"Young Goodman Brown" is a
short story published in 1835 by American writer
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story takes place in 17th-century
Puritan New England, a common setting for Hawthorne's works, and addresses the
Calvinist/Puritan belief that all of humanity exists in a state of
depravity
Depravity may refer to:
* Total depravity, a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin
*Lack of morality
*Sin, an act that violates a known moral rule
**in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish views on sin#Terminology
* ...
, but that God has destined some to
unconditional election
Unconditional election (also called sovereign election or unconditional grace) is a Calvinist doctrine relating to predestination that describes the actions and motives of God prior to his creation of the world, when he predestined some people to ...
through unmerited grace. Hawthorne frequently focuses on the tensions within Puritan culture, yet steeps his stories in the Puritan sense of sin. In a symbolic fashion, the story follows Young Goodman Brown's journey into self-scrutiny, which results in his loss of virtue and belief.
Plot
The story begins at dusk in
Salem Village, Massachusetts as young
Goodman
Goodman or Goodmans may refer to:
Businesses and organizations
* Goodman Games, American publisher.
* Goodman Global, an American HVAC manufacturer.
* Goodman Group, an Australian property company.
* Goodmans Industries, a British electronic comp ...
Brown leaves Faith, his wife of three months, for some unknown errand in the forest. Faith pleads with her husband to stay with her, but he insists that the journey must be completed that night. In the forest he meets an older man, dressed in a similar manner and bearing a physical resemblance to himself. The man carries a black
serpent-shaped
staff
Staff may refer to:
Pole
* Staff, a weapon used in stick-fighting
** Quarterstaff, a European pole weapon
* Staff of office, a pole that indicates a position
* Staff (railway signalling), a token authorizing a locomotive driver to use a particula ...
. Deeper in the woods, the two encounter Goody Cloyse, an older woman, whom Young Goodman had known as a boy and who had taught him his
catechism
A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...
. Cloyse complains about the need to walk; the older man throws his staff on the ground for the woman and quickly leaves with Brown.
Other townspeople inhabit the woods that night, traveling in the same direction as Goodman Brown. When he hears his wife's voice in the trees, he calls out but is not answered. He then runs angrily through the forest, distraught that his beautiful Faith is lost somewhere in the dark, sinful forest. He soon stumbles upon a clearing at midnight where all the townspeople assembled. At the
ceremony
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''.
Church and civil (secular) ...
, which is carried out at a flame-lit altar of rocks, the newest
acolytes
An acolyte is an assistant or follower assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession. In many Christian denominations, an acolyte is anyone performing ceremonial duties such as lighting altar candles. In others, the term is used f ...
are brought forth—Goodman Brown and Faith. They are the only two of the townspeople not yet initiated. Goodman Brown calls to heaven and Faith to resist and instantly the scene vanishes. Arriving back at his home in Salem the next morning, Goodman Brown is uncertain whether the previous night's events were real or a dream, but he is deeply shaken, and his belief he lives in a Christian community is distorted. He loses his faith in his wife, along with all of humanity. He lives his life an embittered and suspicious cynic, wary of everyone around him. The story concludes: "And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave... they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom."
Development and publication history
The story is set during the
Salem witch trials, at which Hawthorne's great-great-grandfather
John Hathorne was a judge, guilt over which inspired the author to change his family's name, adding a "w" in his early twenties, shortly after graduating from college. In his writings Hawthorne questioned established thought—most specifically New England Puritanism and contemporary
Transcendentalism. In "Young Goodman Brown", as with much of his other writing, he utilizes ambiguity.
"Young Goodman Brown" was first published in the Boston-based ''
The New-England Magazine
''The New-England Magazine'' was a monthly literary magazine published in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1831 to 1835.
Overview
The magazine was published by Joseph T. Buckingham and his son Edwin. The first edition was published in July 1831, an ...
'' in its April 1835 issue. It did not include Hawthorne's name and was instead credited "by the author of 'The Gray Champion'". It was finally published with the author's name in ''
Mosses from an Old Manse'' in 1846.
Analysis
Interpretation of Evil Human Nature
"Young Goodman Brown" is often characterized as an
allegory
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
about the recognition of evil and depravity as the nature of humanity. Much of Hawthorne's fiction, such as ''
The Scarlet Letter'', is set in 17th-century colonial America, particularly
Salem Village. Language of the period is used to enhance the setting. Hawthorne gives the characters specific names that depict abstract pure and wholesome beliefs, such as "Young Goodman Brown" and "Faith". The characters' names ultimately serve as a paradox in the conclusion of the story. The inclusion of this technique was to provide a definite contrast and irony. Hawthorne aims to critique the ideals of Puritan society and express his disdain for it, thus illustrating the difference between the appearance of those in society and their true identities.
[Eberwein, Jane Donahue. "My Faith is Gone! 'Young Goodman Brown' and Puritan conversion", ''Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown'' (2005). Bloom, Harold, (ed.) Chelsea House; , pp. 20–27.]
Literary scholar Walter Shear writes that Hawthorne structured the story in three parts. The first part shows Goodman Brown at his home in his village integrated in his society. The second part of the story is an extended dreamlike/nightmare sequence in the forest for a single night. The third part shows his return to society and to his home, yet he is so profoundly changed that in rejecting the greeting of his wife Faith, Hawthorne shows Goodman Brown has lost faith and rejected the tenets of his Puritan world during the course of the night.
