When Protestants Enter the Woods in Nathaniel Hawthornes...

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story Young Goodman Brown uses the gothic setting of the woods to set up the imagery and themes that portray Protestant life in Salem Massachusetts. This starts as Goodman Brown leaves the safety of his village to go in to the dark forest in a journey that will open his eyes to the evil of protestant life and cause him to alienate him self from the people around him. The deep symbolism of this story shows the darkness and fear hidden in the minds of protestants that haunts Hawthorn as his ancestral guilt shows in the story Young Goodman Brown. Hawthorne opens the story with Goodman at his home with his wife Faith while he is leaving to go on some kind of trip that has an â€Å"evil purpose†. The general background of the story is a gothic view as Hawthorne sets up Goodmans dark walk in to the woods by referring to the journey as â€Å"a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest...†(3). The woods that Goodman travel s in to are a symbol for the kingdom of the devil in Protestant life and this is the dark setting that the story unfolds into. The woods being the place of all evil can be seen in the story as Goodman refers to the indians as a devil that may be behind every tree, this is also a reference to the deep psychological fear that the protestant society hid in there minds. This dark fear and mistrust in daily life that Protestants had, leads to many problems and conflicts like the salem witch trials. Hawthorn delves in toShow MoreRelated Puritan Depravity and Distrust in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown2245 Words   |  9 PagesPuritan Depravity and Distrust in Young Goodman Brown   Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Puritan doctrine taught that all men are totally depraved and require constant self-examination to see that they are sinners and unworthy of Gods Grace. Because man had broken the Covenant of Works when Adam had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, God offered a new covenant to Abrahams people which held that election to Heaven was merely a possibility.   In the Puritan religion, believers dutifully recognized the negative aspectsRead More Stylistic Features in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay3839 Words   |  16 PagesStylistic Features in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚         Henry Seidel Canby in â€Å"A Skeptic Incompatible with His Time and His Past† states: â€Å"And indeed there is a lack of consistence between the scorn that our younger critics shower upon Hawthorne’s moral creations and their respect for his style. They admit a dignity in the expression that they will not allow to the thing expressed† (62). The style found in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† has not only a â€Å"dignity in the expression†Read MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s Young Goodman Brown2532 Words   |  11 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† demonstrates how Goodman Brown leaves his wife, Faith, to do an errand within the woods with a man that is believed to be the devil. During the time period in which this took place, the 1620’s, many of the people from the village were practicing Puritanism. Puritanism is an intense practice of religion retrieved from Protestant s, only removing its Catholic influence. When Goodman Brown entered the woods to meet the devil, he soon turned into