'Young Goodman Brown: A Self-Portrait\r'

'Nathaniel Hawthorne was undeniably interested in the roles of his ancestors in the Salem Witch Trials.  more of his literature combines the ele ments of puritan thought with the deeper, frequently dark desires of the hu valet de chambre psyche.  materialisation Good mankinds embr admit’s shadow clock locomote in the level of the same name is an allegoric re-visitation to the madness of the Salem witch trials.  d champion this story, Young Goodman embrown and his journey induce customary symbols for all mankind.Hawthorne juxtaposed nineteenth Century ghostly thought with sixteenth Century Puritan thought in several(prenominal)(prenominal) of his works, including â€Å"Young Goodman brownish”, whose title character represents, as his name implies, all(prenominal) man.   The religious thought of both the centuries in question operated on fear, which ultimately leads several individuals, under the guise of overcoming or sluice conquering their fears, into the world of worthless.To Hawthorne, Salem was â€Å"the sharpen of the witchcraft delusion, in the witching quantify of 1692, and it shows the populace of Salem Village, those chief in authority as well as obscure young citizens like browned, enticed by fi residueish shapes into the frightful solitude of irrational fear” (Abel 133).    brownish, like all others of his village, is fighted between accepting this fear and conquering it.  Unfortunately, for most, this skirmish has unhappy consequences.   brown, as a congress adult female for all the great unwashed, is generally naïve and accepting, and thereof ill-equipped to handle the terrifying night in the woodland (Fogle 15).  After all, it is in the best interest of the Puritan religious leaders to keep the great unwashed constrained under fear rather than pay after the realization that all people repulsiveness.Several symbols equate dark-brown’s journey to the jou rney of any individual who struggles with the conflict between religion and self.   The first is the forest, as a symbol for the dark and evil place where people atomic number 18 tempted to go. brownness, himself, is pinched into the forest, an archetype for evil and the unknown, for the reason presented above, as an attempt to over beat the fear brought on by religious dogma.  It is in the forest that he is exposed to his utmost fears and where he realizes the shortcoming of humanity.This realization begins with the enticement of man by the devil.  This devil â€Å"seeks to lure the slake reluctant goodman to a witch-meeting.  In the sue he progressively undermines the young man’s faith in the initiations and the men whom he has heretofore revered” (Fogle 17).  In doing this, browned loses his ability to operate in the society of man and lives as a sadly disillusioned, miser equal creature. jibe to Levy, he â€Å"is Everyman.  The barg ain he has struck with the Tempter is the universal one . . . (117).   Thus, most people can relate to this type of blasted bargaining which has become a universal theme in literature.Anther symbol which connects Brown to any human being is his smashed belief in some other human being or institution †this time assent, which represents both.  She is described as wearing a cap with pink ribbons, which suggest girlishness and naiveté. In this way, she is just like every woman Abel calls these ribbons â€Å"a badge of feminine naturalness” (Abel 130).  However, when Brown finds the ribbon in the woods, scattered from his trustingness (and faith), the emblematical meaning of the ribbons changes.  Here, they indicate a injustice of innocence.  Fogle explains that the pink of the ribbons becomes deepened into the emblazon of blood and fire which represents faith’s demonic baptism into ejaculate (Fogle 24). The tie of temptation and wo men hails back to the book of Genesis, and the realization of Faith’s supposed fall precipitates Brown’s loss.  Levy calls the ribbon â€Å"the touchable evidence of Faith’s renunciation” (117) which parallels some defining moment in which many people lose their faith.  This personalizes the loss for Brown, as it is for all people.As Brown traverses the forest, he encounters other individuals.  One, who looks strikingly like Brown, accompanies him for a while.  While the reader understands that this man m white-hairediness be one of Brown’s ancestors, Brown himself is blind to the similarities.  