“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – George Santayana. While neither of these plays is necessarily a commentary of the repetitive tribulations of man, this quote by George Santayana does speak on the commonality of all history and human endeavor. After two thousand two hundred and sixty-four years, two completely different pieces of literature can have the same connection to the human experiences, a complete confirmation of circularity of society. Furthermore, these two stories don’t only have the same connection to humanity, but they have a connection with each other in their commonality of protagonists. “Young Goodman Brown” and Oedipus the King both have characters that have to grapple with the loss of ignorance
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Generally, we associate grieving with the loss of a loved one, but it can also be because of the loss of something more abstract: innocence, personality, understand, or ignorance. Consequently, with their loss, Oedipus and Goodman Brown, tell us the story of the process of grief. Both stories represent denial, by the protagonists simply scoffing at the idea of their reality being changed and simply falling back to what they understand as the true nature of reality, in Brown’s case he states “We are people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness”. He uses this as a mental shield to disregard what the man says, as simply unfactual and clearly not true. Second, the feelings of anger are very well chronicled and don’t need much explanation, in both “Young Goodman Brown” and Oedipus the King anger is the main motivator in much of the drama, from threatening torture, to complete mania and bloodlust. However, anger is where the two paths of grieving diverge, it is sometimes said that the five-stages don’t exist as directions, but as a map of the places you may go, I believe this surmises truly the consequence in “Young Goodman Brown”, and Oedipus the King. Oedipus represents what a man of defeat may personify, a track of depression and bargaining, and depression that will exist with him forever. Not only does he stab his eyes out in hopes the gods may have pity, but he also pushes away all he has ever known and forces himself to be exiled to never know again the joys he once did. But on the other hand, Goodman brown represents what a resentful man may feel. After his final charge against the darkness, and discovery that none, not even faith, was untouched by the macabre hand of the devil, he too exiles himself away from all he has known, not out of pity for himself
Generally, we associate grieving with the loss of a loved one, but it can also be because of the loss of something more abstract: innocence, personality, understand, or ignorance. Consequently, with their loss, Oedipus and Goodman Brown, tell us the story of the process of grief. Both stories represent denial, by the protagonists simply scoffing at the idea of their reality being changed and simply falling back to what they understand as the true nature of reality, in Brown’s case he states “We are people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness”. He uses this as a mental shield to disregard what the man says, as simply unfactual and clearly not true. Second, the feelings of anger are very well chronicled and don’t need much explanation, in both “Young Goodman Brown” and Oedipus the King anger is the main motivator in much of the drama, from threatening torture, to complete mania and bloodlust. However, anger is where the two paths of grieving diverge, it is sometimes said that the five-stages don’t exist as directions, but as a map of the places you may go, I believe this surmises truly the consequence in “Young Goodman Brown”, and Oedipus the King. Oedipus represents what a man of defeat may personify, a track of depression and bargaining, and depression that will exist with him forever. Not only does he stab his eyes out in hopes the gods may have pity, but he also pushes away all he has ever known and forces himself to be exiled to never know again the joys he once did. But on the other hand, Goodman brown represents what a resentful man may feel. After his final charge against the darkness, and discovery that none, not even faith, was untouched by the macabre hand of the devil, he too exiles himself away from all he has known, not out of pity for himself