Comment on one (or more) of these reading prompts:
1. Present a literary text analysis of the incipit (initial part) of "Young Goodman, Brown":
YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap, while she called to Goodman Brown.
"Dearest heart," whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "pr'y thee, put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she's afeard of herself, sometimes. Pray, tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year!"
2. Compare Young Goodman, Brown, and Huck Finn in terms of their attitude towards religion and/or morality.
3. Compare the strategies of direct speech in Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale and Mark Twain's novel.
10 comments:
2) In both works, we are presented with Puritan societies dominated by hypocrisy.
Filled with judgement and bitterness, the characters that surround Young Goodman Brown and Huck show them how common it is to be surrounded by sanctimoniousness. Putting it simply, in Hawthorne, the entire village is revealed to (supposedly) be taking part in satanic rituals, even the men of faith, along with the “sinners” of the city, showing that under the cover of darkness they are, perhaps, showing their true selves, a nature completely unlike Puritan values. Women like Faith and the elderly lady who taught him when he was young were perceived as invariably pure, in his “innocence”, and the latter ends up being a witch.YGB’s discovery ends up with him living a life of misery, suspicion and skepticism. In Twain’s work, as discussed previously, Huck must juggle Miss Watson’s harsh interpretation of the Bible and his own morality, and finds Watson’s lacking. Why should he follow values that prevail in a society full of injustices - where boys like him have been abandoned in all sorts of ways, and where slavery is perfectly mundane (although, of course, questioned by many, and with some legislative advances)? Why should he want to go to Heaven, when his friend Tom is “definitely” going to the bad place? In a way, the temptation that YGB eventually succumbs to is similar, because it’s rooted in Fanny’s possible presence in the ritual. They follow their loved ones into the dark.
Furthermore, if we associate religion with civil society here, we once again have the dichotomy nature/civility, with the typical racial undertones. In YGB, the adjectives used when describing the woods and the road (and the semantic field in general) are remarkably bleak: “dreary”, “darkened”, “gloomiest” (42); the reference to a “devilish” NA as a threat (and later the actual presence of NA), “deep dusk” (as if sinking somewhere); the plants associated with witchcraft (page 43), and how the “devil” corrupts the piece of wood that he touches; “heathen wilderness”, a “black mass of cloud”, and the mention of “the heart of the dark wilderness” - the idea of a corrupted center, a trope we are familiar with if we’ve read Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
The element of superstition is also important here. Huck and Jim both mention omens and luck all the time: the spider from the bedroom, the birds signalling rain, etc. This superstition is many times associated with Jim’s blackness, tying the cycle pretty neatly.
I should also mention the blatant symbol of evil: the snake in the stranger’s staff, reminding us of the first temptation in western tradition, that of the garden of Eden.
Beatriz Simões (sorry, a bit long)
In “Young Goodman Brown’s” opening, we can detect the key themes of the story and the main conflicts that will be developed throughout the text.
First of all, the story begins at sunset in the Salem village. This village is historically known as the place where witches and infamous people were executed in the 17th century, which could mean that this story is going to turn around religious extremism. The sunset could be an indicator of the transition from daytime to nighttime, which can symbolize the passage of a safe/lightful and peaceful environment to a dark and dangerous environment.
Secondly, we could speculate about the name of Young Goodman’s wife “Faith”. As I researched it, I found that her name could symbolize the “personification of Brown’s religious faith and moral grounding” which will suffer some challenges later in the text, both his wife and his beliefs. Next, when it talks about her pink ribbon (“...thrust her head into the street letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap”), I think the author meant her innocence and, for instance, Goodman’s innocent faith and religious purity, since later in the text he finds her ribbon in the forest, meaning that “(F)faith lost its/her innocence”.
Later on, in the second paragraph, Faith tries to convince Brown to stay at home with her (“...put off your journey until sunrise…”) because she was being troubled by her thoughts (“A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and thoughts, that she’s afraid of herself sometimes.”). I think in this part Faith was being tormented by some kind of anxiety towards the unknown, or a temptation she might be struggling with, since she even requested her husband to stay and pray through the night, probably to fight it (“Pray, tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year.”). This shows the central theme of the story, which could be the struggle between personal desires and moral/religious and communal obligations. We see that in Brown’s response to his wife’s request when he deliberately decides to obey his selfish desires instead of being there for Faith, not fulfilling his religious and matrimonial duties of praying with her/of being a husband.
To conclude, this opening foreshadows the internal/spiritual journey of Goodman, starting when he decides to go on with his fiscal journey. It’s also notable that his wife, Faith, is a mirror of Brown’s character in the unwinding of this story, from the starting point. Beginning with innocence, but letting it be played by the wind, his personal desire, and skipping his moral obligation. Letting his (F)faith be tempted through the night.
