Introduction
“Young Goodman Brown” is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1835 and depicting the mid-18th century Salem, a town near Boston sadly known for its “witch hunts” when women were sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft. The writer’s great-grandfather was a judge who participated in these processes, and shame for his ancestor’s deeds forced Nathaniel Hawthorne to change his surname by adding “w” in the middle of it. This paper explores how Hawthorne uses Gothic elements in his writing and argues that the “Young Goodman Brown” short story contains all the necessary elements to be considered Gothic fiction.
Elements of Gothic Fiction
Traditionally, Gothic fiction contains the following essential elements: mystery and fear, omens and curses, atmosphere and setting, supernatural activity, romance, villain, emotional distress, anti-hero, damsel in distress, emotional aesthetics based on the fear of unknown, morbid scenery, medievalism, and mysterious imagination. The story utilizes plenty of Gothic elements from this list. For instance, it starts with scenes of two lovers’ farewell – Goodman Brown and his wife Faith, who warns him not to go to the forest at night and stay with her.
Gentle and trusting relationships between young spouses Goodman and Faith represent the element of romance in the story. Faith also embodies the virgin lady or benevolent lady, incapable of evil, beautiful inside and with her appearances: “And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown” (Hawthorne 211). She is also depicted as a “damsel in distress” when Goodman hears in the forest how the townspeople lead her to the devil’s communion.
The short story features the anti-hero, a guide of Goodman, who leads him through the forest. The author describes this character as “the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree,” and says that most remarkable thing about this man 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” (Hawthorne 212). Advancing on the forest path, after several attempts to abandon the venture, Goodman himself turns into an anti-hero when the devil takes possession of his heart.
Hawthorne presents a horrifying transformation: “Goodman Brown flew among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy, and now shouting forth such laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around him” (Hawthorne 218). Goodman becomes a hostage of his guide, who brought Goodman to evil when he witnessed the devil’s sacrament.
The story is replete with ominous elements of scenery, such as the night forest and the darkness, in which the silhouettes of travelers cannot be made out. The forest trail gets narrower and almost indistinguishable as Goodman walks deeper into the forest. Sounds are part of the scenery and even more important than the images. Hawthorne says: “The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds — the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveler, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn” (Hawthorne 218). Initially, Goodman hears a passing carriage with the deacon and the minister, who hurry to the forest sacrament, clearly distinguishing their voices.
Then he hears the distant hum of the townspeople’s voices, which seem to persuade the young girl to move on a path that is disgusting and difficult for her. Goodman realizes that this is his wife Faith and calls her, but in return, the wind brings him only a pink ribbon from her hat. Discouraged, he rushes forward towards evil; since everything is evil, Goodman will also become a part of it. Reaching a clearing and a high rock surrounded by four flaming pine trees, Goodman sees the townspeople in the flickering red light of the fire, and then the dark figure of the priest – or the devil himself – makes a speech before the communion of the proselytes.
Hawthorne uses the unknown as a reason for horror and part of the Gothic emotional aesthetic. The reader does not know for what purpose Goodman plunges deeper into the forest thicket, who is his nameless companion, whose voices the hero hears – human or demonic. Faith’s character becomes controversial after Goodman hears her voice in the woods and sees her at the devil’s sacrament. Upon returning home, Goodman prefers to consider everything he saw as a dream, and his forest walk really feels like a dream, precisely because of the use of the Gothic element of the unknown.
The story contains supernatural powers, like when Goodman flies through the forest towards the clearing where the townspeople gathered for the devil’s communion. The sounds surrounding Goodman are supernatural, and so are the images he sees in the clearing. Goodman’s companion uses a magic staff, with which he moves the older woman to the clearing. Another staff becomes magical right in a companion’s hands, and Goodman flies over the forest using this staff. Nature also behaves abnormally – Goodman sees a black cloud appeared in the sky, which rushes in the north’s direction, despite the calm weather. The author uses dreams as omens at the beginning of the story when Faith warns Goodman against walking in the woods.
Hawthorne often criticizes Puritan mores as hypocritical in his writings and uses related Gothic symbolism. The story contains vicious priests – a deacon and a saint and a lady who teaches children the catechism. Likewise, the old woman and other ladies who came to the forest may be the embodiment of the “old stupid woman,” another element of Gothic prose. In the story, there is also an “evil local man” – Goodman’s guide.
