AMERICAN LITERARY PERIOD OF DARK ROMANTICISM

GROUP ANALYSIS ON YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, A SHORT STORY BY

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Group Members: Vania Williany (186332001)

Roza Puspita (186332026)

Christoforus Sigit Bramaditya (186332024)

I. Plot Summary of Young Goodman Brown

A young man, Goodman Brown. departs from Salem, Massachusetts, one

evening to spend the night in the woods, leaning behind his wife, Faith, to whom he

has been married for three months. She is understandably concerned about him,

and he urges her to shut herself in their house and go to bed early.

Once in the woods, Brown meets, almost certainly by arrangement, a man

who is obviously the'devil incarnate. For a while they travel together. They encounter

Brown's aged catechism teacher, and the devil gives her his enchanted walking stick

to aid her on her way. After saying several times that he will not continue, Brown

parts from the devil. While alone, Brown hears his church minister and deacon pass

him on horseback on their way to a meeting.

Bewildered and horrified by strange celestial effects above and sounds all

around him, Brown plunges onward. He believes that he hears his wife's voice.

Then, fluttering down through the air, one of Faith's pink ribbons catches on a branch

in front of him.
 "My Faith is gone!" Brown cries, and in despair he rushes on until he reaches

a clearing in which a black mass is taking place. All the people of Salem are in

attendance, all those whom B.-own had heretofore thought to be pure and unsullied.

Aghast, Brawl stands before the altar at which the devil is preparing to welcome him

into that company of the damned. Brown discovers his wife, Faith, beside him. At the

last instant before their admission into the company of evil, Brown shouts, "Faith!

Faith!...Look up to Heaven and resist the Wicked One!"

Brown finds himself alone in the clearing, and he slowly makes his way back

to Salem. Once there, he passes those whom he saw the night before. They greet

him, but he shrinks from them. Goodman Brown even passes Faith without a word

as she skips out to meet him, her pink ribbons in place,

The narrator asks, "Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest, and only

dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?"

The brief remainder of the story--one paragraph--chronicles the

consequences of that nignt on the rest of B,-own's lengthy life. It is a life of sadness,

distrust, desperation, resentment towards and sense of superiority over his fellow

townspeople. so much so, that at his death, we are told, "the, carved no hopeful

verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom."

II. Historical context

Young Goodman Brown mentions three events in the Puritan era which are

adapted to this story. There are the Salem witch trials of 1692, the puritan

intolerance of the Quakers, and King Philip Wars. Three of them are dark events in

the Puritan era that marks the corrupt side of human being in that era. The
domination of the Puritan had created an inflexible doctrine that offered little room for

tolerance. The rules set by the Puritans are rigid and tolerance no error.

In the story, the Hawthorne adopts the names of Goody Cloyse and Martha

Carrier, two of the “witches” killed at Salem, for townspeople in his story. During the

Salem Witch Trials, one of the darkest episodes in Puritan history, the villagers of

Salem killed twenty-five innocent people who were accused of being witches. The

witch hunts often involved accusations based on revenge, jealousy, botched child

delivery, and other reasons that had little to do with perceived witchcraft.

The Puritan intolerance of Quakers occurred during the second half of the

seventeenth century. The story is adapted by Hawthorne as he mentions thatthe

devil refers to seeing Goodman Brown’s grandfather whipping a Quaker in the

streets. Actually,Puritans and Quakers both settled in America, hoping to find

religious freedom and start their own colonies where they could believe what they

wanted to. Unlike the Puritans, which rigidly strict themselves to the rule of church

and the bible. The Quakers are more open-minded, as they bases their thought on

humanity over strict rules made by the bible. However, Puritans began forbidding

Quakers from settling in their towns and made it illegal to be a Quaker; their

intolerance soon led to imprisonments and hangings.

