Young Goodman Brown and the Tell-Tale Heart - Term Paper Example

Young Goodman Brown and The Tell Tale Heart Different usually choose different literary devices in their attempt to pass across their message to their audiences. One of the most common devices that is used by different authors is symbolism. Symbolism is used by different writers with different levels of success. Examples of two literary works written in different contexts and in different times but that have successfully used symbolism are Young Goodman Brown and The Tell Tale Heart. The authors have used different symbols to tell their stories. Both of the writers are however very effective in their use of different symbols. Young Goodman Brown is a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that seeks to discuss the nature of evil as it exists within a puritan society, and the nature of the original sin and its effects on humankind. The story is seen to begin with Goodman Brown saying goodbye to his wife to take a journey to complete an errand that is not told in the forest. He has only been with the wife for three months when he takes the journey. It is this journey that is then used by the author to explore the original sin and the nature of evil in the context of a puritan society which is the context within which the story was told (the story is set in the 17th century England society that had a puritan culture). The journey that Goodman Brown takes can be seen to be a symbolic one, and one that leads to his loss of faith as he discovers the hypocrisy that is to be found within the puritan culture. He is even drawn into making a covenant with the devil. His loss of faith in the puritan society that he has believed in comes from the discovery that many of the people from the town, people that he had faith in including religious leaders attend black mass. The story is a work of fiction that was inspired by the Salem Witch trials that were taking place in 1692. During the Salem witch trials many innocent men and women were found guilty of being witches and they were executed (Levin 12). These executions led to a reexamination of the society and of the moral codes and rules that were followed. The story, read in consideration of the context, shows the tendency that all human beings have to prejudice others despite not having enough evidence for the prejudice or convictions. It is important to note that the story is written in such a style that at the end of the story, one does not know if the event in the story really happened or it was a dream. In discussing the puritan society, the story is full of symbols that help in the development of the plot. The names of the characters can for example be seen to be symbolic. The name Goodman Brown can for example be seen to be representative of the good nature and youth of the character. The character is seen as been uncorrupted and naïve. He is also seen to be naïve in the ways of the world. He therefore is a representation of how the young people are introduced into the harsh realities of the world. As a character, Goodman is a representative of the common man, who in his journey and in his experiences is often faced by self doubt which also makes him suspicious of others. At the end of the story, Goodman is seen to have come to the realization that everyone is capable of being evil despite how religious they may seem. The staff as it appears in the story is also a symbol. In the forest, Goodman is tempted to use the staff to enable him to travel faster. Goodman falls into the temptation, just as Eve in the bible. This eventually causes him to be condemned for his act. When Goodman accepts the staff, he has begun his fall into evil. During their journey, Goodman is told of the different exploits into the evil world of the people he had previously held in high regard. It is the staff that leads him into the secret meeting in the forest. It is at this meeting that he comes to the realization that human beings are indeed evil (Bloom 92). Another character who has been used in a symbolic sense is Faith, who is Goodman’s wife. She is symbolic of innocence and purity. To Goodman, she is the symbol of spiritual faith. When he has a vision of her in the forest, he comes to the realization that he may lose his faith just as he may lose her. She is also a representation of naivety in the story. The marriage between Faith and Goodman is therefore a symbol of the good that is sometimes found within the society. As they are newly married, one can interpret this to mean that their faith and belief is still young and untested. It is also important to realize that female purity during the time when the story was written was seen as being capable of redeeming man. Goodman Brown has throughout the story held on to the notion of his wife as being the symbol of purity, and as the symbol of his religion. He also holds on to the belief that as long as Faith is holy, he has the ability to resist the devil. At the end of the story, it is seen that Goodman has discovered the true nature of man; he then declares that he has lost his faith. This proves to be the turning point for Goodman as he has discovered the true nature of mankind. It is also seen that when he finds Faith at the ceremony, it changes his notion of good and evil within the society (The Consequences of Puritan Depravity and Distrust as Historical Context for Hawthornes "Young Goodman Brown") The ribbons that Faith wears also serve a symbolic purpose in the story. The ribbons are pink in color. Pink is a color that is associated with purity and innocence, and the ribbons are a modest decoration that Faith puts in her cap. When Goodman is in the forest and is confused about the nature of man, he sees the pink ribbons fluttering in the sky. He perceives the poems to mean that Faith has lost her purity, and that she has fallen into the evil ways of the devil. This is because the ribbons have been separated from her cap. Towards the end of the story, as Goodman returns from his journey into the forest, Faith is seen to be wearing her