This man takes on the role of ally and implies to Brown that his own ancestors made a similar journey, which Brown as well disregards. Their encounter with diplomacy Cloyse is symbolic for two reasons. First, the encounter has Biblical implications and second, it represents another moment if disillusionment for Brown.  The staff is men tioned several times in the Bible.  In one story Aaron throws his staff at the feet of the evil Pharoah and it turned into a serpent.  The serpent represents evil.  When the companion throws is staff at the feet of Goody Cloyse, it also turns into a serpent, indicating her evil nature as well (Hale, 17).This distresses Brown, who does not understand why his Sunday School teacher would be in the midst of the evil forest.  â€Å"That old woman taught me my catechism” (Hawthorne 303). The catechism was really the only consultation of literature about pious liveliness other than the Bible.  Brown probably learn all about the sins of the flesh from Goody Cloyse and ironically, she is here in the forest of evil.  Brown continues to encounter other religious officials in the forest which parallels the astonishment and sadness of any person who discovers a religious film has behaved in a hypocritical manner.Ultimately, Brown loses his internal passage of arms.   The realization that everyone he had revered was not what he had imagined them to be forces him to retain in to the evil of the forest wholeheartedly.  He screams out, â€Å"Come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow, come devil himself!  And here comes Goodman Brown.  You whitethorn as well fear him as he fear you!” (Hawthorne 306).  Of course, the story ends with ambiguity.  Did Brown really witness a rascally marriage?  Did Faith really invoke to the altar of the devil?  The reader and Brown never really know the coiffure to these questions.Once Brown awakens, all evidence is gone.  He returns to his Faith, his elders and his life sentence.  Faith is once again alter in her pink ribbons, which â€Å"… suggest, rather than hold still for something light and playful, consistent with her anxious comfort at the beginning and the joyful, almost callow eagerness with which she greets Brown at the end” (Levy 124).  Brownâ₠¬â„¢s journey has come full circle.  Unfortunately, the reality does not weigh as much as Brown’s interpretation of the events that may or may not have been a dream.  He is unable to reconcile his passkey conceptions of the people in his life (or himself) with what he experienced on his journey.   Though his life with Faith continues, â€Å"… his dying hour was sombreness” (Hawthorne 310).Clearly, this parallels with the experiences of mankind.  Disillusionment is prevalent, and it can cause misery, sin and even death.  Loss of faith in an individual or in an institution is devastating.  Many times this loss label the person for life, preventing them from enjoying what life has to offer.  Acceptance of sin and corruption is very hard to take, oddly of a loved one or a firmly held belief.Hawthorne clearly select the idea that â€Å"unlovely demons were everywhere, in the cheer as well as in the darkness, and that they were hidden in men’s hearts and stole into their most conundrum thoughts” (Abel 133). Young Goodman Brown is indicative of every good man’s employment with such demons.  As the story implies, this battle is more a great deal lost than won, merely most people are able to continue living their lives in hostility of this acquiescence to evil.  Some, though, such as Goodman Brown, are not able to do so.  According to Abel, â€Å"such a battle often led to an inside(a) despair.  They were constantly hagridden because of the possible convictions and judgments of their peers.  This battle intrigued Hawthorne and he sought-after(a) out its presence in Puritan literature” (133).   â€Å"Young Goodman Brown” is the story of all people’s inner battles.  Some win; some lose.Works CitedAbel, Darrel.  The honourable Picturesque:  Studies in Hawthorne’s Fiction.  inch:  Purdue UP,1988.Fogle, Richard Harter.  Hawthorne ’s Fiction:  The Light and the Dark.  Norman:  U ofOklahoma P, 1952Hale, John K.  â€Å"The Serpentine faculty in ‘Young Goodman Brown.’”  Nathaniel  HawthorneReview  19  (Fall 1993):  17-18.Hawthorne,  Nathaniel.  â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.”  Perrine’s Literature:  Structure go and    Sense.  9th Ed. Arp and Johnson Eds. Boston:  Thomson, 2006Levy, Leo B.  â€Å"The Problem of Faith in ‘Young Goodman Brown.’” Modern Critcial  Views:Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Ed. Harold Bloom.  young York:  Chelsea House, 1986.  115-126.\r\n'