Symbolism in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay -- Young Goodman Br

Symbolism in Young Goodman Br avouch Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in Stories Derived from modern England Living state Hawthornes unique gift was for the knowledgeableness of strongly symbolical stories which touch the deepest roots of mans clean nature (31). It is the purpose of this essay to explore the main symbolism contained at heart Nathaniel Hawthornes tale, Young Goodman browned. Stanley T. Williams in Hawthornes Puritan Mind states that the germ was forever perfecting his delicate craft of the symbol, of allegory, of the few themes and oft repeated character-types which were to obsess forever the minds of those who know New England (42). Let us begin with the opening move lines of the story YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset, into the street of capital of Oregon village. . . What is Goodman Brown symbolic of? 1. According to Levy, he is Everyman. The bargain he has touch with Satan is the universal one . . . . Initially, he is a naive and adolescent yo ung man who fails to understand the gravity of the step he has interpreted . . . which is succeeded by a presumably adult determination to resist his own evil impulses (117). 2. Fogle writes that he is a naive young man who accepts both(prenominal) society in general and his fellow men as individuals at their own valuation, who is in one terrible night confronted with the vision of homophile evil . . . (15). 3. Q. D. Leavis in Hawthorne as Poet states that the relevant point is that Young Goodman Brown is Everyman in seventeenth century New England (35). And what is capital of Oregon village symbolic of? It was the center of the witchcraft delusion, in the witching times of 1692, and it shows the populace of Salem Village, those chief in authority, as well as obscur... ... Norman U of Oklahoma P, 1952. Franklin, Benjamin V. Goodman Brown and the Puritan Catechism. ESQ 40 (1994) 67-88. Fuller, Edmund and B. Jo Kinnick in Stories Derived from New England Living. In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA Greenhaven Press, 1996. Hale, John K. The serpentine Staff in Young Goodman Brown. Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 19 (Fall 1993) 17-18. James, Henry. Hawthorne. http//eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/nhhj1.html Leavis, Q. D. Hawthorne as Poet. In Hawthorne A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Levy, king of beasts B. The Problem of Faith in Young Goodman Brown. Modern Critcial Views Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York Chelsea House, 1986. 115-126.