Romanticism and Moral Heroism in Young Goodman Brown

The Rise of Romanticism from Classical Convention

In collective perception, art is one facet of life governed more by individual thought and emotional predisposition than by institutional prejudices. It seems a natural disposition of the artist to look within himself for expression, rather than toward the established conventions from which he may seek asylum. Likewise, it stands to reason that an artist makes his primary appeal to his own imagination rather than to millennia of intellectual rules. This, however, is a relatively new perspective in the age of humanity. From the Enlightenment through the mid-eighteenth century, classical rules intended to preserve the integrity and exclusivity of artistic expression were the prime determinant of societal artistic output. However, a surge in the population of the bourgeoisie — an overall expansion of the international middle class — opened up the possibility for artistry without the condition of aristocracy.

Many of the formalities and superficialities of literary expression were subverted, and thus began the original age of Romanticism. There is much evidence to suggest that Romanticism, of all artistic movements, has been the most influential, perpetuated most significantly in today's varied fields of artistic expression. Where prior approaches to literature promoted form and function above all else, the inception of Romanticism sparked a form of writing whose key identifiers centered on man's struggle with morality and his capacity for heroism. This novel approach is evidenced by the protagonist of "Young Goodman Brown," a representative work of the genre by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Emotional Interiority in Hawthorne's Narrative

The short story takes the reader on a perilous and harrowing journey through the darkness of a New England wood at night, wherein Young Goodman Brown finds himself beset on all sides by evil. He fears that he will meet the devil on such a night and be tempted into a fast friendship. As a product of the Romanticism movement, the piece is powered by the strength of its own emotion as exuded by Brown. The man fluctuates between states of paralyzing fear and triumphant moments of boldness. He finds his confidence in constant jeopardy and, at times, succumbs entirely to self-doubt.

Hawthorne's focus is less on the execution of the physical journey Brown undertakes. His depiction is far more concerned with the personal conflict that savages Brown's peace of mind as he trudges onward through the abyss. It is a narrative made possible only through exploration of man's most personal emotional canon — that which gauges his division of good and evil. Such an intimate investigation would not only have been impossible by the formalized standards of classical literature; it would have been soundly frowned upon by its contemporary scholars. But Hawthorne illustrated the inherent necessity for unabashed conveyance of the fragile emotional condition of a man under moral duress in Brown's fluid disposition.

Romanticism would fight its greatest battle against conventional thinkers who felt that such emotional exposition was a distracting deviation from plot and moral instruction and, further, an unprofessional betrayal of the author's personal condition. Both objections, however, would prove shortsighted, as such alleged betrayal would, by the mid-nineteenth century, become the standard.