Tag Archives: “Young Goodman Brown”

The narration in “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written partially in third-person limited view and in third-person omniscient view which means that the narrator stands outside the story and can see into the thoughts and feelings of only one or two characters in the story. In this case, the narrator can look into Young Goodman Brown and tell us what Brown is thinking and felling at any given moment, but the narrator’s power to observe the inner person is limited. The narrator is limited, meaning that the narrator reports Young Goodman Brown’s inner thoughts and feelings but leaves the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about those thoughts and feelings. In other words, the narrator does not judge the character in a moral sense. When Brown leaves his wife, Faith, to begin his dark journey into the forest, the narrator observes his inner feelings of guilt. “What a wretch his I am I to leave her on such an errand! . . . Well, she’s a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven.” Hawthorne wants is to understand that Young Goodman Brown fully appreciates the danger this journey poses to his soul but, more important, the temptation to walk on the Puritan wild side is too great to be overcome. The narrator’s limited omniscience is obvious when Young Goodman Brown’s traveling companion appears. “As nearly as could discerned, the second traveler was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him.” The narrators use of the duel point-of-view allows him to leave the reader guessing about everything that happens to Young Goodman Brown.

Proselytes

Proselyte is noun.

According to Merriam Webster dictionary the word proselyte means:  A new convert (as to a faith or cause).

The word proselyte was used by Nathaniel Hawthorne on page 9 of the class handout entitled, “Young Goodman Brown.”

Hawthorne wrote, “And there stood the proselytes, beneath the canopy of fire.”

Goodman Brown and a young woman whose face was covered, but whom he later realized was his beloved Faith were the proselytes.  They were the ones who were newly converted to  join the fiend, (devil) worshippers.

DURST

Durst is a verb.

According to Merriam Webster dictionary durst means:  Archaic and dialect past of dare.

In other words, durst is an old fashion way of saying dare.  It is also a way certain groups of people spoke depending on the social group they belonged to.

The word durst is used by Nathaniel Hawthorne on page six of the class handout entitled, “Young Goodman Brown.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, “Goodman Brown alternately crouched and stood on tip-toe, pulling aside the branches, and thrusting forth his head as far as he durst, without discerning a shadow.”

Goodman Brown was making his best effort to avoid being detected in the bushes by anyone passing.  At the same time he wanted to see who was passing.  He extended his head from the bushes as far as he thought would be appropriate for him to identify who is passing without them in turn seeing him.

 

PIOUS

Pious is an adjective.

According to Merriam Webster pious means:  Marked by conspicuous religiosity, a hypocrite.   Falsely appearing to be of good moral.

The word pious is used repeatedly by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the class handout of “Young Goodman Brown.”  On page six,  Hawthorne wrote, “Once, the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of town’s-people of his own, men and women, born pious and ungodly….”   Also, on page eight, Hawthorne wrote about Deakon Gookin waiting  for his reverend pastor and stated, “But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people.”

Goodman Brown could not at first believe he correctly recognized the voices he overheard.   These were people from his church, people whom he did holy communion with.  He could not understand why they professed to be godly but still gathered with people of bad character, some of whom were even criminals to be a part of this demonic event.    The presence of the pastor and his deacon  indicated to Goodman Brown the level of hypocrisy he was witnessing.  He did not understand why the reverend pastor, a member of the clergy and his deacon did not see how ungodly this event was and rebuke those assembled.

Melancholy

Melancholy (noun): a sad mood or feeling (Merriam-Webster)

Found on Page 1, paragraph 6 of “Young Goodman Brown”–> “So they parted; and the young man pursued his way, until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him, with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.”

I believe this word in the quote means that when Mr. Brown looked back to see his wife still watching him, he could see that her countenance was sad. Although Faith was wearing pink flowers, which symbolize life, growth, and happiness, her mood was depressing because Mr. Brown had left to go on his long journey.

Tarry

Tarry (intransitive verb): 1 a: to delay or be tardy in acting or doing b: to linger in expectation : wait

2: to abide or stay in or at a place (Merriam-Webster)

Found on Page 1, paragraph 2 of “Young Goodman Brown”–>“Dearest heart,” whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, “pr’ythee, put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she’s afeard of herself, sometimes. Pray, tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year!”

I believe this word in the quote means that Mr. Brown’s wife, Faith, did not want her husband to go out on his journey but to stay with her and spend time with her. Mr. Brown’s journey was going to be far, so Faith was wooing her husband to stay since she did not want to be left all alone.

Scruples

Scruples (noun) : an ethical consideration or principle that inhibits action

Source: Merriam Webster

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scruple)

Found in “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne paragraph 15

“Friend,” said the other, exchanging his slow pace for a full stop, “having kept convenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose not to return whence I came. I have scruples, touching the matter thou wot’st of.”

Young  Goodman Brown has a journey with his companion at night, even though his wife Faith doesn’t want him to travel “this night, … of all nights in the year!” (paragraph 2) However he already meets up with his fellow-traveller and tells him that he is hesitating because he thinks this journey is not morally right.

Discussion: “Young Goodman Brown” and narrators

I hope you enjoyed Thursday’s holiday and have some good plans for Monday’s holiday as well. Remember that since Monday is a holiday, we do not have a discussion due Sunday night. Since Wednesday follows a Monday schedule, you’ll contribute to our online discussion by Tuesday night.

For this discussion, I want us to start thinking about our first formal assignment, Project #1. Read through the instructions and start brainstorming about what you might want to work on. Not sure yet? That’s fine, too. We haven’t finished reading all of the stories you might want to focus on. If you have questions, thoughts, or comments about the assignment, please use the commenting space on that page so we can read and reply to each other there. I am happy to revise the language of the assignment to make it clearer and more understandable.

Since a major aspect of this project is thinking about a story’s narrator and what affect the type of narrator has on the way we experience the story, let’s think about the narrator in “Young Goodman Brown” as well as the other stories we’ve read so far. If we look back at our list of different types of narrators, what do they offer us as readers as we enter and live in a given story world? Think about the definitions of the terms to help you understand what the narrator does and can’t do in a given story:

  • first-person narrator
  • second-person narrator
  • third-person narrator
    • third-person limited
    • third-person omniscient
    • third-person objective

I’d like us to add a few other terms to our list. They come from narratology, the study of narrative, and sound more technical than these other terms:

A narrative is heterodiegetic if the narrator is not a protagonist or if the narrator  exists in a different sphere than the protagonist. Third-person narratives are most commonly associated with this term, but other narratives can be, such as you-narratives, they-narratives, and one-narratives.

A homodiegetic narrative is equivalent to a first-person narrative. If the narrator is the main protagonist, such as in an autobiography, that is called an autodiegetic narrative. That style of narration is different from a peripheral first-person narrator, in which a first-person narrator is a minor character. First-person narrators, whether homodiegetic or autodiegetic, are inherently limited in their perspective and are potentially untrustworthy.

These definitions come from Monika Fludernik’s An Introduction to Narratology, 2009, and draw on the work of Gerard Genette and Franz K. Stanzel.

To make them a little clearer, here are the building blocks of those words: diegesis refers to the story world. Hetero- means different; homo- means same; auto- means self. Therefore, we have someone different than the story world telling a heterodiegetic narrative, someone in the same story world telling a homodiegetic narrative, and even more specific than that, we can say that when the narrator in the story world is the protagonist, or main character, we have an autodiegetic narrative.

Getting back to our discussion here, what kind of narrator do we find in “Young Goodman Brown,” and what effect does that have on our experience in reading the story? What other narrative styles have we encountered in the other stories we have read, and how did those affect our reading experiences?