the light in “young goodman brown” emilee smith：在《年轻的古德曼·布朗》埃米莉史密斯光.pdfVIP

The Light in “Young Goodman Brown” Emilee Smith Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown” as an allegory to describe the danger of abandoning one’s Christian faith, even for one night. This story overflows with symbolism which Hawthorne uses as a means to reach the reader ’s subconscious thought. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne’s use of the light in the forest symbolizes how there is always a brighter place to be. Goodman Brown is setting out on a trip. The reader is not told exactly what this trip is for, but when Goodman Brown begins his trip, “he came forth at sunset” to start a journey that needed to be completed “’twixt now and sunrise” (Hawthorne 540). His wife, Faith, whose name is also a symbol of his Christian faith, encourages him to “prithee put off your journey until sunrise” (Hawthorne 540). In these early paragraphs, Hawthorne is emphasizing that Goodman Brown is journeying toward, and in, darkness. This darkness represents evil and is the realm of the devil, whom he travels to meet this night. His faith urges him not to travel in the dark but wait until sunrise in order to avoid the devil and remain in God’s light, keeping him safe. Goodman Brown “had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest” and, after meeting the devil on the road, continued his journey with the devil as a traveling companion (Hawthorne 540). It soon became “deep dusk in the forest, and deepest in that part of it where these two were journeying” (Hawthorne 541). Hawthorne uses Goodman Brown’s journey to signify a test of his faith and the gloo m of the forest as the evil from sin that begins to 2012 Schulenburg Campus Emerging Writers Contest Winner darken the path he is taking. He continues on his chosen path, now accompa