Romanticism In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
“Romanticism is a grace, celestial, or infernal that bestows us eternal stigma” (Harley Baudelaire, Document) The Romantic Era, which occurred in the late 18th century, was all about the new movement that feelings were and are greater than logic. This also inquires that nature is much more than just science. A great example or the Romantic Era shown through literature would be Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Within the novel it shows how nature is very mischievous and a dark forest could be much more than just a dark forest. Young Goodman Brown also shows that guilt, curiosity, and deception can lead the most pure and relatively logical person to utter destruction. Young Goodman Brown inherited guilt from previous ancestors because
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Brown encountered the devil on his journey, but he was shaped as an old man with a snakelike cane. Logic would tell you not to walk with some stranger, let alone the devil but he ignored what logic was telling him because he was driven by pure curiosity of what he might find going down this long dark path. The devil himself was deceiving and was helped to send Brown further down the path by pointing out people Brown knew. “As he spoke he pointed his staff at a female in the path, in whom Goodman Brown recognized a very pious and exemplary dame who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser, jointly with the minister and Deacon Gookin… “But with your leave, friend, I shall take a cut through the woods until we have let this christian woman behind”” (Hawthorne, 3) Within this passage Brown is referring to the devil as a friend for “helping” him down this path and showing him these people that he knew and trusted. Religion is a grand part of Romanticism and as you can see it is clearly shown within this story, with the devil himself being talked about, the Deacon and the Christian woman. However, humanity also plays a huge part and if humanity is all good or all
Brown encountered the devil on his journey, but he was shaped as an old man with a snakelike cane. Logic would tell you not to walk with some stranger, let alone the devil but he ignored what logic was telling him because he was driven by pure curiosity of what he might find going down this long dark path. The devil himself was deceiving and was helped to send Brown further down the path by pointing out people Brown knew. “As he spoke he pointed his staff at a female in the path, in whom Goodman Brown recognized a very pious and exemplary dame who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser, jointly with the minister and Deacon Gookin… “But with your leave, friend, I shall take a cut through the woods until we have let this christian woman behind”” (Hawthorne, 3) Within this passage Brown is referring to the devil as a friend for “helping” him down this path and showing him these people that he knew and trusted. Religion is a grand part of Romanticism and as you can see it is clearly shown within this story, with the devil himself being talked about, the Deacon and the Christian woman. However, humanity also plays a huge part and if humanity is all good or all