完整word版YoungGoodmanBrown分析NathanielHawthorne

1、YoungGoodmanBrown (1835) is a short story by American writer NathanielHawthor ne . The story takes p lace in 17th cen tury P urita n New En gla nd , a com mon sett ing for Hawthor nes works, and addresses the Calvi nist/P urita n belief that huma nity exists in a state of depravity , exempting those

2、 who are born in a state of grace . Hawthorne frequently attempts to expose the hypocrisy of Puritan culture in his literature. In a symbolic fashi on, the story follows Young Goodma n Brow ns journey in to self-scrut iny which results in his loss of faith.Plot summaryThe story begi ns at sun set in

3、 Salem, Massachusetts , as young Goodma n Brow n leaves Faith, his wife of three mon ths, for an unknown errand in the forest. Faith p leads with her husba nd to stay with her but he in sists the journey into the forest must be compi eted that night. In the forest he meets a man, dressed in a simila

4、r manner to himself and bearing a resemblanee to himself. The man carries a blackserpent -shapedencoun ter Mistress evide ntly frien dly dest in ati on.Cloyse in the woods who complains about with the stranger,accepts his snake stafftheandneedfliesstaff. The two to walk and, away to herOther townspe

5、opleGoodma n Brow n. When he hears his wifes voice in the trees, he calls out to his Faith, but is not an swered. He the n seems to fly through the forest, using a maple staff the stra nger fashioned for him, arriving at a clearing at midnightto find all the townspeopleassembled. At the ceremony (wh

6、ich may be a witches sabbath ) carried out at a flame-lit rocky altar , the n ewest con verts are brought forthGoodma n Brow n and Faith. They arethe only two of the tow nspeople not yet in itiated to the forest rite. Goodma n Brow n calls to heave n to resist and in sta ntly the scene vani shes.in

7、habit the woods that ni ght, traveli nginthesame direct ionasArriving back at his home in Salem the next morning, Goodman Brown is uncertain whether the p revious ni ghts eve nts were real or a dream, but he is dee ply shake n, with the belief he lived in a Christian community distorted. He loses hi

8、sfaith in his wife Faith;he loses his faith in huma ni ty. He lives his life an embittered and sus picious cyni cal man, wary of every one around him, i ncludi ng his wife Faith. Hawthor ne con cludes the story by writ in g: A nd whe n he had lived long, and was borne to his grave.they carved no hop

9、 eful verse upon his tombst one, for his dying hour was gloomBackgro undThe story is setduring the Salem witchtrials , at which Hawthornesgreat-great-grandfatherJohn Hathorne was a judge. According to American literaturescholar James Mellow, Hawthor ne was p lagued by guilt by his an cestors role, w

10、rote the story to vi ndicate his gran dfather by featuri ng two ficti onal victims of the witch trials who were witches and not innocent victims of the witch-hunt It was also this ancestral guilt that inspired Hawthor ne to cha nge his familys n ame, addi ng a w in his early twen ties, shortly after

11、 graduati ng from college.2-In his writingsHawthornequestioned established thought most specificallyNewEngland Puritanism and contemporary Transcendentalism . In Young Goodman Brown, as with much of his other writi ng, he expo ses ambiguity. 邑 The plot and textual references in Young Goodma n Brow n

12、 reveal the P urita ns as being like a city upon a hill asJoh nWin thro p , a foun der of Purita ni sm, said, and wanting to be see n that way as good, holy men. However, their doctri ne teaches that all men are in here ntly evil and they strive to cause each person to come to terms with this and re

13、alize their sinful nature. This hypocrisy that Hawthorne presents in his story is how he reflects on the hypocritical teach ings of the Purita ns. They taught that man was in here ntly evil in n ature much in accorda nee to En lighte nmentp hilos op her Thomas Hobbes .An alysisThemes and styleYoung

14、Goodman Brown is often characterized as anallegory about the recognition ofevil and dep ravity as the n ature of huma nity.凹 Much of Hawthor nes fiction, such asTheScarlet Letter , is set in 17th-century colonial America, particularlySalem,inthehisMassachusetts. 包 In order to convey the setting in h

15、is work, he used literary techniques such as specific diction, or colloquial expressions, as in Young Goodman Brown which Ianguage of the period is used to enhance the setting. Hawthorne gives characters, sp ecific n ames that depict abstract pure & wholesome beliefs such as; Young Goodman Brown, an

16、d Faith . The characters names ultimately serve as a paradox in the con clusi on of the story. The in clusi on of this tech nique was to p rovide a defi nite con trast and irony. Hawthorne aims to critique the ideals of Puritan society and express disda in for it thus illustrati ng the differe nee b

17、etwee n the app eara nee of those in society and their true ide ntities. 回Literary scholar Walter Shear writes that Hawthor ne structured the story in three p arts. The first part shows Goodma n Brow n at his home in his village in tegrated in his society. The second part of the story is an extended

18、 dreamlike sequenee in which Goodman Brow n is in the forest for a sin gle ni ght. The third part shows his retur n to society and to his home, yet he is so profoun dly cha nged that in reject ing the greeti ng of his wife Faith, Hawthor ne shows Goodma n Brown has lost faith and rejected the ten et

19、s of his Purita n world duri ng the course of the ni ght.The story is about Goodman Browns loss of faith as one of the elect, writes Jane Eberwe in in My Faith is Gone!. Believi ng himself to be of the elect, Goodma n Brow nfalls into self-doubt after three mon ths of marriage which to him rep rese

