Young Goodman Brown - Research Paper Example

BETWEEN DARKNESS AND LIGHT: AMBIVALENT SYMBOLISM OF GOOD AND EVIL IN HAWTHORNE’S YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN In this research paper, I wish to explore the complex relations amongst the symbols, conceptions and representations of goodness and evil along with the extensive puritan symbolism, morality and hypocrisy in the literary and cultural backdrop of New England, as depicted in Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown”. The story is set against the 17th century backdrop, and published in his collection Moses from an Old Manse. My focus would lie on the author’s examination of the good-evil binary in this brilliantly symbolic tale. In this context, I will attempt to form an understanding of Hawthorn’s personal ideologies involving the symbols and imagery explored in the story. Certain representations of good and evil, like Faith’s pink ribbons, the Devil’s staff, and Goodman Brown’s journey into the forest, respectively stand for purity and innocence, evil, and Young Goodman Brown’s self-reflection into the dark side of his soul. Hawthorne’s Symbolic Perception: an Overview of the Puritan Context The Salem Witch Trials of 1692, where more than a hundred were tried, tortured and burnt on grounds of practicing witchcraft and the black arts, left a deep impression on Hawthorne’s perceptive symbolism of good and evil. It took the form of a deep-seated “ugly blot” on his mind as well as the records of early history of New England (Colacurcio 286). The Puritanical context of his fictions reflects a thorough understanding of Hawthorne’s symbolism and imagery. Much of what he thought and wrote were influenced by a kind of suppressed historical and religious conception that harked back, repeatedly to the biblical and Puritanical emphasis and ‘over-emphasis’ of the imagery of sin, evil, salvation and goodness (Stein 21). An understanding of these symbolic elements and themes require an insight into the contemporary social and cultural dynamics that were at play during the composition of “Young Goodman Brown”. Hawthorne engaged in a discourse that intricately analyzed, examined and criticized the blended ideals and ideologies of the puritan ethos that shaped and dominated the texture of the 17th century New England life and morality. The 1692 Salem incident was not, for him, a lonely outburst of religious passion and destructive conservatism, but as a whole, suggestive of the flawed metaphors of good and evil that was being publicized by Puritanism (Colacurcio 286). The character of Goodman Brown, it must be remembered, is a third generation puritan. By the virtue of being a product of the very ideals Hawthorne criticizes, his story bears a strong relevance to an understanding of Hawthorne’s peculiar handling of religious dichotomies (Colacurcio 286). The 1692 Salem case itself becomes a latent symbol in the story. The puritan understanding of evil encompassed a great many factors and conditions. Social conditioning drove the popular emphasis on a strict adherence to decorum, rules and religious dictates as delivered by the puritan fathers, the original establishers of the New England settlements. An unwavering observation of explicit religious and socio-cultural regulations ensured man’s “goodness”, while deviations from the rulebook caused evil temptations and the eventual damnation of the eternal soul. The binaries were simple, specific and strict. While dealing with such puritan settings, as in “Young Goodman Brown” and his most celebrated novel “The Scarlet letter”, Hawthorne exhibits an uneasy sense of ambiguity and uncertainty. His resolutions are not the simplistic symbolic triumph of goodness over evil or salvation over sin. His symbolism simmers with an unresolved urgency that sits awkwardly in the conservative framework of the 19th century America. “Young Goodman Brown”: Symbols, Binaries and Imagery Hawthorne devotes his primary attention to the raging contention between forces of good and evil in “Young Goodman Brown” (Stein 22), through the diverse conflicts of conscience within the hero, which are, then, psychologically and symbolically projected upon the forest setting and ethological background of the story. Over the course of his career, Hawthorne’s symbolism and metaphoric representation of evil has undergone various ethical and artistic revisions and re-shaping, but nowhere is his enquiry into the concepts and precepts of good and evil so deeply refined and subtle as in “Young Goodman Brown”. Let us begin, then, with a thorough examination of the dynamic inter-relations between the two metaphorically charged extremes of Christian morality as explored by Hawthorne in his wonderful and symbolically told tale of Goodman Brown, a hero torn between his evil intent and pure conscience. The story, simple though it may seem in the first reading, ultimately involves devious, puzzling metaphors and is, as Melville called it, “as deep as Dante” (Kallay 83). While the prefix “young” to the name of the hero may suggest insignificance, I believe, the simplicity of the title is underscored by a vulnerability to evil suggested by an intentional reference to the epithet. The other remaining part of the title, however, suggests the inherent goodness and simplicity of the hero through the almost Everyman symbolism of “Goodman” and the common, domestic nature of “Brown”. The studied simplicity of the title is, however, belied