Prelimbib
Campbell, Donna M. “Puritanism in New England.” Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. 21 Mar. 2010. Web. This source points to the main principles of Puritanism, the brief that people live in the state of depravity. It helps understand the message of the story.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Wildside Press LLC, 2005. Print. It is a primary source.
Neary, John. “Shadows and illuminations: Spiritual journeys to the dark side in “Young Goodman Brown” and Eyes Wide Shut.” Religion & the Arts 10.2 (2006): 244-270. This source tries to point not to the events the main character lived in but to the specific experience he managed to get out of those events. The dark side is considered as the basic environment the main character had to live.
Thesis
The weakness of the society depends on the faith of those who live there and if one loses faith and believes that others have made the same, it leads to unsupported suspicions of evil nature of people who live nearby.
Draft
Looking at the history of mankind, it is possible to see one of the attributes which follows it all the time. It is faith. No matter what century either before or after the Christ’s birth is considered, people always believed in something. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story which points to weak sides of Puritanism and social believes which result in loose of faith.
The weakness of the society depends on the faith of those who live there and if one loses faith and believes that others have made the same, it leads to unsupported suspicions of evil nature of people who live nearby.
Brown believes that al people around him have deep faith in good. This is the main basis of his faith. When he goes to the forest, he does not pay attention to the fact that he goes to devil, he sees his neighbors and understand that they have lost their faith. This is the beginning of his disbelief and loss of faith in good. His belief was based on the beliefs of others, as it has been mentioned. When he saw that those beliefs had been ruined, his faith had ruined as well.
Considering the symbols which may be seen in the story, the first lines point to the main one. Brown leaves and house and Faith, his wife. Such name of the wife is chosen not by chance and leaving a wife for one night, Brown loses the faith in good for all his life. The dark night is the association with the devil, as evil affairs are made when no one is able to see, at night (Neary 248).
The weakness of the morality in society takes place when people stop have personal perception of faith, when they are unable to consider what they believe into and copy the beliefs of the society. This is the main factor which points to the weakening of the society in general. The author of the book tries to find roots of such behavior in Puritanism, a religion which creates corruptibility of private religious faith (Campbell n.p).
In conclusion, the main character has to live his life without faith in humanity and in good. The story is a god example of the life of a person who believes in nothing, an unhappy man. Brown is tempted by devil, but tries to convince the whole society in this affair.
Works Cited
Campbell, Donna M. “Puritanism in New England.” Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. 21 Mar. 2010. Web.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Wildside Press LLC, 2005. Print.
Neary, John. “Shadows and Illuminations: Spiritual Journeys to the Dark Side in “Young Goodman Brown” and Eyes Wide Shut.” Religion & the Arts 10.2 (2006): 244-270.