Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Scarlet Letter
– Author
– Nathaniel Hawthorne
– Born
– Salem, Massachusetts,
1804
– Works
– Hawthorne is most
famously know for this
novel, The Scarlet Letter
– Inspiration for Work
– 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 Information
General Information
• Young Goodman
Brown
• “Young Goodman
Brown” is one of the
greatest short stories
in American literature.
• The story was
published in 1835.
General Information
General Information
• Young Goodman
Brown
• 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 Information
• Young 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.
Literary Focus
• 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
• Allegory
• 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 Focus
Literary 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 Focus
Literary Focus
• Symbols, 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 Focus
• Female Purity
• The Fear of the Wilderness
• The Inevitable Loss of
Innocence
• The Weakness of Public
Morality
• Virtue vs. Sin
• Corruption and Temptation
• Suspicion and Distrust
Summary and
Plot Overview
Summary and Plot
Overview
• 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
Overview
• 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 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.