Hawthornes's Young Goodman Brown And Rappacini's Daughter: Solicited By The Devil
In Puritan Massachusetts the key word was suspicion. In order to be accepted, by
the community, you had to be a member of the "elect," destined for a spot in the
eternity of heaven. In order to be member of this elite group of "selected"
individuals you had to be free of sin and evil. It goes without saying, that you
could never be caught conjuring the devil, as is illustrated by the horrors of
the infamous Salem witch trials. In Young Goodman Brown, and Rappacini's
Daughter Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays two different ways of soliciting or being
solicited by the devil. The final scenes in both of these stories although
similar in nature, are actually conflicting in essence, and show the ...
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for, he is
searching for evil. He goes to the forest to do his deed and "he had taken a
dreary road darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest" to get there(611).
Goodman Brown is willingly seeking the devil, and Hawthorne is throwing in all
the stereotypes. This entire search for the devil is portrayed as being very
ugly. What then is pretty? In Young Goodman Brown beauty equals inherent
goodness, or Faith. Young Goodman Brown separates from this righteousness, for
evil. From the beginning, he was leaving, at least for the time being, Faith
behind. "And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into
the street, letting the wind play with the soft ribbons of her cap" (610). The
beauty of faith and her pink ribbons are left behind, his intentions are obvious.
In Rappacini's Daughter Giovanni does none of this. He never went out searching
for the devil, all he wanted to do was study in Padua. The devil was not obvious
to Giovanni, it went after him, and ...
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came to Giovanni. Furthermore he came in the form of a beautiful
woman...a frightening concept.
Young Goodman Brown is told in the first person narrative. It is therefore from
one persons point of view. It is a warning of what could happen to you if you
stray from probity, and your moral ideals. All the decisions were clearly made
by Brown himself, and his plight can be avoided. Rappacini's Daughter, however,
is told in the a third person narrative. It is not from one person's point of
view, it is a universal problem which has consequences for the entire human race.
The devil does not always look as he is supposed to, and is not easily
recognizable. He can enthrall you with splendor, ...
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Hawthornes's Young Goodman Brown And Rappacini's Daughter: Solicited By The Devil. (2005, March 1). Retrieved November 22, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hawthorness-Young-Goodman-Brown-Rappacinis-Daughter/23043
"Hawthornes's Young Goodman Brown And Rappacini's Daughter: Solicited By The Devil." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 1 Mar. 2005. Web. 22 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hawthorness-Young-Goodman-Brown-Rappacinis-Daughter/23043>
"Hawthornes's Young Goodman Brown And Rappacini's Daughter: Solicited By The Devil." Essayworld.com. March 1, 2005. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hawthorness-Young-Goodman-Brown-Rappacinis-Daughter/23043.
"Hawthornes's Young Goodman Brown And Rappacini's Daughter: Solicited By The Devil." Essayworld.com. March 1, 2005. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hawthorness-Young-Goodman-Brown-Rappacinis-Daughter/23043.
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