Poe’s The Black Cat and Hawthorn’s Young Goodman Brown Essay

Poe’s The Black Cat and Hawthorn’s Young Goodman Brown In Young Goodman Brown, Hawthorne analyzes the Puritans’ consciousness and the hidden wickedness of their nature. He takes a naà ¯ve Puritan man and takes him on a journey into the dark forest to meet an old man whom we presume, is the devil. As the naà ¯ve Puritan embarks on his journey, his wife Faith kisses him good bye. The Puritan has an overwhelming feeling of guilt as he is entering the forest to meet with the Devil. He realized what he is doing was forbidden and none of his forefathers or fellow Puritans would ever commit such a sin. During his meeting with the Devil his naà ¯vetà © dissolves. He sees Deacon Gookin, his old catechism teacher, and other upstanding members†¦show more content†¦He goes through a transformation, questioning any form of deity. Hawthorne’s use of elaborate symbolism is seen through out the entire story. The naà ¯ve man represents all people, who at first are blind to all the wicked darkness in life. The forest is a foreshadowing of evil, and is used to set the atmosphere in the story. Hawthorne cleverly uses Faith as the Puritan’s wife’s name to show his readers that even those whom we entrust with our most intimate love and faith often experience the same temptations and desires as the rest of mankind. The Devil’s fire, around which all the townspeople danced, is a representation of all their sins. At the end of the Puritan’s journey his transformation is a symbol of what happens to people when faced with the realization that no individual is sinless. This situation is similar to when a child discovers that its once loving and all knowing parents have flaws, it goes through this transition and it too looses its innocence. Through this gloomy allegory filled will elaborat e symbolism Hawthorne conveys his ideas on the darkness of human nature. Frank N. Magill Comments that Hawthorne writes about witches and devils like a man who does not really believe in such grotesque creatures but appreciates them as colorful and dramatic symbols of humanity’s hidden guilt and fear. Magill believes that some of Hawthorn’s work can be compared to modern horror films, in that