Ana Beatriz Gonçalves
When starting to draw a comparison between Goodman Brown and Huck when it comes to their relationship with faith and God as a whole, one can not ignore the imagery of the snake. To Goodman Brown, the appearance of a snake or snake like figure is an obvious sign of the devil (as in the Snake that tempted Eve in the garden of Eden), whereas to Huck, the appearance of a snake is nothing more than an opportunity to play a prank on Jim. (Chapter 10, page 68 "I killed him, and curled him up on the foot of Jim's blanket, thinking there'd be some fun when Jim found him there") Yet, as the narrative of Goodman Brown advances, we can surmise that, unknowingly, while threading a path he believes to lead to goodness and holiness, he is in fact walking the path of evil deeds, guided by the devil himself. Goodman sees, before deciding to turn tail and run back to his dear Faith "as the wife was aptly named", a great number of familiar faces that claimed to be moral guides and beacons of faith, but are not much more than loyal friends to the devil (akin to Dante Alighieri’s own view of Hell when he enumerates his political enemies). Huck, on the other hand, never had such troubles and tribulations. He thought about what Miss Watson taught him about providence and came to the conclusion that one could do better with one of the providence's and much worse with the other (chapter 3, page 24), and much later, he then chose to help Jim because that was what he had formerly given his word to (chapter 8, page 59 "People would call me a low down Ablitionist and despise me for keeping mum - but that don't make no difference; I ain't agoing to tell"). While Huck has this easy going with what he sees as moral and good (he runs back to the Island to warn Jim and start running away at the end of chapter 11 after he purposely put a dead snake under Jim's blanket, causing the snake's mate to come and bite Jim at the beginning of chapter 10), Goodman seems deeply troubled to suddenly understand that, quoting Shakespeare "Hell is empty and all the devils are here", because he then comes to realise that he knows every demonic face that was summoned to this demonic congregation (the Shakespear quote is here used to then oppose Twains works to Goodman, as Twain dabbled in parodying Shakespeare as can be confirmed via: https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/alr/article-abstract/53/3/272/283416/Mark-Twain-s-Lost-Burlesque-Hamlet?redirectedFrom=fulltext).
So, having these two extremely opposed views on morality, Huck's being at times more fluid but still very dependent on what is fundamentally right (word given shall not be taken back), even if the fundamentally right happens to go along with ones own goals, Goodman sees that the pursuit of holiness, of righteousness is but an excuse to convene with the wicked ways of the devil (the lies that led to the killing of women labelled as witches, the Holy men that dreamt of fine young women, the most pious Christian, even his own father and grandfather). Whilst Huck is fundamentally trying to find his place in the world, not really caring about what's strictly moral or holly, as a way to find happiness (as any good American should, see Declaration of Representatives), his opposite, and therefore more connected to the idea proposed by Shakespeare (englishman) sees the pursuit of said happiness as a void one for all around are already the devils of hell. (As previously stated, this also opposes Twain and Shakespeare, American and the Inhabitant of the tyrannical kingdom).
Tiago Coxo Silva
I should've added that I'm commenting on prompt 2, but apparently I had so much to say I forgot to add that important piece of information
Tiago Coxo Silva
1- The following excerpt is a very good one for an incipit. In a few sentences, the reader is met with the the main character, Faith, which taking in mind Hawthorn’s work in a whole, is presented almost as the “co-star” (and part of Goodman itself, with adds more reasoning to her importance and granted appearance in the incipit, besides, note how the author even places more physical and emotional emphasis on Faith’s character building than the husband’s); the fact that there is a an obstacle (the fact that Goodman finds it hard to set off) intrigues and grabs the reader’s attention right away, the hint “after crossing the threshold”, this exchange from indoors to outdoors, suggests that the protagonist is leaving the safety of is home to go into the wilderness of the woods, this wilderness even more accentuated because nightfall is yet to come. The setting is enoughly descriptive — a reader that has never been to Salem (and obviously as never experienced Puritan Salem) can clearly use his imagination to picture the scenario and play the scene in his head with much effort.
Upssie, I’m sorry I made a mistake in the first sentence, what I wanted to say was “ the reader is met with the the main character, Goodman Brown, and his wife, Faith, which taking in mind Hawthorn’s work in a whole, is presented almost as the “co-star” (…)”
And I made a mistake again, forgot to put my name above, the comment that starts with “Upssie” is mine.
