In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” Goodman Brown has what may or may not have been a dream about a satanic black mass in the woods. Afterwards Brown becomes completely isolated and lives out his life as a complete loner. The first two acts were incredibly creepy and reminded me of campfire horror stories.
The most important part comes at the end though, after he wakes up in the middle of the field. Brown was given the most brutal test of faith I’ve ever heard of and he failed miserably. He emotionally cuts himself off to everyone he knows, including his own wife. As a result he ends up being miserable until the day he dies.
I felt that this story was a commentary on puritan society, how judgmental and superstitious it was. Although he didn’t have any proof that the things he saw were anything more than a dream, it was enough for him to view everyone as traitors and heretics. I also saw a lot of correlation to the red scares of the 20s and 50s. After reading this I can't help but wonder if we are doing the same thing right now to Arabs and Muslims.
I agree that the tragedy is YGB's ultimate decision to withdraw from society. I think it is interesting that YGB subscribed to his belief with fallible proof. It makes me wonder whether he really wanted to believe it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteWow. I think that what you said is very true. It seemed to me that in a way Mr. Brown "wanted" to believe what he saw was true. I mean, if he didn't somewhat believe the things that had happened, he wouldn't have let it effect the relationships he had before. He assumed that everything was true about everyone in the story, and I believe that many people do the same thing in today's society.
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