for witchcraft and sentenced to death in 15;< b# a court of which Hawthorne&s great-great- grandfather was a member" ," 'g&ptian (agi- The ET of the 8ible in !'odus 7: ,-1<, tells how, when the people of )srael were held captive in !g#pt, God commanded 2oses to perform a miracle before the !g#ptian Pharaoh" 0%nd 2oses and %aron went unto Pharaoh, and the# did so as the *ord had commanded: and %aron cast down his rod before Pharaoh3and it became a serpent" Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of !g#pt3The# cast down ever# man his rod, and the# became serpents: but %aron&s rod swallowed up their rods"9 Hawthorne seems to suggest that in this 8iblical contest between people of God and their enem#, the devil rent his own rod 0to the !g#ptian magi9" ;" 1atechism- elementar# moral and religious doctrine in the form of a set of Kuestions and answers