The story is about Brown's loss of faith as one of the elect, according to scholar Jane Eberwein. Believing himself to be of the elect, Goodman Brown falls into self-doubt after three months of marriage which to him represents sin and depravity as opposed to salvation. His journey to the forest is symbolic of Christian "self-exploration" in which doubt immediately supplants faith. At the end of the forest experience he loses his wife Faith, his faith in salvation, and his faith in human goodness.
Interpretation of Impossible Perfection
One interpretation of the text is as an allegory to emphasize how perfection as impossible, through interactions in the forest. The author introduces the shadowy figure as an "elder person as simply clad as a younger,
ithan indescribable air of one who knew the world". The author depicts this evil figure as not only similar to Goodman Brown, but also more educated in his age. After establishing the dark figure’s legitimacy, he delivers a message that only the young and naïve believe that perfection can be achieved. The
devil claims to have helped his father "set fire to an Indian village, in
King Philip's war." By shattering Young Goodman Brown's conception that his fathers were paragons of Puritan ideals, Young Goodman Brown began his slow descent until his "dying hour of gloom," setting up a perspective that perfection is merely an illusion by showing how believers set themselves up for a sad death. Similarly, the futility of perfection can also be ascertained at the final
Devil meeting. The first thing Goodman Brown hears when he arrives is "a familiar
une
Une is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, Cundinamarca, Eastern Province, part of the Departments of Colombia, department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca. The urban centre is located at an altitude of at a dista ...
in the choir of the village meetinghouse." This comparison brings to mind a setting in which the piety and perfection preached by the church contrasts the reality of human imperfection. True to its set up, the dark sable figure presumed to be the devil delivers a conversion speech for the Goodman Brown by lecturing how
Puritans "shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward.... This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds: how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their households." By highlighting the "wanton words" and "secret deeds" that Puritans conceal in fear of being found out, the devil elucidates the hypocrisy that the Puritans center their life upon; indeed, Young Goodman Brown's world shatters when he realizes that what appears to be "lives of righteousness" are actually tainted by atrocious sin. Overall, the shadowy figure and the aura of the final demon meeting can imply an interpretation that perfection is simply a myth, and those in pursuit of it do so out of naivety of reality.
Literary significance and reception
Herman Melville said "Young Goodman Brown" was "as deep as
Dante" and
Henry James called it a "magnificent little romance". Hawthorne himself believed the story made no more impact than any of his tales. Years later he wrote, "These stories were published... in Magazines and Annuals, extending over a period of ten or twelve years, and comprising the whole of the writer's young manhood, without making (so far as he has ever been aware) the slightest impression on the public". Contemporary critic
Edgar Allan Poe disagreed, referring to Hawthorne's short stories as "the products of a truly imaginative intellect".
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
has referred to "Young Goodman Brown" as "one of the ten best stories written by an American". He calls it his favorite story by Hawthorne and cites it as an inspiration for his
O. Henry Award-winning short story, "
The Man in the Black Suit
"The Man in the Black Suit" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King. It was originally published in the October 31, 1994 issue of ''The New Yorker'' magazine.
In 1995, it won the World Fantasy Award and the O. Henry Award for B ...
".
Adaptations
A 1972 short film directed by Donald Fox is based on the story. It features actors Mark Bramhall, Peter Kilman, and
Maggie McOmie
Maggie McOmie is an American stage and film actress, best known for co-starring with Robert Duvall in George Lucas' 1971 film ''THX 1138.'' Though the film received mixed reviews at the time, it has since developed a cult following.
Career
McOmi ...
.
In 1982, the story was adapted for the CBC radio program ''
Nightfall''.
This is the only work of Hawthorne's included in the
Library of America's 2009 anthology ''
American Fantastic Tales ''American Fantastic Tales'' is a set of two reprint horror anthologies, released as ''American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps'' and ''American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940s to Now''. Both anth ...
: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps.''
In 2011, playwright Lucas (Luke) Krueger, adapted the story for the stage. It was produced by Northern Illinois University. In 2012, Playscripts Inc. published the play. It has since been produced by several companies and high schools.
The 2015 music video for the
Brandon Flowers song "
Can't Deny My Love
"Can't Deny My Love" is the lead single by American singer-songwriter Brandon Flowers from his second studio album, ''The Desired Effect''.
Composition
Flowers asked drummer Darren Beckett for a beat, Beckett obliged and Flowers then wrote the ...
" is based on Hawthorne's story, with Flowers starring as the Goodman Brown figure and
Evan Rachel Wood as his wife.
Comic artist
Kate Beaton satirized the story in a series of comic strips for her webcomic ''
Hark! A Vagrant'', which focuses on mocking Goodman Brown's obsessive, black-and-white morality and his hypocrisy toward his wife and friends.
harkavagrant.com
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References
External links
*
Reading of Young Goodman Brown by Stuff You Should Read Podcast
*
{{Authority control
1835 short stories
Allegory
Short stories adapted into films
Short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Witchcraft in written fiction
Works published anonymously
Salem witch trials in fiction