Essay about Literary Analysis

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Literary Analysis on Young Goodman Brown

In Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, Goodman Brown was a Christian man who lived in Salem and the story’s protagonist. Goodman Brown was married to a woman named Faith. Brown is a round character because he is afraid of the forest and lurking around trees thinking Indians or the devil would jump out. He is also a dynamic character because he changes at the end of the story. Faith is a beautiful virtuous woman who puts her trust in Goodman Brown. Faith is a flat character that never changes during the story and is a static character as well. The Old Man in the story seems to represent the devil that tempts Goodman Brown to attend a ceremony in the forest. The man meets Goodman Brown on the dark road and then takes over the ceremony. This character is flat and is a static character. When Goodman Brown leaves his wife he sets off on a road through a gloomy forest in which he meets an Old Man/ Devil. Brown is taken on a journey which shows past sins of his village but while showing Brown past sins he sees his wives sins as well in which Brown is changed and doesn’t love his wife. Brown lives the remainder of his life in gloom and fear. Hawthorne references three dark events from the Puritans’ history: the Salem Witch trials, the villagers of Salem Killed innocent people for being witches. The Puritan intolerance of Quakers was during the seventeenth century. In 1675-1676 was King Philip’s war in which a small skirmishes between Indians and colonists. Indians attacked the colonist at frontier towns in Western Mass., colonist retaliated by raiding Indian villages. The story takes place after the Salem Witch Trials which informs the action. The names of Goody Cloyse and Martha Carrier are the two ladies that were accused of being witches and killed at Salem for the townspeople in the story. The devil tells Goodman Brown that he has seen his Grandfather whipping a Quaker in the streets and handing Brown’s father a flaming torch so that he could set fire to an Indian Village during King Philip’s War. Hawthorne includes these references to remind the reader of the dubious history of Salem Village and the legacy of the Puritans and emphasizes the historical roots of Goodman Brown’s fascination with the devil and the dark side. Hawthorne reveals what he sees as the corruptibility from Puritan societies of public morality which weakens private religious faith. Goodman Brown decided to come into the forest to meet with devil which he hides when sees Goody Cloyse and hears the minister and Deacon Gookin. He is more concerned with how his faith appears to other people with fact that he has decided to meet with the
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