The last historical context in this story which Hawthorne mentions are based

on King Philip War. He tells in his story that the devil, who is an acquaintance of his

grandfather and father, handing Goodman Brown’s father a flaming torch so that he

could set fire to an Indian village during King Philip’s War. King Philip War

itselfconsists of severalsmall wars between the early puritan colonist and the Indians

took place from 1675 to 1676. Indians attacked colonists at frontier towns in western
Massachusetts, and colonists retaliated by raiding Indian villages. When the

colonists won the war, the balance of power in the colonies finally tipped completely

toward the Puritans.

III. Theme

This story presents a theme about evilness in every human being. As having

a family background as a Puritan, Hawthorne somehow wants to reveal the negative

side of the domination of the Puritanism. The puritan ideology, which legalize

persecutions for the sake of their virtuousness, shows a corrupted faith which

degrading the humanity. Therefore, hereveals an inner conflict of a man's faith in

religion and knowledge of mankind's incautions with sin. Hawthorne suggests,

Brown's faith is easily corrupted.

IV. Characters

A. Main Character

1. Goodman Brown

At the beginning of the story, Goodman Brown believes in the goodness of

his father and grandfather, until the old man, likely the devil, tells him that

he knew them both. Goodman Brown believes in the Christian nature of

Goody Cloyse, the minister, and Deacon Gookin, until the devil shows him

that Goody Cloyse is a witch and the other two are his followers. Finally,

he believes that Faith is pure and good, until the devil reveals at the

ceremony that Faith, too, is corruptible. This vacillation reveals Goodman

Brown’s lack of true religion—his belief is easy to shake—as well as of the

good and evil sides of human nature.

2. Old Man
In “Young Goodman Brown,” the devil appears to be an ordinary man,

which suggests that every person, including Goodman Brown, has the

capacity for evil. When the devil appears to Goodman Brown in the forest,

he wears decent clothes and appears to be like any other man in Salem

Village, but Goodman Brown learns that the devil can appear in any

context and not appear out of place. By emphasizing the devil’s

chameleon nature, Hawthorne suggests that the devil is simply an

embodiment of all of the worst parts of man. By saying that the devil looks

as though he could be Goodman Brown’s father, Hawthorne creates a link

between them, raising the questions of whether the devil and Goodman

Brown might be related or the devil might be an embodiment of Goodman

Brown’s dark side. Later in the story, Goodman Brown, flying along with

the devil’s staff on his way to the ceremony, appears to be a much more

frightening apparition than any devil could be by himself. Although it is

never fully clear whether the old man and Goodman Brown’s experiences

in the forest were a dream or reality, the consequences of Goodman

Brown’s interaction with the old man stay with him for the rest of his life.

B. Supporting Characters

1. Faith represents the stability of the home and the domestic sphere in

the Puritan worldview. Faith, as her name suggests, appears to be the

most pure-hearted person in the story and serves as a stand-in of sorts

for all religious feeling. Goodman Brown clings to her when he

questions the goodness of the people around him, assuring himself

that if Faith remains godly, then his own faith is worth fighting
 temptation to maintain. When he sees that Faith has been corrupted,

he believes in the absolute evil at the heart of man. His estrangement

from Faith at the end of the story is the worst consequence of his

change of heart. If he is able to be suspicious of Faith, Hawthorne

suggests, then he has truly become estranged from the goodness of

God.

2. The Minister

He is described as an "apparition" that has "no slight similitude, both in

garb and manner, to some grave divine of the New-England churches

V. Symbols

A. SCENES USED AS SYMBOL

1. The forest

The Salem forest symbolizes hell whereby darkness and evil

predominate. Also, the forest is a place where witches gathered and

souls submitted to devil

2. Journey to the forest

This symbolizes Brown’s road to hell accompanied by evil deeds.

3. Wilderness

It symbolizes fear, or the unknown, referring to the evil or sin. In

specific, the further Goodman Brown journeyed the forest, the more

trembling he is. Then, Brown was dazed finding out all his townspeople

and Faith are submitted to the devil.

4. Meeting in the Forest

 It is allegorical to congregation in church. By this we mean, though

people might pray in church, yet they are still sinners who are favored

by evil deeds. This is where Brown was ‘disillusioned’ from his past

view on humanity. That despite humans’ religious activity and attempts

to show they are pious, in fact, all humans are sinful, very prone to fall

into evil temptation, and are possessed by the devil.

