Allegorical “Young Goodman Brown”

An allegory is a narrative in which the characters and objects personify deeper meanings than what the reader can see on the surface. The allegorical meaning is the writer’s real purpose in writing the narrative so that a lesson can be found when reading below the surface. “Young Goodman Brown”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a perfect example of an allegorical story and is filled with many symbolic elements.
The story begins with Goodman Brown starting out on a journey. Hawthorne does not state what kind of journey or the purpose behind it. By the end of the story I saw it as a journey into Goodman Browns own mind, heart and soul rather than a literal journey. I feel this is the ...

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name of Goodman Brown and his wife Faith are clear symbolic elements. Goodman Brown stands for the naļve, immature young man who only sees the good in his fellowman, and has yet to be confronted with evil. Faith, Goodman Brown’s young wife stands for what Goodman Brown believes in. He sees his wife as all that is good and when he realizes that she too has made a pack with the devil he cries “my faith is gone…There is no good on earth.” This makes Brown a stern, sad and distrustful man. I think Hawthorne was saying that when man’s faith is gone he is lost and without purpose.
There are many objects in “Young Goodman Brown”, that have dual meaning such as the pink ribbons Faith wore upon her hat, the staff offered to Goodman Brown by the devil, the forest, and a hanging twig and the coldest dew. The pink ribbons worn by Faith symbolized the innocence of Goodman Brown’s faith. Pink is associated with being sweet, playful, and child like. It is when Goodman Brown sees the ...

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Allegorical “Young Goodman Brown”. (2004, April 5). Retrieved December 5, 2019, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Allegorical-Young-Goodman-Brown/5733

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Added: 4/5/2004 04:44:45 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 969
Pages: 4

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