The Story of an Hour, A Rose for Emily and Young Goodman Brown - Essay Example

Journeys: “The Story of an Hour,” “A Rose for Emily” and “Young Goodman Brown.” Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” are three short stories which incorporate the figurative idea of a journey in their narratives. Chopin’s protagonist, Louise Mallard, receives news of her husband’s sudden demise in an accident. She considers the changes which widowhood will bring to her life. At the end of an hour, Mr. Mallard comes home, very much alive – his death was only a false rumor. Faulkner’s heroine, Emily Grierson, is a headstrong young lady of the Old South. She is kept under the control of her authoritarian father. After his death, she is courted, and then jilted, by Homer Barron. She goes on to remain in seclusion as a spinster until her death. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne’s eponymous protagonist sets out on a rendezvous from his small Puritan village. He goes into the forest at night, accompanied by the Devil. He participates in a congregation of devil-worshippers and returns home. Each of the protagonists takes to the road and it is their travel which makes up the action of the three narratives. Louise Mallard, Emily Grierson and Young Goodman Brown undertake journeys which are transformational and have serious consequences. Louise Mallard starts out as a feeble, fragile woman “afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin, 1). She is considered so weak, that care is taken to break the news of her husband’s death to her “as gently as possible” (Chopin, 1), in a circuitous way. However, right from the beginning of the story, the reader suspects that Louise is not the delicate woman she is made out to be. In fact, the lines of her face demonstrate “a certain strength” (Chopin, 8). She does not react to the news of her husband’s death in the usual manner of a woman: “with a paralyzed inability to accept the same” (Chopin, 3), nor does she cling to others for comfort. On the contrary, she gives vent to a passionate outburst of grief and then rushes to the solitude of her own room. Louise now begins the mental excursion which takes her from being a wife to being a widow. She settles herself in a comfortable armchair and looks out on a vista which is “aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin, 5). Blue skies, singing, twittering sparrows, colors and delicious scents assail her senses. It is clear that the journey Louise is to embark on is filled with promise. She is a little hesitant to set out on this new road, but then she sets aside her apprehension and allows herself to accept the years of freedom which lie ahead of her: “she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome” (Chopin, 11). She acknowledges that her husband, for all his kindness and love, had unfairly imposed his will on her. In her “brief moment of illumination,” (Chopin, 12) Louise recognizes that self-assertion is “the strongest impulse of her being” (Chopin, 13). She undergoes a complete transformation and exults at the thought of being “free, free, free” (Chopin, 10). New life courses through her veins. The objective of her new journey lies clearly defined before her: “she would live for herself” (Chopin, 12). She reaches a state of equanimity and looks forward to the freedom of the years to come. At this point, her husband returns. It seems that Louise’s little mental excursion is fated to remain merely a figment of imagination. But Louise Mallard refuses to turn back: faced with the destruction of her road to freedom, Louise Mallard dies rather than retrace her steps to the bondage of the past. In this reaction to the loss of promised happiness, Louise differs from Emily, the heroine of “A Rose for Emily.” Emily Grierson begins her journey as one of “the high and mighty Griersons” (Faulkner, 17), one of the last of the aristocratic families of the Old South. She remains under the patriarchal authority of her father, who considers that “none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily” (Faulkner, 26) and ensures that she remains a spinster. On his death, Emily begins her independent journey as a woman. She is courted by Homer Barron, a construction company foreman, who the town considers to be below her as “a Northerner, a day laborer” (Faulkner, 32). Emily ignores public opinion and pursues her dream of finding love, although the town knows that Homer is “not a marrying man” (Faulkner, 45). On being jilted by Barron, “her front door remained closed” (Faulkner, 51) and Emily goes into seclusion, looked after only by a Negro servant. In the eyes of the people of Jefferson, Emily travels from the position of haughty aristocrat, to pitiable jilted suitor and pauper and finally to a “fallen monument” (Faulkner, 1) to the Old South. However, Emily’s personal journey is hidden from public view until her death, when the remains of Barron are discovered in her bedroom. It is now evident that Emily’s life is “a mental excursion down the path of madness” (Essay Prompt Handout). Stifled by the authoritarian father who “had thwarted her woman’s life so many times,” (Faulkner, 59), Emily clings