In the late 1700s and early 1800s there were many wonderful writers with their own
unique way of writing. This period is the period for Romanticism and Gothic writing. Many great
short stories and poems were written in this time period. Romanticism and Gothic writing go
hand in hand. Romanticism stories can have a dark side. It can reflect self-destruction, guilt, sin,
and evil just to name a few. This dark side of romanticism is the perfect setting for a Gothic
story. Gothic writing is one that is gloomy, filled with suspense, supernatural, and death.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an author during this time, and he wrote many stories that contained
the dark romanticism and Gothic genre. One of his best short stories is “Young Goodman
Brown.”
The story of “Young Goodman Brown” has the perfect setting for a dark romanticism
and Gothic genre. This story is all about love, faith, gloom, and evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne set a
perfect romantic and gloomy scene for this story. The setting was at night, and he must take a
journey into the deep gloomy forest to get a real understanding of what it means to have faith.
During his journey, he comes to see and hear many things that make him, want to turn around
and head home.
He leaves on a dark gloomy night kissing his wife Faith bye as she begs him not to go.
"My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "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. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we
but three months married?" "Then God bless you!" said Faith, with the pink ribbons; "and may
you find all well when you come back." Goodman Brown is thinking he was in the wrong to
leave the love of his life on this night. However, he knows how it is important to go into the
woods to test his faith.
During Goodman Brown’s journey into the forest, Nathaniel Hawthorne, real Gothic side
comes out. As Goodman Brown looks around skeptically, “He had taken a dreary road,
darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow
path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is
this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the
innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that, with lonely footsteps, he may yet
be passing through an unseen multitude.” "There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree,"
said Goodman Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him, as he added, "What if the
devil himself should be at my very elbow!" The fearfulness and gloom that Goodman Brown felt
would send chills up anyone’s spine.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, description of this scene has readers on the edge. Is someone or
something behind that tree? What was that noise? Then, Goodman Brown has “His head being
turned back, he passed a crook of the road, and looking forward again, beheld the figure of a
man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree. He arose, at Goodman
Brown's approach, and walked onward, side by side with him.” Whew! Someone he knows.
What a relief.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is an outstanding story writer of this era. He shows in his writing
of “Young Goodman Brown” all the love for Faith, his wife, and for his own faith. More than
that, he sets many scenes up perfect for the gothic nature of literature. All in all, Young
Goodman Brown has one of the best qualities for romanticism and gothic standards.