Transcript Young Goodman Brown”

“Young Goodman
Brown”
Themes
How the Puritan’s strict moral code
and overemphasis on the
sinfulness of humankind fosters
undue suspicion and distrust
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Goodman Brown's experience in the forest –
whether dream or reality – causes him to lose
his faith in others and die an unhappy man.
Note the last words of the story: “They carved
no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his
dying hour was gloom.”
The realization that evil can infect
people who seem upright
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Goodman Brown discovers that even
highly respected people in Salem fall
victim to the forces of darkness
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Goody Cloyse
Deacon Gookin, Minister, Faith
Today – when corporate executives cheat
stockholders, politicians lie to win
elections, etc.
One man’s virtue is another man’s
sin and vice versa
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“There is no good on earth,” Goodman Brown
observes, “and sin is but name.” In other words
whether an action is good or evil appears to
depend on who is viewing the action.
The zealotry of a Puritan punishing a wrongdoer
– like Goodman Brown’s grandfather lashing “a
Quaker woman so smartly through the streets” –
might be praised as a just act by another Puritan
but condemned as an inhumane act by nonPuritans.
ALLEGORY
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A form of extended metaphor in which
objects, persons, and actions in a
narrative are equated with meanings that
lie outside of the narrative itself
Personification
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Giving inanimate objects or abstract ideas
human characteristics
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Commercials – Food
Things we say “My computer/phone hates
me”
Death – Grim Reaper
Seven Deadly Sins - Envy, Greed, Wrath, etc.
Young Goodman Brown is an
Allegory using Personification!
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FAITH
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Young Goodman Brown’s wife
Young Goodman Brown’s “faith” in God and
Heaven
Important Lines:
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Page 741 – Sitting on stump
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Page 742 – After hearing the minister and
Deacon pass by
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“What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to
the devil … is that any reason why I should quit
my dear Faith and go after her?”
“With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet
stand firm against the devil!”
Page 742 – After hearing her voice
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“My Faith is Gone … There is no good on earth;
and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is
this world given.”
Primordial Symbolism
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Carl Jung –
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all humans share certain innate impulses and
concepts at an unconscious level or “the
collective unconscious”
A symbol that has existed from the
beginning of time and all of humanity can
understand it
Examples
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Sunlight
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Overcast sky
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Wrath, inconsolable grief
Red
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Gloom, depression, despair
Violent Storm
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Joy, happiness, hope, a new beginning, truth
Passion, anger, blood
Green
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New life, hope
YGB Symbols
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Primordial
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Dark Forest
Pink Ribbons
Traditional
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Path of Temptation
Wilderness
Garden of Eden