Literary Theory

“Questions for Analysis” (Chapter: 3, page

no: 63)
Q1) if the text has a title, what is the relationship of the title to the rest of
the poem? Before answering this question, New critical theory and practice
assume that the critic has read the text several times.

Answer: Yes, the text has a title which is “Young Goodman Brown”. The
title is actually the name of the protagonist of the story. The word “Young”
can be interpreted in the sense that he was immature and unexperienced
as in the story, it seems like he had no exposure to the evil before. He was
naive as he had no idea what would happen to him before going into the
woods.

The term “Goodman” might be taken in the sense that the man himself was
a good man before entering into the woods. As we can see in the beginning
of the story, he was a loving and faithful husband. Also he was religious
and against of wickedness:

“We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and

abide no such wickedness”

As it is shown in the story, that Young Goodman Brown was a religious

man and his words show that he was very sensitive and somehow a bit
extremist in his beliefs, so the term “Brown” might be associated with the
clothing of Puritans. They used to wear brown color.

Q2) What words if any need to be defined?

Answer: The words that need to be defined are:

 Faith: Faith is the name of Young Goodman Brown’s wife. This name
might be referred as a “faith” means “truth and trust” because it was
Faith who tried to stop her husband from going to the evil journey.
 Young: “Young” is also needed to be defined. There are many
interpretations of this term. However, it might be taken as a young
age. The protagonist might be the young man. Or it might be his
immaturity and weak observation that led him towards the evil.
  Staff: Staff was carried by the man who was sharing the evil journey
with Young Goodman Brown. However, in the story, it looked like a
serpent. This word also needed to be defined.

Q3) what words and their etymological roots need to be scrutinized?

Answer:

 Firmament: (The vault or expanse of the heavens. Middle English,

from old French, from late Latin “firmmentum. On page no: 244,
first paragraph).
 Visage: (The face or facial expressions of a person, countenance.
Middle English, from Old French, from “vis”, from Latin “vsus”. On
page no: 246, second paragraph).
 Proselytes: (A new convert to a doctrine or religion. Middle
English, “proselite”, from Old French, from Late Latin “Proslytus”.
On page no: 246, third paragraph)
 Smite: (To inflict a heavy blow on. Middle English, “smitten”, from
Old English “smtan”. On page no: 239, fifth paragraph).
 Evinced: (To show or demonstrate clearly; manifest. Latin
“vincere”).
 Sanctity: (Holiness of life or disposition; saintliness. Middle English
“saunctite”, from Old French “sainctite”, from Latin “snctits”. On
page no: 245, third paragraph).

Q4) what relationships or patterns do you see among any words in

the text?

Answer:

There are some patterns and relationships being used by Hawthorne in

“Young Goodman Brown” and they are:

Symbolism, Allegory, Sarcasm, Ambiguity, Vagueness. However, the unity

of coherence get disturbed in the story. There is absurdness. The symbols
that are used in the story are: Faith, Faith’s pink ribbons, staff, the forest
and Salem.
Faith, the wife of Young Goodman Brown represents his own faith. As it is
seen in the story that before going for the evil purpose, Goodman Brown
leaves his Faith first.

Faith’s Pink Ribbons symbolizes a heavenly aspect and put an emphasis

on Faith’s pureness. The color “pink” is associated with innocence and
purity. However, Hawthorne mentioned Faith’s ribbon several times in the
story, portraying her character as a young, charming woman with good
heart and intentions.

The Staff represents the serpent. As it has a shape of serpent. However,

Hawthorne here, uses a biblical symbol. The staff was actually a sign of evil
demon.

The forest in the story, is an obvious symbol of devil’s habitation. Puritans

believed the woods to be the habitat of the devil. However, the darkness of
the forest plays an important role in the journey of Young Goodman Brown
from Good to evil. Darkness symbolizes evil, cruelty and so on.

Salem was famous for its witch trials in 1962.

Allegory is a story in which everything is a symbol. Young Goodman Brown

is also an allegory because it conveys some hidden messages. Young
Goodman Brown can be considered as a 19th century version of a morality
play. However, the most allegorical interpretation of “young Goodman
Brown” involves the loss of faith and innocence. Brown is stunned when he
finds out that the righteous people among them can also give up the good
for the sake of evil at some point.