20、nts sin and depravity as opposed to salvation. His journey to the forest is symbolic of Christian self-ex plo rati on in which doubt immediately supplants faith. At the end of the forest exp erie nee he loses his wife Faith, his faith in salvati on, and his faith in huma n good ness.Character an aly

21、sisThe character of Goodma n Brow n rep rese nts that of the com mon everyday man. His journey through the forest comp ares to the journey every in dividual takes to realize their faith and recog nize evil. His character shows both innocence and corrup tibility through the cha nge of his belief from

22、 the pure good ness of huma n n ature to the recog niti on of the poten tial evil with in all mankind. At the begi nning of the story Goodma n Brow n believes in the good ness of his father and gran dfather, as well as the Christia n n ature of Goody Cloyse, the mini ster and Deac on Gook ing. As he

23、 p rogresses through his journey he lear ns that each of these figures are associated with or acquaintances of the old man, likely rep rese nti ng the devil himself. Goodma n Brow ns lack of true religi on however was n t revealed un til the devil in dicates at the ceremony that Faith, too, is corr

24、up tible.Faith as her n ame suggests, serves as ano ther symbolic idea and app ears to be the most pu re-hearted character in the story. Her righteous ness serves as a symbol for good, p urity, and the faith and devotio n Goodma n Brow n has in God. Their n ewlywed status serves as a symbol for he r

25、eader to realize his relati onship has not yet bee n established with faith or God. When questioning the goodness of people, Goodman Brown clings to Faith as justificatio n to resist temp tati on.Hawthor ne po rtrays the devil as an ordi nary man to suggest that every man (Goodma nBrown) has the cap

26、 acity for evil. Through his p hysical characteristics, it is interp reted that this man is no differe nt from any other man in Salem Village. This suggests that the devil is simply created as an embodime nt of all the worst p arts of man. Goody Cloyse was the name of an actual woman who was tried a

27、nd convicted of witchcraft during the historical Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Hawthorne uses her as a citizen of Salem who teaches the bible to the youth. Although seem in gly religious and pure, she secretly atte nds witch magic ceremonies in the forest. The Mini ster is a resp ectable figure as the

28、 minister of Salem, who is soon indicated as a follower of the devil. Deacon Gooking is another character who is thought to be very honorable and religious. Although he is a member of the clergy in Salem, he app ears to be a follower of the devil.SymbolsThe Devils staff is used to rep rese nt temp t

29、ati on as show n in the book of Gen esis. The biblical serpent temped Eve to defy God and eat the fruit from the forbidden tree. Similarly, Hawthor ne used he serpent on the old mans staff as a symbol of an evil dem on.Like Eve, Brow n is condemned by his temp tati on whe n he chose to p ick up the

30、staff for a faster travel. This ultimatelyrepresents his loss of innocence towards temptationandcuriosity.Faiths pink ribbon is used throughout the story as a symbol of innocence and purity. Early on, Hawthorne mentions the ribbon several times during Goodman Brown and Faith s con versati on. This i

31、mp lied a happy, youthful ambia nee of Faith and their n ewly found marriage. When Brow n was hidi ng in the forest and bega n to doubt the good ness of the pure people he kn ew, the ribb on came flutteri ng dow n. This suggest that the one pure and holy thing to him, faith, had falle n into the dev

32、ils realm. When reun ited withFaith at the end of the story, Brow n no tices that she was aga in weari ng the pink ribb on. Thus cast ing doubts on Goodma n Brow n about whether or not his exp erie nee was real.Critical response and impactHerman Melvillesaid Young Goodman Brown was as deep as Dante

33、and Henry Jamescalled it a mag nificen t little roma nee.且 Hawthor ne himself believed the story made nomore impact tha n any of his tales. Years later he wrote, These stories were p ublished. inMagaz ines and Ann uals, exte nding over a p eriod of ten or twelve years, and comprising the whole of th

34、e writers young man hood, without making (so far as he has ever bee n aware) the slightest impression on the public.凹 Contemporary critic Edgar Allan Poe disagreed, referri ng to Hawthor nes short stories as the p roducts of a truly imagi native intellect.竺 One of Hawthornesgood friends, HermanMelvi

35、lle comments onun derly ing depth of the story you would of course suppose that it was a simple little tale, intended as a supplement to Goody Two Shoes Whereas it is as deep as Dante.1 Moder ns scholars and critiques gen erally view the short story as an allegoricalthe12talewritten to expose the co

36、ntradictionsin place concerningPuritan beliefs and societies.However, there have been many other interpretations of the text including those who believe Hawthor ne symp athizes with Purita n beliefs. Author Harold Bloom comme nts on the variety of explan ati ons; Young Goodma n Brown has bee n p res

37、e nted as an allegorical revelati on of huma n dep ravity, as a symbolic study of sexual in itiati on, as an inquiry into gen erati onal con flict, as a dem on strati on of Purita n hyp ocrisy, as evide nee of Hawthor ns sympathy towards Puritan society, and even just as an artfullydesigned short st

38、oryThemesTheme 1huma nkindmaking no esse ntial reference bey ond itself.迪How the Puritans Strict moral code and overemphasis on the sinfulness offorest whether dream or reality causes him to lose unhappy man. Note the last words of the story: tombst one; for his dying hour was gloom.foster undue suspicion and distrust . Goodman Brown sexperienee in the his faith in others and die an“ They carved no hopeful verse upon hisTheme 2 The realizati on that evil can