Essays
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the great American authors whose style allows the readers to sample allegory and symbolism at its best. In this essay, we will concentrate on the short story “Young Goodman Brown” and the novel The House of the Seven Gables. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory, filled with symbolism about the human mind, its destructive side, and how society and its faith are perceived by some people. For them reality is not what it appears to be, and Hawthorne does a great job unveiling many of the thoughts and feelings that these people experience. Readers become aware that evil has its roots in the everyday people, and that some of them do great injustice to their kind, by trying to decide the fate of others. Young Goodman Brown is the main character. His name has symbolic connotations. Hawthorne chose this name purposely, to inform the readers that the young man has a good nature, although he seems challenged by ambivalent feelings. Like the color brown, warm and dark at the same time, so are his mind and soul. Young Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, is the one that kept him sane in his insane world, but only for a while. Her name has symbolic connotations as well, allowing the readers to understand that, for Young Goodman Brown, she represents love, hope, and everything that’s good in his world.