Irony is very skillfully used in the story. It is an irony according to the writer:

“Faith is appropriately named, an ironic declaration since

she later on in the evening, is being acknowledged into the
congregation of devil-worshippers as a fresh convert to the
evil cluster. The description of faith as pretty as well as her
putting on pink ribbons, as a sign of cheerful outlook on life
and youthful innocence is also ironic.” (Hawthorne 405).
There is definitely irony in the fact that it is the majority of the pious church
people who emerge at the evil gathering inside the forest. The aged woman
who bypasses Young Goodman Brown as well as the devil on the trail is
recognized by Brown as the woman who taught her catechism.

Q5) what words in the text possess various connotative meanings? Do

these various shades of meaning help establish relationships or patterns in
the text?

Answer: There are several words in the text that possess connotative
meanings. Such as: Faith, Young, Goodman, Brown and a branch of maple
etc. The connotative meaning of Goodman Brown’s wife name is actually
depicted as Goodman Brown’s own faith. There are several examples of it
present in the text. Young has also connotative meanings as the
protagonist of the story was naïve and immature. Goodman shows the
traits of the protagonist. He was a good man before going into the woods.
He was a loving and faithful husband. Brown is the depiction of the sect.
Goodman Brown is shown as a puritan in the story and puritans used to
wear brown color. Therefore, there is a tree in the story that is especially
mentioned. It is maple tree which is considered as a sacred tree in
America. When Goodman Brown, walking with his companions touched the
branch of maple, it instantly dried up in his hands. It might be the cause of
leaving his faith behind.

Q6) what allusions, if any are in the text? Trace these allusions to their
appropriate sources and explore how the origins of the allusions help
elucidate meaning in this particular text.

Answer: There is this Biblical allusion used in the text. When the man
refuses to lend his arm to Good Cloyse and instead he offers his staff by
saying:

“So saying, he threw it down at her [Goody Cloyse's] feet,

where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods
which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian Magi.”
This alludes to Exodus 7:10-11:

“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say

to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before
Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake. . . . And the Egyptian
magicians also did the same things by their secret arts.”
(Exodus, 7-10-11)

Another Biblical allusion can be seen in the beginning of the story when
Goodman Brown talks about how he will “cling” to Faith’s skirt and follow
her to the heavens. This is referencing Ephesians 2:8 which states that
faith is only way to heaven. Nevertheless, these allusions have made the
text very significant and because of these allusions, reader can go deep
down to the roots of the text and may become able to understand it
rightly since this story is so absurd. The allusion that is given in the
context of staff, is basically showing the evil side. The “clinging” to his
wife’s skirt shows that it is only our faith that would lead us towards
heaven.

Q7) what symbols, images and figures of speech are used? What is the
relationship between any symbol and / or image? Between an image and
another image? Between a figure of speech and an image? A symbol?

Answer: The symbols, images and figures of speech have already

been discussed in the previous questions. However, the setting of the
story is set in Salem village which was famous for witch trials. There is a
relationship between Salem and its people. Many of them were
considered to be a good and pious people actually given in to temptation
and left the goodness. Salem itself is a symbol of evil.

Q8) what elements of prosody can you note and discuss? Look for
rhythm, meter and stanza patterns.

Answer: Since, this is a prose not a poetry, so there is no rhythm in it.

Q9) what is the tone of the work?

Answer: The tone is serious, absurd and without any hope.

Q10) from what point of view is the content of the text being told?

Answer: the story has been told by the third person’s point of view. It is
like the narrator has all the knowledge and knows very well about each
character.

Q11) what tensions, ambiguities, or paradoxes arise within the text?

Answer: the text itself is full of absurdness and ambiguities. However,

the ambiguity that arise from the text is whether the man was dreaming
or he really experienced the devilish journey.

Q12) what do you believe the chief paradox or irony is in the text?

Answer: the biggest irony in the text is the corruption of the souls.
Those who were seemed to be very religious and pious were actually the
demonic people. The chief paradox is the absurdity and ambiguity that
can be seen within the text, as nothing is very clear and still it is a
question: “was he dreaming or whether he really experienced that
journey”?

Q13) how do all the elements of the text support and develop the text’s
chief paradox?

Answer: The symbols, images, vagueness, absurdity, Biblical allusions

are all the important elements through which the writer has developed
the text’s chief paradox. Symbols help the readers to identify the real
character portrayed in the text. Images helps the reader to build the story
into his/her mind and see it with the lens of imagination and might
understand the hidden meanings and messages. Biblical allusions are
also very helpful to build the chief paradox.