Prompt 1 -
In the incipit of “Young Goodman Brown” essential information about the setting is presented. Firstly, the story starts at “sunset”, which is very relevant since the fear of the dark plays such a significant role to build the mood of the story. Secondly, the author specifies a particular location – Salem, a village with a dark history of corruption, murderer and brutality. Thirdly, by naming the characters “Young Goodman Brown” and “Faith”, the author also seems to foreshadow the main themes of the narrative – morality and faith, or more specifically, the hypocritical nature of the Puritan morals and the loss of innocence of the young and naive protagonist. Moreover, the short story relies heavily on descriptive language with the use of adverbs and adjectives to provide more realistic imagery for the readers while also adding nuance to the characters, as in the second paragraph “softly and rather sadly”, and in the first paragraph to depict Faith, “pink” ribbons, “pretty” head, “young” wife or even “aptly named”. Another interesting aspect to be analyzed is the already archaic singular second person pronoun “thee” in the discourse, producing a somber and foreboding tone, almost as if it was a Shakespearean play. The aforementioned insistence on employing all of those adjectives associated with innocence and the outdated speech could, at the same time, symbolize shallowness, exaggeration and irony, as the reader will later on understand that Young “Goodman” Brown, lacking in good sense, falls from grace entering the woods with the devil and “loses his faith”.
Cecília Vaz
2- By comparing Goodman Brown, the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's ‘Young Goodman Brown’, and Huck from Mark Twain's ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, it‘s possible to see that they both face major dilemmas when it comes to moral and religious values.
However, the way these topics are approached and their respective contexts are quite different.
In ‘Young Goodman Brown’ we have loss of faith and disappointment. Brown begins his journey with a strong belief in good and morality of everyone and, of course, in himself. However, as time goes by and he goes into the forest, he realises how hypocritical everyone is and sees that he‘s surrounded by corruption. So the faith he believes in and his moral values are completely destroyed.
There ‘s the presence of Faith, Brown‘s wife, a carachter that serves to symbolise Browns faith. When Brown calls out ‘My Faith is gone!’, he is not only regretting that is wife is possibly corropted, but also his own faith not only in humanity also in morality. His disappointment with Faith reflects his frustration and how he suffers with this huge disappointment with reliogion and society. This shows as well how is vision of the world was completly broken when he faces hypocrisy and corruption.
On the other hand, Huck Finn, from Mark Twain ‘s ‘The Adventures of Hucleberry Finn’, this main character finds himself constantly in a fight with the moral values which society is always trying to enforce on everyone, especially in what concerns to slavery. Huck questions and challenges the standards of religion and society. Along his path on the Mississipi river, Huck develops his own values of morality, with base on what is has experienced and on the friendship he has built with Jim, the fugitive slave. When Huck deciced to help Jim, he knew that he was risking to be punished on the eyes of society and religion, but this serves to show that is moral values go beyond all that. He prefers to believe and trust more in himself and his own moral development than to submit according what society considers right and to what reliogion accepts.
To sum up, Brown ends up losing his faith in both religion and people after the disappointments he faces, while Huck chooses to devalue society's morals in order to do things the way he believes is right, even if he has to go against society's moral and religious values.
2. Brown and Finn could not be more different towards religion and morality. However, no one can deny that both face moral dilemma.
In “Young Goodman Brown” we deal with faith. Brown sets forth on a journey and in the beginning, we can sense that he is strong in his beliefs and morals of everyone and himself. He thinks the world of his family and his neighbors. There would be no world in which they would do what he is about to do. In the end he discovers that “Evil is the nature of mankind” (page 46) and that his father and grandfather had done the same thing and that they had done “such wickedness” (page 43).
Faith, the wife’s name, is an incredible symbolic choice. One can talk about Faith, the wife, or Faith, his religious belief. In a way, she can be physical presence of his belief. It is clear that Brown himself believes his wife’s saintliness will make him saintly too – “I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven” (page 42). Towards, the end of the story he cries out ‘My Faith is gone!’ and we are left wondering which Faith? Who is corrupted? Additionally, the journey is set into a forest, and the further one goes into the wilderness the further one is from the safety of town and neighbors and the closer to evil. This concept of the story reminded me of “Heart of Darkness” (1899) by Joseph Conrad, in which the main character also goes in a journey to the center of the wilderness.
On the other hand, Huck Finn from “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Huck constantly questions and challenges the standards of religion, education and society. He rebels against the moral and religious values that society wants to try to implement and rebels against Widow Douglas who in his opinion wants to “sivilize” him.
When it comes to slavery and abolitionism, his views are a bit contradictory. “Throughout the novel Huck (as someone who's been raised in a slave-holding society) believes slavery is right; though he likes Jim and is willing to ‘go to hell’ to ‘steal Jim out of slavery,’ he expresses more sympathy for Miss Watson as the ‘poor old woman’ who owns Jim than for Jim himself. By 1885, slavery had been abolished for two decades, so nearly every contemporary reader would see Huck's belief in its eternal rightness ironically, as an example of another kind of ‘slavery’ - the way a child's mind is captive to the values of the society she or he is born into.” (University of Virginia website, n.d.)
In conclusion, Brown starts the story believing in the good in society and ends up finding out how corrupt it is, and he is left “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man”. In contrast, Finn struggles to find what is right. If the things he believes are right or what society says it is right.
Sources:
https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/wilson/slavery/mtslavhp.html#:~:text=Throughout%20the%20novel%20Huck%20(as,Jim%20than%20for%20Jim%20himself
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