Hawthorne Vision of Gothics in the Plot of the Story
Emotional tension, Gothic emotional aesthetics are important elements of any Gothic story. Authors often place characters in frightening circumstances and make them challenge threatening events. In Gothic fiction, heroes often die at the end of the story. In “Young Goodman Brown,” the hero remains alive, although, for the rest of his life, he does not trust anyone and is disgusted with his once beloved wife. Years later, he dies in the gloomy hour, and friends who gather to take him on his last journey do not find comforting words for his gravestone inscription.
Interestingly, according to the plot, the hero’s words that his Faith is gone are not a culmination. The culmination happens when Goodman reaches the clearing and hears the black-clad figure’s invitation to the devil’s sacrament. The denouement comes when Goodman asks Faith to raise her eyes to the sky and renounce the devil, after which he finds himself in the city square. Such a sharp turn of the plot corresponds to the feeling of horror that grips the hero and allows keeping the line between reality and fantasy blurred.
The storyline is characteristic of a Gothic novel that seeks to evoke a sublime sense of romantic fear and horror. The use of emotional aesthetics allows the author to discover the character’s depth and exaggerate their inner experiences. Noteworthy is the phrase “he was himself the chief horror of the scene, and shrank not from its other horrors” (Hawthorn 218). It is one of the few phrases that symbolize hope as a new guide for the traveler Goodman.
Based on it, one can conclude that Hawthorne was not a Puritan, but he understood the desire of the soul to explore the attractive and unsightly sides of life, the beautiful and the terrible in human nature. In this light, it is interesting that the author chose the forest scenery since the forest is an even more ancient symbol than the Gothic castles in the Emily Bronte style or the Gothic slums in the Dickens style. The thicket has always symbolized the dark, unexplored corners of the human soul, and Goodman Brown’s journey through the forest symbolically reflects his exploration of his human nature.
Goodman is disappointed when he sees Faith in the forest, surrounded by godly and unbelieving townspeople, “whom he had met at the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern” (Hawthorne 217). Faith cannot limit her understanding and knowledge of life to the illusion of purity and the walls of their home, but for Goodman Brown, this is a severe blow since Faith is his spiritual guide. Now, after the journey, he must find a new guide for his future life. But according to the plot and within the Gothic genre framework, Goodman Brown sees no meaning in life after he lost his faith.
It is noteworthy that Hawthorne’s great-grandfather was a judge in the famous Salem Witch Trials. The author deliberately references the atrocities of Goodman Brown’s ancestors to express his remorse for his ancestors’ crimes. Hawthorne’s narrative also uses an additional element of traditional Gothic stories to express the author’s political position and attitude towards the ruling class of the mid-18th century. According to Goodman’s companion, local high society, starting with the governor, was all about evil and depravity.
Interestingly, an allusion to “Young Goodman Brown” is used in the Netflix series “Salem.” There is a scene in the series when one of the main characters, the minister Mather, looking back at his wife Anne Hale, leaves for the forest searching for those who participate in the witch’s ritual. In the series, Mather does not know that Anne is a witch, and he considers her a model of virtue; they have been married for no more than a month. As a result of his wanderings in the forest, Mather loses faith in people, although he retains faith in God.
Overall, the series makes extensive use of Hawthorne’s ideas, criticizing puritanical mores and lifestyles. The series also features Judge Hawthorn’s character, which directly references historical facts and Nathaniel Hawthorn’s literary work. The screen version makes it possible to see characters in great colors in a historical setting, but reading allows one to imagine more individual images and possibly more authentic ones.
Thus, it was discussed how Hawthorne uses Gothic elements in “Young Goodman Brown” short story. The narrative contains all the necessary elements to be considered Gothic fiction, including romance, godly lady, damsel in distress, anti-hero or villain, frightening scenery, omens, and supernatural powers. The author also depicts vicious priests, a stupid older woman, and an evil local person as additional elements. Emotional tension is achieved through an obsessive environment, an ominous course of events, and uncertainty.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Hawthorne’s short stories. Vintage, 2011.