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LITR 4232:
American Renaissance
spring 2006
Student Reading Presentation
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Thursday, 23 March:
Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown.”
Reader:
Amanda Hanne
Objective 2
To study the contemporaneous
movement of "Romanticism," the narrative genre of
"romance," and the related styles of the "gothic"
and "the sublime."
Hawthorn uses the styles of
gothic and sublime in his works. As we can see in the following passage
Hawthorn especially uses the light versus dark.
Pg. 2259 “He had taken 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 next passage is more on
the sublime then just the gothic I think. In this passage we get more of a
feel that Young Goodman Brown is not talking to a proper fellow.
“But the
only thing about him, that could be fixed upon as remarkable, was his staff,
which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought, that it
might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself, like a living serpent.”
Question: Besides these two
passages there are many other gothic and sublime styles, but can you find any
romantic passages?
I found a great quote from
Nathaniel Hawthorne and I thought I would share it with you.
"I have sometimes
produced a singular and not unpleasing effect, so far as my own mind was
concerned, by imagining a train of incidents in which the spirit and
mechanism of the fairyland should be combined with the characters and
manners of familiar life." - N.
Hawthorne
In all of
Hawthorne
’s tales he brings out characters of regular people and I believe that
this quote shows that was his purpose in writing.
I found some information on
the internet about
Hawthorne
that says that he uses these different characteristics in his stories.
1. Alienation - a character
is in a state of isolation because of self-cause, or societal cause, or a
combination of both.
2. Initiation - involves the attempts of an alienated
character to get rid of his isolated condition.
3. Problem of Guilt -a
character's sense of guilt forced by the puritanical heritage or by society;
also guilt vs. innocence.
4. Pride -
Hawthorne
treats pride as evil. He illustrates the following aspects of pride in
various characters: spiritual pride (Goodman Brown).
5.
Puritan
New England
- used as a background and setting in many tales