Young Goodman Brown - Annotated Bibliography Example

Young Goodman Brown Annotated Bibliography 1. Cook, Reginald. “The Forest of Goodman Brown’s Night: A Reading of Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”. The New England Quarterly. Web. Cook focuses here on the meaning and interpretation of the forest and its significance in fairy tales and folklore. He claims that the forest has always has a connotation of magic and mystery, signifying that the characters lost in it have lost their hold on life matters and their moral bearings. A similar connotation can be seen in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, where the traveler has to embark on a solitary journey and choose his path or road in life. In the process both Brown and the central character in Pilgrim’s Progress are tempted by the Devil and his vices and must choose whether to succumb to them or take the straight and narrow path to salvation. Young Goodman Brown is accosted almost at the very beginning of his dream by the Devil who surprises him with facts that he is well acquainted with Brown’s ancestors and has helped his grandfather and father commit nefarious acts in their day as well. In the end it is Young Goodman Brown who has to make the choice to give in to the devil or not. The forest thus signifies an area where man is not in control. Caught in the quagmire between good and evil, it is time for Young Goodman Brown to decide whether he is to adopt the evil ways that his community has adopted in secret or rebel against sin and evil for all that he is worth (Cook, 1970). 2. Levin, David. “Shadows of Doubt: Specter Evidence in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”. American Literature. Web. < http://www.jstor.org/pss/2923728 > Levin concentrates on the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 wherein twenty people, both male and female, were accused of being witches or instruments of the Devil and of which many met their end by hanging, being burnt at the stake and worse, if they did not commit suicide. He cites as evidence the statements of Increase Mather, a biblical scholar and minister of some influence at the time and Thomas Brattle, an influential tradesman and educationist of good standing who felt it his duty to raise his voice against the way in which the trials were being conducted and people were being condemned to death in summary fashion. Mather proposed that consistently telling lies and spreading false propaganda was one of the worst sins possible. In particular Brattle admonished the judges not to rely on stories of specters and ghosts because they are very likely figments of the imagination and cannot be substantiated. Both Brattle and Mather agreed through their Letters and Cases of Conscience that evil intent and curses could not be communicated through dreams of specters or by touch of a hand or evil look. It was also disconcerting to them that some having the resources were able to purchase their freedom while others were condemned. At the very least, it is to be concluded that the judges themselves who were possessed with ignorance and folly (Levin, 1962). 3. Predmore, Richard. “Young Goodman Brown: Night journey into the forest”. Journal of Analytical Psychology. Web. < http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1977.00250.x/abstract > Created July, 1977. Predmore delves into the significance and meaning of the night’s journey that is part of the tale of Young Goodman Brown. He finds that our hero and protagonist is trapped in the deep wilderness of the forest and must face hidden dangers that reflect his innermost fears if he is to emerge none the worse for his experience. The night’s journey is thus a metaphor for a descent into the unknown or the realm of the unconscious. The three issues that must be faced by Brown include the terrible mother, the anima and the shadow. The forest appears to be labyrinthine to Brown, and if he is to sort it out and emerge victorious, he will have to conquer these three demons or projections and incorporate them into his conscious personality (Predmore, 1977, 250-257). 4. Eberwein, Jane Donahue. “My Faith is Gone! Young Goodman Brown and Puritan Conversion”. Young Goodman Brown: Interpretations. Ed. Bloom, Harold. USA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Print. P 19 In this treatise on the subject, Jane Donahue concentrates on questions of faith and conversion of new Christians to the faith. She states that it is likely that new converts begin to question their values and premises about a religion’s merit soon after the initial euphoria of finding God begins to wear off. So the allegory of Young Brown Goodman leaving his young wife Faith at the beginning of the forest may well be translated into the metaphor of leaving his faith at the gates before he sets out to question his own principles of goodness and self worth. It is an examination whereby one finds his or her own measure of faith and worthiness. Donahue presumes that Young Goodman Brown had been written to explain the rules of Puritan faith and Calvinism so prevalent at those times. She opines that Brown is thus an allegory for everyman who is bound to be faced with this crisis at some time in his life (Eberwein, 2005, 19-23). 5. Levy, Leo B. “The Problem of Faith in “Young Goodman Brown””. