Young Goodman Brown: Symbol Analysis
YGB starts this story off by leaving his wife for a night of doing something that he feels skeptical about. The Beginning of the story is somewhat pleasant and is quite enjoyable to read. as the story progresses, however, YGB "takes a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind." This marks the change from reality to a Gothic style of writing.
As YGB leaves his wife, she begs him not to leave her saying "a lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeard of herself sometimes." later, when YGB meets with the devil, he exclaims his reasoning for being late was that "Faith kept me back awhile." looking into this, i realized that this statement has two meanings. one being that she simply kept him back because of the long good-bye. But the second is a more symbolic meaning. His faith in god delayed his meeting with the devil. During his meeting with the devil, YGB sees the staff that he carried. "It bore the likeness of a great black snake", and when i read this i thought what kind of things it could symbolize, and one thing really stuck out to me that i couldn't get out of my head. In the bible, the first book, Genesis, states that a serpent-like creature tempts Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. So in either situation, the staff could represent just evil. YGB had had his Faith in god shaken several times in this story. the first being when the staff leads YGB to the devil's ceremony, and the second is when YGB sees Goody Cloyse speaking with the devil. Goody, being YGB's spiritual and moral leader, had taught YGB catechism, and when she was speaking with the devil, he was angry with her, even though he was doing the exact same thing. i didn't really understand this part about why he wasn't mad at himself, so feedback would be nice!\
Toward the end of the ceremony, YGB seems almost in a trance (?), but breaks out of it yelling "Faith! Faith! look up to heaven, and resist the evil one!" he tries to get Faith to break out of the trance too, not know if she is even there (ambiguity!)
"When he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, and aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession besides neighbors not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom." This being the last sentence of the story, really emphasizes the fact that YGB had completely lost his faith in god. partly because he died, and was no longer with his wife, Faith, and also because they carved no hopeful verse upon his gravestone, because there was no hope of him going to heaven. He had turned to the devil, and there was no going back.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In YGB when he sees Goody Cloyse conversing with the devil, YGB is very upset. Why he's not mad at himself is pretty hypocritical, but I think the main reason why is just because he's so shaken and shocked. To YGB, Goody Close was someone who he had also regarded as innocent and very Christian-like, someone that he might have even considered a role model? So just seeing her dealing with the devil kind of turned his world upside down, and he didn't know what to think. He was doing the exact same thing, but I really don't think that thought overpowered his thoughts of shock and horror.
ReplyDeleteThere could be many explanitions to why YGB is not as upset with himself as he is with Goody Cloyse for conversing with the devil. First of all, Goody Cloyse is someone YGB admires and respects. He has higher expectations of Goody Cloyse than himself. To see her sinning makes him angry because in his mind, if Goody Cloyse is sinning, then there is no hope for himself. Also, YGB has not completely converted to the devil. He is still unsure if this was what he really wanted to do. Goody Cloyse, on the other hand, has been there many times before and will probably never turn back.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that the serpent staff was a parallel to the snake-like creature that tempts adam and even to eat the forbidden fruit.
ReplyDeleteAnother symbol in YGB could be the pink ribbons in Faith's hair. These could symbolize a mixture of innocence and sin. Commonly, red symbolizes sin, while white symbolizes innocence. The combination of these two would be pink. This also contributes to a possible theme of YGB;that all humans have sin.
I figured that the staff was also a biblical reference, but I thought it seemed a lot more like the snake-like staffs of the magicians who opposed Moses. The story goes that the magicians tried to outdo Moses but could not because God was on his side.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if YGB lived a life of such gloom because he turned to the Devil. I think it was because he had seen all these people that he had previous trusted and thought of as religious participate in an evil ceremony. When he returned back to his home, he couldn't figure out if all that had just happened was a dream or not, and if he could trust his fellow townspeople anymore.
ReplyDelete