B. CHARACTERS USED AS SYMBOLS

1. Faith

The name ‘Faith’ portrays the quality of Brown’s wife as a‘religious’ and

a ‘faithful’ woman. This is supported by the statement in the

introduction part:“Faith as the wife aptly named.”Besides, ‘faith’

alsosymbolizes ‘true religious faith’ of Young Goodman Brown which

undergoes challenge throughout the story. At the beginning, Brown is

still treasuring his faith as he said to the Old Traveler tempting

him,“Faith kept me back awhile.”Meanwhile, at the climax, Brown

questioned himself whether he is still restoring his faith,“But, where is

Faith?” Lastly, on the Falling action, Brown realized that he had lost

his faith by saying, “My Faith is gone.” Brown cried, as he lost his faith

(as in his Puritan religion) and his wife (referring to ‘Faith’ as a human

being).

2. Satan” or “Devil King”

Illustrates continuous wicked temptations Brown needs to battle. It

symbolizes all human beings have evil deeds and are corrupted. In

fact, crime has been conducted in all places and human beings are

evil, in essence.
 3. Young Goodman Brown

The name “Young Goodman Brown” symbolizes a common man,

simple and ordinary. In particular, “Brown” is a popular last name.

Then, the middle name “Goodman”can refer to the literal meaning of a

“good man”, a man with positive trait. Thus, Brown’s complete name

describes himself as stereotypical, sensible, hardworking, typical man

of his period.

C. OBJECTS USED AS SYMBOLS

1. Pink Ribbon

Firstly, it symbolizes Brown and Faith’s happy marriage. Then, in the

forest, it symbolizes ‘black words’.Secondly, it symbolizes Faith’s purity

and innocence to Goodman Brown. The color ‘pink’ is made of the

combination of white which symbolizes purity and red that depicts sin.

Hence, after Brown goes out of the Salem forest,the color ‘pink’

connotes Brown’s suspicious feeling on Faith’s loss of purity. At the

end, at their home, Brown finds Faith is wearing her ribbon. This

implies the interpretation on the story thatthe event of night before was

not real.

2. The Staff as the Allegory of Human Fall to Sin

In the story, the Devil who was embodied as the Old Traveler gave

Brown the staff, resembling a black-serpent. This staff symbolizes devil

temptation to human. Also, Goodman Brown’s decision to follow the

devil and accept the staff is based on his curiosity. This is parallel with

Biblical story whereby Eve was persuaded by the Devil (serpent-like) to

 eat ‘the forbidden fruit’ to satisfy her curiosity.Thus, the serpent-like

staff marks the allegory of Eve’s fall to sin with Goodman Brown’s.

VI. CONCLUSION

To conclude, Dark Romanticism has the characteristic of a movement

which highlights the vast interest in the individual’s power, an obsession

towards extreme experiences, which involved the ups-downs of fear, love,

and horror. Dark Romanticism also emphasizes the interest in nature and

natural landscapes as well as significance of events on daily basis

narrated in gloomy tones.

In regards to the spirit of Dark Romanticism, ‘Young Goodman Brown’

is relevant to be classified as the gothic romance of Dark Romanticism for

two reasons. First, ‘Young Goodman Brown’ utilizes vivid illustration of

baleful or gloomy events, equipped with emotional or psychological

anguish. Second, ‘Young Goodman Brown’ puts forth the engagement

towards emotion and extreme. It alsoincorporates a gothic deep feeling,

wanting to narrate stories that would transfer readers to fear and question

their environments.

VII. REFERENCES

Xing, Shuna. (2013). A Critical Study of the “Sin” in Hawthorne’s Short Stories.
International Conference on Applied Social Science Research (ICASSR), 160-162.
https://americanliterature.com/author/nathaniel-hawthorne
https://www.owleyes.org/text/young-goodman-brown/analysis/historical-context
https://www.slideshare.net/hp0695528/symbolism-40377091
https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/young-goodman-brown/section1/