Since the day man walked this earth, society has been thriving to please a greater force. Polytheism and monotheism, to Catholic or Lutheran, people have strived to please the unknown through rituals, obligations, and worship. Next formed agnosticism or atheism, and these groups became prevalent in society as people began to criticize these religions and their strict rules. Today, many artists, movie producers, and authors show these criticism through their works. One of these authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne, has written the short story “Young Goodman Brown” conveying the message of criticism through satire. As Young Goodman Brown travels on a psychologically enlightening journey through Salem woods, Nathaniel Hawthorne brings light to
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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of satire to mock religion and it’s need for naive followers is highly present in the end of the story. Before Young Goodman Brown’s journey, he was content with his life in his small village. Nathaniel Hawthorne begins the story using imagery to paint the picture of a happy couple, “YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith....thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap” (pg 1). In contrast to the end of the story, “he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away” (pg 8), Goodman Brown is no longer able to love his wife Faith, as well as love his religious faith, after his is enlightened along his passage on the path of his mind. Brown is changed into a bitter and crude older man, “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream,” (pg 8) similar to the image of the Devil Nathaniel Hawthorne described at the beginning of the …show more content…
Brown goes through a large personal change that acquaints him to the wickedness within everyone as well as himself, and the struggle of knowing this information when his community is blindly following God: Much like Young Goodman Brown discovered, after fully learning the depths of the greater evil proclaimed in religious teachings, a person cannot go back to blindly following faith. Gaining this kind of knowledge is dangerous, as knowing about the personal allure of sin in a devoutly religious society goes against religion’s need for naive followers. Similar to this short story, there are many other works displaying criticisms of religion. As time passes, society as whole witnesses the dwindling of religion’s importance due to all of the different branches forming. Religion is forever changing. One hundred years ago religion played a different role in society, and one hundred years from now religion 's influence on society will be
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of satire to mock religion and it’s need for naive followers is highly present in the end of the story. Before Young Goodman Brown’s journey, he was content with his life in his small village. Nathaniel Hawthorne begins the story using imagery to paint the picture of a happy couple, “YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith....thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap” (pg 1). In contrast to the end of the story, “he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away” (pg 8), Goodman Brown is no longer able to love his wife Faith, as well as love his religious faith, after his is enlightened along his passage on the path of his mind. Brown is changed into a bitter and crude older man, “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream,” (pg 8) similar to the image of the Devil Nathaniel Hawthorne described at the beginning of the …show more content…
Brown goes through a large personal change that acquaints him to the wickedness within everyone as well as himself, and the struggle of knowing this information when his community is blindly following God: Much like Young Goodman Brown discovered, after fully learning the depths of the greater evil proclaimed in religious teachings, a person cannot go back to blindly following faith. Gaining this kind of knowledge is dangerous, as knowing about the personal allure of sin in a devoutly religious society goes against religion’s need for naive followers. Similar to this short story, there are many other works displaying criticisms of religion. As time passes, society as whole witnesses the dwindling of religion’s importance due to all of the different branches forming. Religion is forever changing. One hundred years ago religion played a different role in society, and one hundred years from now religion 's influence on society will be