on to her standing as a Grierson and to the traditions of the Old South with a tenacity bordering on insanity. Her madness is manifested in her refusal to accept change. When her father dies, she tells the ladies “that her father was not dead” (Faulkner, 28). She refuses to acknowledge her obligation to the town and declares, “I have no taxes in Jefferson” (Faulkner, 8). She prevents the authorities from attaching a number and post box to her door. And finally, in complete madness, she refuses to let Homer Barron go. Emily purchases arsenic, invites Barron to her home, poisons him and keeps his corpse in her room, which is made up as a bridal suite. The strand of her on the pillow beside his corpse indicates that Emily has lain in the same bed. When her journey towards fulfillment as a woman fails, Emily descends into insanity and murder and barricades herself behind the walls of a time warp. Emily’s journey is markedly different from that of Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown. Young Goodman Brown sets out on his travel from home at dusk. He leaves behind his newly married wife, whom he calls “my love and my Faith” (Hawthorne, 3). As he sets out deliberately on this journey “back and forth,” it is evident that he is aware of its “present evil purpose” (Hawthorne, 8). Likewise, the path he follows is symbolic of the journey’s sinister intent. It is a narrow, lonely, “dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest” (Hawthorne, 8). On this road, Young Goodman Brown meets the companion of his voyage, a man whose remarkable “staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake” (Hawthorne, 13) indicates that he is the Devil incarnate. Young Goodman Brown now professes to have second thoughts about the journey he has undertaken and states that “It is my purpose now to return whence I came” (Hawthorne, 15). The Devil remains unconvinced of the sincerity of the young man’s words. As Young Goodman Brown continues on his journey to perdition, his companion makes him acquainted with the sins of his forbears (the grandfather who lashed a woman and the father who set fire to Indian villages) and the vices of the general population of New England. The Devil brushes aside Young Goodman Brown’s protestation that the Puritans “are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness” (Hawthorne, 19), and exposes the young man to the hypocrisy of all those whom he held to be paragons of virtues: the minister, Deacon Gookin and old Goody Cloyse. As the foundation of his moral edifice shakes, the final blow is struck by Faith’s fall. Young Goodman Brown abandons himself to “the fiend which lurks in the breast of man” (Hawthorne, 54). He joins the congregation of devil worshippers with whom he feels “a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart” (Hawthorne, 61). At the end of his journey, Young Goodman Brown accepts that “Evil is the nature of mankind” (Hawthorne, 67). The reader is free to conclude whether Young Goodman Brown’s journey was real or a dream. However, it is definite that he returns home a changed man. He becomes “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man” (Hawthorne, 74). Goodman Brown’s journey leaches all the happiness from his life. The travel undertaken by the protagonists of “The Story of an Hour,” “A Rose for Emily” and “Young Goodman Brown,” may differ in some respects, but they form the crux of all three narratives. Louise Mallard begins her journey in the hope of personal freedom; Emily Grierson starts out on a voyage in search of love; Young Goodman Brown seeks to indulge his hidden passion for sin. Louise leaves behind the confines of her husband’s masculine repression. In this respect, Louise resembles Emily, who also attempts to break free from the patriarchal tyranny of her father. On the other hand, Young Goodman Brown departs from a home with a loving wife. Likewise, Louise and Emily embark on figurative travels, while Young Goodman Brown’s voyage may have been a literal movement. Louise’s road comes to an abrupt end with the reappearance of her husband. Emily’s hopes of living the normal life of a woman are dashed when Barron jilts her. In contrast, Young Goodman Brown completes his journey and gives vent to his hidden vice. Louise follows a one-way path. She prefers to die rather than return to the starting point. Emily attempts to make time stand still. She refuses to acknowledge change and murders Barron rather than accept his rejection. She builds a world to her own liking and lives in solitude. Young Goodman Brown is the only one who returns to the starting point of his journey. However, his experiences on the road ensure that he loses his joy in life, his faith in man and his love for his family. Chopin, Faulkner and Hawthorne spin their tales around the journeys undertaken by their protagonists, who are irrevocably transformed by their voyages. Works Cited. Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.”  Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. 1609 - . Print. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. 2182 - . Print. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. 619 - . Print. Read More