Goodman Brown Archetypes

In order to know oneself, one must know others and their surroundings and vice versa. We can relate a literary text Young Goodman Brown and a movie The Village to this argument because both stories encounter archetypes with similar meanings. An important archetype in both stories are the woods and how it effects the characters’ knowledge of themselves. These stories are both of a puritan village that provides evidence of an imagined place or state of things in which everything is thought to be perfect. Young Goodman Brown depicts a man who shows corruptibility between believing in the goodness of the people around him and believing that the devil takes over the minds of the people. At first, I questioned if this story was a dream; however, …show more content…
Goodman Brown leaves his wife and knows he is traveling through the unknown. He believes the devil can easily be present. "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!" As Goodman Brown walks through the forest, this depicts that he is very timid and believes the devil can be represented in such a place. His quest is to challenge himself by not giving into the devil. In The Village, Ivy knows the secrets, so she has no fear as she enters the woods. Ivy repeats, “it is not real. It is not real.” This proves that she is startled by what she hears because everything she learned is considered an “innocent lie.” I believe she questions the “innocent lie” because maybe she thought her father lied to make her feel confident while traveling on her own. In the movie, Ivy tells Lucius, “I see the world, Lucius Hunt. Just not as you see it.” This proves that regardless of the lie, she travels through the unknown and is …show more content…
For instance, when Goodman Brown and Ivy go into the woods, they return a different person. In Young Goodman Brown, the woods are devilish, frightening, and dark. He does not know what will happen as he enters the woods, but at the end, he becomes a different person than what he was. “On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain.” This shows evidence that the Goodman Brown is not the same person because he allowed the devil to take control of his mind and affect his life. In The Village, we have the wall that distinguishes civilization and the woods. Ivy states that she is from “the woods,” which means she is different because she resides in the woods. Because of the lie, she encounters the surrounding borders that are not harmful and receives help on her