by the uneasiness betrayed by the potent “young” that threatens to succumb to disruption and corruption. This uneasiness and metaphors of evil lurking under the appearance of goodness is betrayed from the very beginning through Hawthorne brilliant and strategic imagery and plot structure. Goodman’s disinclination to listen to the foreboding of his innocent bride, significantly named Faith, whose childlike simple-mindedness is symbolized by virginal pink ribbons, gives us the first direct evidence of a potent atmosphere of evil. The situational reference to Salem as the setting of the story itself becomes an important symbol. It is intended to be a probing critique, no doubt, of the historical context of the erring puritanical ethos that had caused such sufferings in the shameful occurrences of 1692. Hawthorne’s intent was to neither ‘universalize’ nor ‘localize’ the issues raised by the Salem incident. He only wished to examine the fallible human mind that is so prone to evil through his artistically rendered symbolism and imagery (Colacurcio 286). Witchcraft and black magic, of course, has a traditional association with evil and devil worship and the symbolic implications are hardly lost on the reader of the story who is inevitably confronted with a sense of forthcoming destiny from the very beginning. The forest surrounding Salem, as presented by Hawthorne, brings to mind the dense and deep woods of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Kallay 83). The inter-textual reference is highly symbolic and a reminder of the constant threat that evil and darkness poses over the forces of goodness, purity and morality. In the heart of this forest, Goodman encounters the devil, and takes him for his guide. This metaphorical succumbing to evil propensity and acceptance of the devil’s guidance can be related to the biblical issue of free will and the traditional idea that evil cannot tempt unless it is invited in by the victim. The road, for the unfortunate and misguided hero of Hawthorne’s tale, leads, both literally and metaphorically, to nowhere. The metaphor is straightforward enough: it points to the utter nothingness to which evil leads those who stray from the path of goodness (Kallay 83). Hawthorne, however, retains a significant amount of ambivalence in his reluctance to explicate the reasons behind Goodman’s defection from the way of virtue and morality. But, as it is revealed in the story, this young, naive man is already “in a state of bad faith” (Colacurcio 287). A man of substantial wealth, possessing the comfort of a beautiful, loving bride and a pleasing home, risks the perils of a dangerous night-time journey through a wood infested with spectres and spirits as well as murderous Indians, for some hidden intent that we are not made privy to. The impulse of evil within human psyche is metaphorically projected through numerous occult and biblical symbols: his hallucinations of the witches’ Sabbath held in the forest, apparently, by townsmen seeking to convert Faith and Goodman, the spectre of an older darker version of himself prefiguring his own future distortion, the magically fashioned maple staff parodying staff of Moses, the circular gathering of devil worshippers. Finally, through the cleverly manipulated, symbolic ambivalence of these occurrences, the very fabric of his mental and religious nature is called into question repeatedly throughout the story. His acceptance of the staff for self-fulfilling reasons can be symbolically related to the Original Sin of Eve. The consequent obsession of Goodman Brown’s later life reflects the Puritan hysteria that had engulfed Salem in the later half of 17th century. Conclusion “Young Goodman Brown” involves a host of intensely charged imagery that all connect to Hawthorne’s lifelong obsession with the symbolic dimensions of religious binaries and extremes. His analyses of the different metaphoric socio-cultural representations of good and evil in this story are centred, as observed, on the study of the Puritanical ethos. The conjunction of biblical and puritanical symbolism mocks the compulsive moral policing of the Puritan fathers as well as the persecution of suspected witches during the 1690s. Goodman Brown’s separation from his wife Faith is one the most crucial metaphoric moment of the text (Kallay 84), signifying a pervasive loss of religious and personal faith and it sums up, effectively, and the entire moral of the story. The imagery of the tale intends to focus on the complex issue of good and evil: its symbolism aptly shows how an insistent preoccupation with evil and sin can overpower the goodness and purity of human soul. (Stein 22) The intricate dynamics between Hawthorne's symbolism and the Puthin ethos as expressed through and spiritual history and morality of 17th century Salem are explicated with brilliance in the short story Young Goodman Brown. References: Colacurcio, Michael J. The Province of Piety: Moral History in Hawthorne’s Early Tales. Duke University Press, 1995. Print. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown”. Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 111-124. Print. Kallay, Katalin G. Going Home Through Seven Paths to Nowhere: Reading Short Stories by Hawthorne, Poe, Melville and James. Akademiai Kiado: Budapest, 2003. 83-94. Print. Stein, William B. “The Devils of Hawthorne’s Faust Myth”. Satan. Ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. 11-26. Print Read More