Knowledge Is Power In Young Goodman Brown

Decent Essays
Francis Bacon once said “knowledge is power”. Knowledge is possessing information by means of experiences or education. It is a possession that is intangible due to it only existing in a person’s. The intangibility might masquerade knowledge to make it appear as not important, but under the disguise it holds many immense strength. In many scenarios knowledge is important as it has the ability to cause reactions that are beneficial or detrimental. Although knowledge might appear as not significant, it has the power to enact responses that greatly affect many individuals.
In Genesis, Adam and Eve defy God by eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden. The fruit grants knowledge of good and evil to whoever eats it. Adam and Eve both eat the fruit
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After hearing the surprising information that the Devil had and currently has connections with many individuals, Goodman Brown questions it and says “Can this be so?”(Hawthorne). The power of knowledge is depicted here as only a few statements impact his thoughts on how pure the world really is. Before hearing the new information, Goodman Brown made previous claims that the society that he knows is pure. The previous claims juxtaposed to this response the power in the information he gained. His world starts breaking down as he becomes uncertain whether or not the Devil is telling the truth. In addition Goodman Brown breaks down at the end of the story due to his new knowledge evident by the statement “when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away… they carved no hopeful verse on his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom”(Hawthorne). His knowledge destroyed his view of the world which caused his psyche to become shattered. He could not see his wife positively since he becomes convinced that the people around him are attached to the Devil. His world was so heavily based on his religion so that when that truth was lost he lost the ability to have joy in his

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