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. Web. Levy comments on the fact that of all of Hawthorne’s stories, Young Goodman Brown is one which has been the most analyzed and most commented upon. This is because the reader is not sure whether the story is based on Hawthorne’s own life, an allegorical everyman or at a deeper level, an inquiry into faith and religion and their place in human existence. No doubt the setting of the story is very much along the lines of Rip Van Winkle who appears to have gone to sleep for one hundred years before he awakes again. But there is clearly much more merit here, and far deeper questions to be answered. Faith itself can be taken as a young woman, an allegory or a symbol. In the first instance, Goodman shows that he is much dependent on Faith and can repose his trust in her. In Faith he finds solace and refuge from evil. The knowledge that his pastor and his catechism teacher are also on the path of evil does not overly surprise Goodman Brown as he has his suspicions which are now confirmed. However he finds it very hard to do without Faith as she is his rudder and his mast. Nevertheless, we understand that the path to salvation or damnation must necessarily be undertaken alone (Levy, 1975, 375-387). 6. Eberwein, Jane Donahue. “My Faith is Gone! Young Goodman Brown and Puritan Conversion”. Young Goodman Brown: Interpretations. Ed. Bloom, Harold. USA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Print. P 19 In this treatise on the subject, Jane Donahue concentrates on questions of faith and conversion of new Christians to the faith. She states that it is likely that new converts begin to question their values and premises about a religion’s merit soon after the initial euphoria of finding God begins to wear off. So the allegory of Young Brown Goodman leaving his young wife Faith at the beginning of the forest may well be translated into the metaphor of leaving his faith at the gates before he sets out to question his own principles of goodness and self worth. It is an examination whereby one finds his or her own measure of faith and worthiness. Donahue presumes that Young Goodman Brown had been written to explain the rules of Puritan faith and Calvinism so prevalent at those times. She opines that Brown is thus an allegory for everyman who is bound to be faced with this crisis at some time in his life (Eberwein, 2005, 19-23). . 7. Levy, Leo B. “The Problem of Faith in “Young Goodman Brown””. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. Web. Levy comments on the fact that of all of Hawthorne’s stories, Young Goodman Brown is one which has been the most analyzed and most commented upon. This is because the reader is not sure whether the story is based on Hawthorne’s own life, an allegorical everyman or at a deeper level, an inquiry into faith and religion and their place in human existence. No doubt the setting of the story is very much along the lines of Rip Van Winkle who appears to have gone to sleep for one hundred years before he awakes again. But there is clearly much more merit here, and far deeper questions to be answered. Faith itself can be taken as a young woman, an allegory or a symbol. In the first instance, Goodman shows that he is much dependent on Faith and can repose his trust in her. In Faith he finds solace and refuge from evil. The knowledge that his pastor and his catechism teacher are also on the path of evil does not overly surprise Goodman Brown as he has his suspicions which are now confirmed. However he finds it very hard to do without Faith as she is his rudder and his mast. Even her pink ribbons are a mark of solace to him. Nevertheless, we understand that the path to salvation or damnation must necessarily be undertaken alone (Levy, 1975, 375-387). 8. Bloom, Harold. “Introduction”. Young Goodman Brown: Interpretations. Ed. Bloom, Harold. USA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Print. P 2 Harold Bloom in his introduction to Young Goodman Brown compares the central character of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book to an idealist of Emersonian proportions. Imbued with wit and wisdom, Emerson and Hawthorne were unlikely contemporaries and while the former was known for his eloquence and outspokenness, he must have found a strange companion in Hawthorne who was morose and melancholic. Yet Bloom has imagined that they often went out for walks with each other and that even their wives knew each other pretty well. It is quite likely that the characterization of Young Goodman Brown was thus influenced by Emerson’s character and the embodiment of both good and bad influences as is true of the common man of those times. Yet it is sad that Brown is so much enamored by what he sees or experiences in his nightmare that his life is forever doomed to lack of faith in humankind’s ability to do good. Alas, he bears these psychological scars with him right up to his grave (Bloom, 2005, 2-5). Works Cited Bloom, Harold. “Introduction”. Young Goodman Brown: Interpretations. Ed. Bloom, Harold. USA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Print. P 2 Cook, Reginald. “The Forest of Goodman Brown’s Night: A Reading of Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”. The New England Quarterly, 1970. Web. Eberwein, Jane Donahue. “My Faith is Gone! “Young Goodman Brown” and Puritan Conversion”. Young Goodman Brown: Interpretations. Ed. Bloom, Harold. USA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Print. P 19 Eberwein, Jane Donahue. “My Faith is Gone! “Young Goodman Brown” and Puritan Conversion”. Young Goodman Brown: Interpretations. Ed. Bloom, Harold. USA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Print. P 19 Levin, David. “Shadows of Doubt: Specter Evidence in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”. American Literature, 1962. Web. < http://www.jstor.org/pss/2923728 > Levy, Leo B. “The Problem of Faith in “Young Goodman Brown”. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. Volume 74, Issue 3, July 1975, p 375-387. Web. Levy, Leo B. “The Problem of Faith in “Young Goodman Brown””. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. Volume 74, Issue 3, July 1975, p 375-387. Web . Predmore, Richard. “‘Young Goodman Brown’: Night journey into the forest”. Journal of Analytical Psychology, July 1977, Volume 22, Issue 3, pp 250-7 Web. < http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1977.00250.x/abstract > Created July, 1977. Read More