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¶ … Young Goodman Brown" and "The Devil's Advocate"
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and the "Devil's Advocate"
Throughout history, many tales have been told about Satan tempting man into giving up the grace of God. The nineteenth century tale "Young Goodman Brown," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, portrays an honest seventeenth century Salem resident who is tempted to surrender his faith through the manipulation of the Devil. Almost two hundred years after Hawthorne published his tempting tale, director Taylor Hackford released "The Devil's Advocate" which depicts a similar tale of temptation focused on the life of small town lawyer Kevin Lomax. Although each tales have their differences, both show the omnipresent nature of Satan and just how eager he waits at the heels of men to tempt them into committing sin.
Hawthorne's vision of the temptation of man is slightly different from Hackford's more modern interpretation. Most obviously, they are in complete different eras in history. "Young Goodman Brown" is set in seventeenth century Salem Massachusetts. Society during this time, was much more devote in their religious beliefs than in twentieth century New York high society. Money and power was much less coveted than in Kevin Lomax's situation. Secondly, Young Goodman Brown enters into the forest fully on his own accord. Although Lomax does admit his actions do influence his condition, Satan does still lure him more covertly.
These two stories are, however, incredibly similar. In both cases, Satan poses as a man in order to lure the two characters into forgetting their faith and joining him in sin. Both Brown and Lomax have young brides who, despite their original virtue and faith, eventually help lead their husbands into Satan's arms. Faith, Brown's wife, is seen in the forest partaking in the satanic rituals; he then looses all his trust in humanity, and looses his faith in both senses. Despite Mary Ann's original purity is proven through her suicide, at the very end she does influence her husband Lomax to let sin into his heart. When greed fails, Satan finds that vanity may be a better road to lead Lomax down, partly through his wife's weakness for fame. Both Brown and Lomax reject Satan, but each are left with a very gloomy fate. Brown becomes a recluse, not trusting anyone; Lomax sets himself up for another trial of temptation, for Satan resurfaces again at the very end to play another hand.
Young Goodman Brown: Faith -- the Wife In the Young Goodman Brown, the two important characters are the protagonist, Brown and his wife Faith. While Faith, the wife, has a small role to play yet her significance increases as we closely study her symbolic use in the story. The story revolves around a man's journey into the heart of darkness to discover the strength of his own faith. He considers himself
Young Goodman Brown In the story "Young Goodman Brown," much of the story is centered on Goodman Brown and his struggle to use his faith to suppress his evil impulses and his internal doubts. This struggle is undoubtedly a representation of some of the same struggles that Nathaniel Hawthorne must have faced within his own life in which he embraced the Puritan way of life and its beliefs. Given Hawthorne's background
Therefore in the remarkably persistent debate over whether Young Goodman Brown lost faith in human redemption or not, which critics have apparently quarreled over for a century and a half now, this reading takes the side that Brown did in fact retain some core belief that human redemption was possible, or else he would not have been alienated, tried to save the girl or had a family. The resulting message
As soon as that objective was achieved the whole theatrics was withdrawn. On the contrary it could well be nothing but his subconscious that expressed his own desire to see the world according to that perspective in which all the nice people embracing high standards of morality are all but faux. But it could be safe to assume that the whole episode in the forest was the figment of
) Doubts enter Brown's mind on page 15, as he looks "up at the sky" (which of course is pitch black in the deep forest at night) and doubts whether there is a heaven. But he cries out that he will "stand firm" - so readers know he still hopes to be strong and resist what is happening to him. But this night is not about resistance: "The cry of grief,
Goodman's internal conflict was brought about by his realization that he was vulnerable and can easily succumb to the temptations of the devil. Being in the wilderness did not help Goodman prevent this conflict from happening within him, since the wilderness was obviously not a part of society but of nature, therefore, the wilderness only follows the laws of nature and not the laws of humanity. The wilderness acted as