Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter –Author –Born –Works –Inspiration for Work...

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Scarlet Letter– Author

– Born

– Works

– Inspiration for Work

– Nathaniel Hawthorne

– Salem, Massachusetts, 1804

– Hawthorne is most famously know for this novel, The Scarlet Letter

– Related to John Hawthorne, a judge for the 1692 Salem Witch Trials

– Hawthorne was enamored with his relative’s involvement in the trial and with Puritan culture as a whole

• Background Information: Puritan Culture

– A majority of Hawthorne’s works focused on America’s Puritan forefathers

– The Puritans were a group of religious zealots who came to America in the 1630s to practice their religious beliefs freely

• Background Information:

– Puritan Culture – Puritans were supposed to be solely focused on their relationship with the Lord

– Their people has little tolerance for ideas or any behavior that differed from what they considered the norm

– Any behaviors that were not done with God in mind were considered amoral.

General InformationGeneral InformationGeneral Information• Young Goodman Young Goodman

BrownBrown

• “Young Goodman Brown” is one of the greatest short stories in American literature.

• The story was published in 1835.

General InformationGeneral InformationGeneral Information• Young Goodman Young Goodman

BrownBrown

• Story takes place in the second half of the seventeenth century in Salem, Massachusetts

• Salem was a theocracy in which the Christian moral law ruled all

General Information

General InformationGeneral Information• Young Goodman BrownYoung Goodman Brown

• “Young Goodman Brown” takes place around the time of the Salem witch trials, held in the spring and autumn of 1692.

• During these infamous trials, twenty innocent women and men were found guilty of witchcraft and executed. 

• Transcendentalist Influence

– Became a part of a highly intellectual group that included Ralph Waldo Emerson

– Transcendentalists tried to become one with nature and abandon the evils of society

– True happiness and feeling of self could only come through embracing their own individual thoughts and feelings

Literary Focus

Literary Focus

Literary FocusLiterary Focus• AllegoryAllegory

• An allegory is the representation of ideas through symbolic characters, figures, or events in a story

• YGB can be read as an allegory centering on the temptation everyone faces and on the human tendency to prejudge others.

Literary FocusLiterary FocusLiterary Focus• Symbols • The Forest as Eden

– Goodman Brown appears to represent human beings confronted with temptation

– The forest also represents  danger, confusion, the unknown, sin, and death

Literary FocusLiterary FocusLiterary Focus• Symbols, ContinuedSymbols, Continued

• Faith – Goodman Brown's

wife named Faith symbolizes Brown's spiritual faith.

– When she is in danger he realizes he is in danger of losing not only his wife but also his spiritual faith

Themes and Focus

Themes and FocusThemes and Focus • Female Purity Female Purity

• The Fear of the Wilderness The Fear of the Wilderness

• The Inevitable Loss of The Inevitable Loss of Innocence Innocence

• The Weakness of Public The Weakness of Public Morality Morality

• Virtue vs. SinVirtue vs. Sin

• Corruption and Temptation Corruption and Temptation

• Suspicion and DistrustSuspicion and Distrust

Summary and Plot Overview

Summary and Plot Summary and Plot OverviewOverview

• Goodman Brown leaves his home and Faith, his wife of three months, to meet with a mysterious figure deep in the forest.

• It is hinted that Goodman Brown's traveling companion is, in fact, the Devil, and that the purpose of their journey is to join in an unspecified but obviously unholy ritual.

Summary and Plot Overview

Summary and Plot Summary and Plot OverviewOverview

• As their journey continues Brown discovers others also proceeding to the meeting, many of them his townsfolk whom he had considered moral beacons.

• He resolves to leave his mysterious partner and abandon the meeting, but his “faith” continues to waver

Character Analysis

Character AnalysisCharacter Analysis • Goodman Brown: – Recently married Puritan who

lives in Salem in the 1600's– He believes in the goodness

of the townspeople, but has these beliefs tested

– His name “Goodman” is not coincidence. He is representative of those people thought to be “good men.”

• Faith: – Goodman Brown’s wife.

• The Devil Figure: – Mysterious man who meets

Goodman Brown in the forest– He accompanies him part way

to a witches’ sabbath, where Brown is to be inducted into an evil brotherhood.