Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - English Young Goodman Brown7 Young Goodman Brown7 Goodman Brown’s actions in the story, Young Goodman Brown, are a key element to this story’s theme. The author uses Goodman Brown’s movement in and out of the forest, as a method of symbolizing the theme of a symbolic journey into the depths of consciousness. As the hours of the night pass, Goodman Brown travels farther into the forest, and deeper into the depths of consciousness. This theme is present in many passages of the text. The story begins with the line, “Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street of Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchang a parting kiss with his young wife,”. At this point of the story, there partial daylight and Goodman Brown is consciously aware of his trust in his wife, Faith, his faith in his religion. He says to his wife, “of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee, My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done ‘twixt now and sunrise,”. Goodman Brown feels that something inside him needs to go on this journey. There is a reason why he consciously feels like he has to go; he needs to test the perceptions he has of his life. By leaving at sunset, Goodman Brown is going into the darkness; the light is gone, and the night represents unsafety. The night allows Goodman Brown to sink deeper into the depths of his conscience, causing his mind to be less alert; thus, representing the unsafety. He is willing to accept this unsafety, however, in order to test his perceptions. In order to clear his conscience, he must take this journry, which can occur only on this very night. The road Goodman Brown takes into the forest is, “darkened by all the gloomiest trees in the forest, which barely...[stand] aside to let the narrow path creep through, and...[close] immidiately behind,”. As he travels farther into the forest, and further away from Faith (faith), it becomes harder for him to find his way back. The forest “closes” behind him, symbolizing his enterance into a different state of consciousness. The forest, in this story, is a symbol for Goodman Brown’s conscience, which includes the roots of all his perceptions. Once he enters the depths of his conscience, he judges his preceptions, and this makes it harder for him to submerge with these same perceptions in tact. The devil confuses Goodman Brown’s judgment in this story and ultimately after his journey, Goodman Brown will see everything in a new light. When Goodman Brown starts his journey, he is symbolically leaving behind his wife, Faith, and his faith in his religion. They are two things he is consciously aware of, until ironically after his journey. The faith Goodman Brown has in his wife and religion, however, are the only two things that temporarily hold him back from his journey. “Faith kept me back a while,” he replies to the traveller (the devil) in the forest. The devil ignores him and says, “Come, Goodman Brown, this is a dull pace for the begining of the journey,”. He is in Goodman Brown’s concsience, telling him to take this journey and test his faith; so that he can alter his perceptions along the way. He wants Goodman Brown to ignore his religious faith, and his wife, and continue on his journey. Goodman Brown is partially wiery of this journey, and says, “having covenant by meeting thee heree, it is my purpose now to return to whence I came,”. He is frightened of what might occur on this journey, and is starting to question his reasoning on the decision to go. The devil cleverly replies, “Let us walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go; and if I convince thee not thou shalt turn back,”. He wants Goodman Brown to keep walking deeper into the forest, so that he will sink deeper into the depths of consciousness, where the devil can alter his perceptions. The longer the devil can get Goodman Brown to stay in the forest (buried in thought of deep consciousness), the easier it will be for him to effect his conscience. “Too far! Too far!,” exclaimed Goodman Brown, “unconsciously resuming his walk. My father never went into the woods on suchh an errand, nor his father before him,”. The devil than tells Goodman Brown that he had lead his father and grandfather on this same journey; and thus he starts to challenge the conscious perceptions that Goodman Brown holds. The devil makes many characters appear on the path, who have aided in forming the perceptions that Goodman Brown holds; Goody Close, Deacon Gookin, the minister, Faith. Almost every religious acquaintance of Goodman Brown’s is seen on his journey, as well as his wife, Faith. The devil continues to make Goodman Brown question his conscience, by altering the personalities of these people. They say things to Goodman Brown, to make him question his beliefs and perceptions; for example, the devil asks Goody Cloyse, “Then Goody Cloyse knows her old friend?”, and she cries, “Ah forsooth, and is it your worship indeed?” At this point, Goodman Brown hasn’t gotten deep enough into the woods (into the depths of consciousness), to allow the devil to completely alter his thoughts. He is hesitant in believing what he hears, and says to the devil, “my mind is made up. Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her?”. The devil replies, “you will think better of this by and by,” (as he gets further into the woods/with time, as he is consciously contemplating). “Sit here and rest yourself a while: and when you feel like moving again, there is my staff to help you along,”. The staff he gives Goodman Brown is a serpant, which continues to push him on his journey. Goodman Brown hears “the tramp of horses along the road, and deemed it advisable to conceal himself within the verge of the forest,”. When the voices of these men pass, Goodman Brown notices, “the depth of gloom at that particular spot, neither the travellers nor their steeds were visible,”. At this point, Goodman Brown has gone to deep into the forest, there is no turning back, and ultimately we know that he will come out of the forest with new perceptions and thoughts; his mind it totally confused. He believes that the voices he hears belong to Deacon Gookin and the minister. The Deacon says, “I had rather miss an ordination dinner than to-night’s meeting. They tell me that some of our community are to be here from Falmouth and beyond,... Moreover, there is a goodly young woman to be taken into communion...Nothing can be done, you know, until I get on the ground,”. The devil is altering Goodman Brown’s conscience, because he has allowed himself to travel too far into the woods. At this point, Goodman Brown has sunk deep into the depths of his conscience and he states, “Whither, then, could these holy men be journeying so deep into the heathen wilderness?”. With this contemplation, he looks up at the sky, “doubting whether there really was a heaven above him,”; he has lost his Faith. He hears the voice of a young women, “uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrrow, and entreating some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners to lead her onward,”. Goodman Brown shouts, “Faith! Faith!”. She screams, and her pink ribbon comes “fluttering lightly down through the air,”. Goodman catches the ribbon, which is a figment the devil produced, like everything else; and says, “My Faith is gone! Come, devil; for to thee is this world given,”. Goodman Brown had completely aloud the devil to alter his conscience, and he now believes that everything is gone. And so, there is nothing left for him to do, but continue on the path. He grasps the staff, and moves on again, “at such a rate that he seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk or run. The road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal to evil,”. Goodman Brown has consciously turned into a product of the devil. Upon “the witching hour” of midnight, (the darkest time of night representing unsafety) Goodman Brown arrives at the grounds were he and Faith are to be converted. He believes he sees the people from his church all gathered (another disillusion), in “a grave and dark-clad company,”. The only person he doesn’t see if Faith, and “as hope came into his heart, he trembled”. This was his last vestige of hope. Faith appears, and both she and Goodman Brown are brought forth. Goodman Brown yells to Faith, “look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one,”. At this, he finds himself “amid calm night and solitude,” his journey has ended. The next morning Goodman Brown walks back into his town a “bewildered man”. He has completed his journey. His perceptions have been altered by this journey, and his conscience is no longer in tact. He can no longer trust his wife or his religious community. He doesn’t know if what he has experienced was real, or a figment of his imagination. He feels that he can never be consciously aware of anything again, and he “was borne to his grave, a hoary corpse,”. In this story, Goodman Brown’s journey in and out of the forest represents a symbolic journey into the depths of consciousness. His entrance into the forest signifies an entrance into his own thoughts and conscience. As he sinks deeper into both, they become more complex. The devil causes Goodman Brown to change his perceptions on life. Goodman Brown travels through four stages of consciousness, represented by time: dusk*darkness*midnight*morning. The first three intensify, with the coming of darkness, and the last (morning) ends his journey with the arrival of light. Bibliography: Word Count: 1712
Copyright © 1998-2008 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved. DMCA Notifications and Requests