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Analysis of Central Themes in "Young Goodman Brown"

Analysis of Central Themes in "Young Goodman Brown"

Determinism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that all events. In its strictest form determinism denies free will or volition. In fact, the conflict of free will and determinism has often been the subject of philosophical debate and creative fiction. One famous work of creative fiction that deals with the conflict of free will and determinism is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” In “Young Goodman Brown” Hawthorne shows that Goodman Brown transformed from someone who believes that he can free himself from a deterministic nature into someone who believes that he and everyone else are controlled by natural compulsion.

In the first part of the story, Goodman brown believes that he can free himself from a deterministic nature. The purpose of Brown’s journey into the wilderness is to confront and master his own nature, represented by the evil stranger. Leslie P. Walker points out that “Brown’s journey into the heathen wilderness is in reality a journey into his own body, into his own nature”(74). At the beginning Brown is walking and saying to himself “what if the devil himself should be at my very elbow”(332). As Goodman Brown is saying this he spots a stranger who could be Brown’s father. This stranger is the devil.

Brown begins the journey with the excellent resolve to remain true to his faith illustrates his belief that he can free himself from the compulsion of the body. At the beginning Faith, Brown’s wife, tries to stop him from going on the journey. Donnley writes, “Faith… should be understood to represent the human power to resist animal compulsion. This is true when Goodman Brown meets the stranger. The stranger tells Brown that he is late and Brown says, “Faith kept me back a while”(332). Hawthorne is using the word faith as Brown’s struggle to free himself from his strong belief of good and evil.

In the second part of the story, Brown’s faith in his ability to resist bodily compulsion is progressively undermined and finally destroyed. The purpose of the series of scenes in the forest in which Brown meets respected members of his community is to show that Brown’s faith in human freedom is being eroded. One of Brown’s first encounters is with Goody Cloyse, Brown’s Catechism teacher. Finelli and Miller say, “Brown’s loss of...

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