The Old Manse

1. In Nathaniel Hawthorn’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”, the man character, Goodman Brown, comes across a strange traveler whom he encounters in the woods late one evening. This man turns out to be the devil. Hawthorn’s description of the strange traveler’s staff, which “bore the likeness of a great black snake” (Hawthorn 94), foreshadows the identity of the man Goodman Brown is meeting. Furthermore, the Devil’s identity is fully revealed by Goody Cloyse, who screams his name after she is…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s roots in Salem, Massachusetts and in the Puritan religion provide the perfect context for his thought-provoking short story, “Young Goodman Brown”. The tale of a pious, Puritan man struggling with the temptation of sin and religious doubt offers the reader an inside look upon the thematic concerns Hawthorne presents in many of his works: loss of innocence and faith, secret guilt, and human depravity. In a thinly veiled critique of the Puritan religion, Hawthorne utilizes…

audience with a conversation between the traveller accompanying Brown and a pious woman. “The traveller…touched her withered neck…‘The devil!’ screamed the pious old lady. ‘Then Goody Cloyse knows her old friend?’ observed the traveller... ‘…is it your worship indeed?’ cried the good dame. ‘Yea, truly is it, and in the very image of my old gossip, Goodman Brown, the grandfather of the silly fellow that now is’ (Hawthorne 5).” The traveller, accompanying Brown, to a similar destination is an…

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Short Stories: Young Goodman Brown.” East of the Web, East of the Web, www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/YouGoo.shtml. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is a story that represents the pervasiveness and secrecy of sin and evil that is alive within all people, especially in the Puritan society that the protagonist, Mr. Brown, lives in in. Despite the Puritan ideal of being the the most pure and faithful community in colonial America, the story reveals the…

Nightmare in the Woods Charlotte I don’t know what I did wrong. I don’t know how I got here. All I know is that the darkness is coming closer. I can feel the cold dampness of the ground underneath me. The chill of the earth against my temple helped cool the raging pain in my head. I could only glimpse the faint outline of the towering trees. It was definitely dark out. So where was the light coming from? My eyelids felt too heavy to keep open anymore. My eyes fluttered open for the last time to…

What would one expect from a man with a personality like Goodman Brown? Authors often use biblical references, leaving the reader to wonder whether all events were reality or a dream. From this short story, we enter a supernatural world full of challenges the protagonist must overcome. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, he uses symbolism and metaphors to represent the ideas and beliefs portrayed in the story. As one is introduced to Goodman’s wife in the first paragraphs of the tale, we…

Through his changing view of his wife and townspeople, Goodman Brown recognizes his concept of religion to be a facade. On departure, he knows his leaving home upsets Faith and that such an act should leave him guilty. Glancing behind at his wife, he sees her peering back at him from the house- her pink hair ribbons (of innocence) in contrast with her now gloomy face, “‘Poor little Faith!’ thought he, for his heart smote him. ‘What a wretch am I, to leave her on such an errand!”’ (Hawthorne 1).…

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author applies direct and indirect characterization of faith to reveal the idea that even the purest and most innocent can struggle with faith. Hawthorne shows the reader that faith is a gentle and corruptible thing that all people must fight for in their lives. First of all, Hawthorne characterizes Faith as a person who is innocent, pure, and faithful. As the story develops we begin to understand that Faith is an ideological…

If you were to ask me what color hair I have or what color eyes, I would be able to answer your question. But what I never realized before reading The Inferno is that everyone and anyone can see me better than I can see myself. Sure I can simply look in a mirror, but that would provide me with nothing more than a mere reflection. The one person you can never truly lay your eyes on is yourself, for only others can actually see you. The same can be said about sin. One can easily look at someone…

just Goodman’s imagination but either way, they change Goodman’s life forever. Goodman is married to Faith, symbolic of what is at stake for Goodman throughout the story, his faith and resisting the devil. The Old Man, possibly the devil, tempts Goodman to attend a ceremony in the forest. The old man even offers Goodman his walking stick, tempting Goodman to use it to help him if he is weak. This walking stick changes in the story, at one time it is withered and twisted…