Setting in Young Goodman Brown - Research Paper Example

Setting in "Young Goodman Brown" "Young Goodman Brown" was published by Nathaniel Hawthome in the year 1835. The setting of the short story is puritan, New England and expounds the belief of the puritan that unlike those born in state of grace, human beings live in the state of depravity. The first part of the story is Salem, Massachusetts which is a colonial village, however, Goodman Brown goes into the forest and most part of the middle section of the story is told in the forest. It is important to note that the village setting is important in reinforcing the familiarity of Goodman Brown with the Puritan’s lifestyle which includes the stringent moral codes. Nathaniel Hawthorne therefore uses the location, time period and the physical structures settings to reinforce his themes in “Young Goodman Brown”. The forest setting in the second part of the story reinforces the theme of wilderness and evil (Hurley, 410). Though Goodman Brown makes a personal choice to move into the forest, he continuously voices his fear for the evil and looks unto forest as a place where no good can be found. This was typical of Puritans of the seventeenth century who viewed the wild world to be something to dominate in fear. While Goodman Brown consent is clear on the relationship between the wild “Indians” and the forest he strongly believes that there could be some of them in the forest and when he finally sees the devil himself. Despite all these, Goodman Brown believes that it is just a matter of honor for their family since their ancestors would have not gotten the opportunity to take a tour of the forest for pleasure. However, when the devil tells him the contrary he gets upset with the devil. Moreover, he is perplexed by the fact that the devil himself does not want to be seen within the forest and thus hide when he sees Deacon Gookin and Goody Cloyse pass (Hurley, 410). It is therefore important to note that the forest setting is very important in this story since it reinforces the theme of good vs. evil among the Puritans of Seventeenth century. Among the puritans, the forest is characterized by dark, frightening devilish yet Goodman Brown finds it comfortable. Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown’s setting also helps in reinforcing the theme of weakness of public morality. Puritans corrupt society that emphasizes more on public morality thus kills the ideals of private individual religious faith. This has been illustrated so well in the forest especially when Goodman Brown voluntarily goes into the forest to meet the devil but he still does not want to be seen by both Deacon Gookin and Goody Cloyse. In this respect, Goodman Brown is more concerned about his public image and especially how others view his faith rather than the fact that he made a personal choice to meet with the devil (Hurley, 410). Hawthorne used this setting mainly to critique the puritan society’s ideals and to portray his disdain for it and in doing so; he strongly illustrated the difference between the true identities and their appearance of those within the society. The true identity is that there are immoral but want to appear as moral within the eyes of individual within the society. It is also important to note that Goodman Brown made a personal choice to meet the devil in the forest but still hide himself from the public. The theme of inevitable loss of innocence is also reinforced by the physical - structural setting that Hawthorne chooses to use. Young Goodman chose “a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest” (Hawthorne, 348).  This setting is used to illustrate the journey that he took with evil and thus there was no possibility of coming back since the journey resembles that path. It is also important to note that Hawthorne used this kind of path to illustrate that once a person has chosen the evil path, they have involved themselves with the evil and can never turn back. In the forest, Hawthorne (354) describes the four trees as “four blazing pines, their tops a flame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting.”  This illustrate the nature of hell that Goodman Brown involved himself with and the smiles demonstrate that even though he was already in hell, there was still reminder of the puritan church. It is also an emphasis on the fact that even though there is presence of good things in the church, the association with the evil serves to ruin them and it is not possible to turn back ones individuals secedes to walk with the devil. The setting in "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” is a short story written by Herman Melville, an American writer in 1853. The story is told within the setting of a “Wall street”, a renowned center for bustling finance and business activities. The setting of the story is a law office which consists of several odd men with differing relationships with one another. The setting in the story "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street." Is very important in helping advance the various themes within the story. The description of the setting in this story such as the landscape and the office set up is very unnatural. The setting, specially the relationship between the employees is important in illustrating the theme of work and business in American society by then (Johnson, 81). The writer wanted to emphasis the fact that the working environment is cheerless and sterile but many employees adapt to it though with different degrees of success. This is used to reinforce writers theme of the degree of emptiness in the modern business life. The description of the workplace shows that one is completely disconnected from almost all living things and nature. It is therefore important to note that Melville also achieve the goal of telling the work environment of the modern society by telling of the surrounding environment. The nature of the surrounding environment coupled with bureaucracy is typical of the modern work environment. At the beginning of the story, the narrator tells us how he lost his job because his position in the former job was seen as redundant (Melville, 5). This is the case with Barteleby also lost the job due to the same bureaucratic change. This has been illustrated through the setting that shows varied employees interacting with one person only described as the “boss”. The setting of the business environment in which the characters’ interaction is mainly professional in nature and there is no room for interaction at individual levels is instrumental in reinforcing the theme of materialism in American Culture (Johnson, 82). This is a demonstration of the work condition driven by material gain and not the welfare of the employees. It is important to note that it is difficult to understand even the characters. As stated by Marcus (366), “Not only is Wall Street the literally geographical Wall Street, but also it is emphatically a walled street, a walled world, just as the lawyer-narrator’s office is a completely walled enclosure into which no direct sunlight penetrates”. There are also other walls within the office separating the lawyer Bartleby and other employees. While the lawyer views the internal walls as the protectors of his privacy, Bartleby view is that this is a wall street thus refuses even to copy documents prepare by others and simply say “I prefer not to” (Melville, 13). This illustrates how the author uses office setting to reinforce the idea of modern work environment in American culture and how it is driven mainly by materialism and capitalism. The theme of alienation is also strongly reinforced by the setting of this story. Melville seeks to demonstrate how human kind in a work environment can profoundly be alienated from each other. Through the use of the city and the office setup, Melville seek to illustrate how alone we can be despite the fact that we are surrounded by many other people especially at the workplace. According to Marcus (365), “Indeed, Bartleby precisely is not an individual, but rather he is the representative of our common humanity insofar as we are all sons of Adam, something that the narrator gradually comes to realize”. The theme of human life and death is also reinforced by the setting within the prison yard as well as the tomb. For instance, the growing grass within the prison yard demonstrates the life cycle from birth to death. Melville also uses the green grass growing within the prison yard and the folding screen on the desk of Bartleby to reinforce the idea that life and nature is fertile and strongly demonstrate Bartleby’s life which is symbolic of humankind. Works Cited Hurley, Paul J. "Young Goodman Browns "Heart of Darkness." American Literature 37.4 (1966): 410. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. Johnson, Claudia D. Labor and Workplace Issues in Literature. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2006 Marcus, Mordecai. "Melvilles Bartleby As A Psychological, Double." College English 5 (1962): 365-368 Melville, Herman, and Wilber Schilling. Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street, 1853, Minneapolis: Indulgence Press, 1995. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” The Longman Masters of Short Fiction. Ed. Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn. New York: Longman, 2002. Read More