ribbons. This can be seen to be symbolic of the fact that Faith assumes the role of innocence that Faith plays (Hawthorne 34). At the end of the story, Goodman’s perspective is seen to have changed. He now begins to see all things as being evil. He then begins to react to every situation in the assumption that everything around him is evil. He comes to the realization that he had previously been deceived by the society into thinking that the people around him are filled with virtue while in reality they are evil. Away from the gaze of the society, the evil nature of the society is revealed (Hawthorne 40). The Tell Tale Heart is a story by Edgar Allan Poe that was published in 1843. The story tells of a man who is not named, who kills an old man. The nameless man is therefore narrating the story of how and why he killed the old man in an attempt to prove that he is not insane. He says that he killed the old man out of the fear that he has of the old man’s pale blue eye, and that his motivation in killing the man was not money or passion. Before he committed the act, the man is seen to have visited the old man’s room everyday for a whole week. The timing that he chooses to kill the old man is seen to be rather random. The story tells of the evil that is inherent in human nature, and the paranoia that man is sometimes capable of. The man from whose point of view the story is told (the story is told in the first person narrative point of view) is symbolic of the inherent evil in mankind. He kills the old man just because to him, the old man has an eye that is evil and that the eye resembles that of a vulture. In giving the story, the unnamed man or narrator is seeking to prove that he had carefully planned out the murder and is therefore not insane. If the man is not insane, he can only be evil. The extent of the man’s evil is seen in the kindness that he shows to the man only a week before murdering the man. He kills the man even though the old man has done nothing to offend him. When the police come to investigate the course of cry that the old man lets out when he is being murdered, he welcomes them into his house. This is because he is well aware that they will not find any evidence of his crime as he has dismembered the body from his head. This shows that he has thought through the murder and taken the necessary precautions to avoid being caught. His evil however causes him to be excessively insecure and paranoid. He has invited the policemen to stay after he has managed to convince them that there was no crime committed. He however begins to hear strange noises and he is convinced that the policemen can also hear the noises. His guilt has caused him to be paranoid and edgy to the point where he shows the policemen where the body is hidden (‘The Tell Tale Heart’). The story makes use of symbolism to convey its meaning. The main symbol in the story is the eyes. The narrator is convinced that the old man is looking at him with evil eyes, and that these evil eyes have the capacity to cast a spell on him. His (the narrator’s) intention is to separate the old man from the evil eye that he has. If he is able to separate the eye from the old man, then he will spare the old man’s life. This separation is however impossible. One can therefore see that the eye is the symbol of self, or of human identity. Just as it is impossible to separate a person from his self, it is also impossible to separate the eye from the old man. The eye can also be taken to be a symbol of the inability of the narrator to hide the evil acts that he has engaged in. The heart is also used symbolically in the story. The heart is a symbol of the narrator’s guilt. He keeps on hearing the beating of the heart of the old man after he has killed him. It is hearing the beating of the old man’s heart that causes him to be paranoid to the extent that he confesses to his crime. The heart beat can also be seen to be symbolic of the fear that the narrator has, this could be the fear of being discovered. It is the beating of the heat that shows the level of paranoia that the narrator has. His paranoia increases as pace and rhythm of the heartbeat that he imagines to hear increases (Scott 168). It is important to note that there are many references that are made to time in the story. The narrator keeps on making these references in an attempt to show that he has carefully calculated and planned out the murder. Before murdering the man, the narrator goes to the man’s bedroom every night and directs a ray of light to the eye that he considers as evil. The story slows down when the narrator murders the old man, as is represented by the stopping of the heart beat of the man. The pace of the story then begins to quicken when the police relax in the house upon his request. The two stories are effective in discussing the different themes that they seek to discuss. Through the use of symbolism, the stories are effective in discussing the themes, and they are able to prove the thesis of their stories. The use of symbolism is effective in both of the stories. This is despite the fact that the stories seem to address different issues and were written in different times and under different contexts. The use of symbolism was therefore the main point of comparison in the two stories as the authors of the stories have made effective use of this literary device. Works cited Bloom, Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown. New York: Chelsea House publishers. 2005. Print. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Maryland: Wildside Press. 2005. Print. Levin, David.  What happened in Salem?  2nd ed.  New York: Harcourt, Brace and World Inc, 1967. Print. McCabe, Michael. The Consequences of Puritan Depravity and Distrust as Historical Context for Hawthornes "Young Goodman Brown" retrieved from http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/hawthorne.htm Poe, Edgar. ‘The tell tale heart. Retrieved from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/telltale.html Scott, Jess. Porcelain. Jess Scott. 2010. Print. Read More