During the 1800’s, many authors struggled to find their unique writing styles. Most found their inspiration from European literature, using the same style and basic plot lines. However, two authors found their unique style, which highlighted a darker storyline. Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne each had a writing style that stood out from the rest, which made their works more impactful and interesting to readers. Their short stories delved into a new type of writing style, American Romanticism and a subsection, American Gothic literature. Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” focuses on the coexistence of good and evil within a person. Through the main characters, both authors convey that failure to accept
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In both Hawthorne and Poe’s short stories, the main characters commit a sort of crime due to their beliefs, ending in psychological suffering. Hawthorne’s short story revolves around a man, referred to as Young Goodman Brown, who travels into the woods, even though the town believes the devil owns the woods. Young Goodman Brown goes to the woods to meet with a man,strikingly similar in appearance to himself. While on his journey, he comes across many influential people in his religious, such as his catechism teacher and his minister. Once Goodman Brown sees the pink ribbon Faith wears in her hair, he believes that everyone he knows works with the devil, because he saw them in the woods. Goodman Brown cries “My Faith is gone!” (Hawthorne 8), which refers both to his wife, but also to the faith in himself. He has lost faith in his community, because of the religiously influential people he saw in the woods, committing a sin whilst doing so. In the same sentence, Brown adds, “come, devil; for to thee is this world given” (8), expressing that Young Goodman Brown has lost faith in himself. Brown comes face to face with psychological violence, battling his inner demon, which takes the …show more content…
The latter part of Hawthorne’s short story focuses on how Young Goodman Brown felt after returning from the woods, and the meeting with the devil. He returns to town and ignores everyone he comes in contact with, heading straight into his house. Then, on Sabbath day, while the church goers sang holy psalms,“...he could not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain” (Hawthorne 12). Young Goodman Brown cannot listen to the holy psalms because of the guilt he feels inside,sitting in a holy place when he has committed a sin. Because of that, Brown became “a stern, a sad, and a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not desperate man” (12). After the gathering in the woods, no longer believes he is a man of God, but of the devil. After seeing many townspeople in the woods, Brown no longer trusts anyone, making him a paranoid man. He makes sure no one comes near him or any of the people he encountered in the woods, which causes psychological suffering due to his paranoia. He feels so guilty that he cannot even lie with his wife, because he often “shrank away from the bosom of Faith”. Young Goodman Brown isolates himself completely from his community, and more importantly, his loved one. By cutting off his interactions with Faith, even giving her cold looks, Brown sentenced himself to a life in bitter loneliness, purely because
In both Hawthorne and Poe’s short stories, the main characters commit a sort of crime due to their beliefs, ending in psychological suffering. Hawthorne’s short story revolves around a man, referred to as Young Goodman Brown, who travels into the woods, even though the town believes the devil owns the woods. Young Goodman Brown goes to the woods to meet with a man,strikingly similar in appearance to himself. While on his journey, he comes across many influential people in his religious, such as his catechism teacher and his minister. Once Goodman Brown sees the pink ribbon Faith wears in her hair, he believes that everyone he knows works with the devil, because he saw them in the woods. Goodman Brown cries “My Faith is gone!” (Hawthorne 8), which refers both to his wife, but also to the faith in himself. He has lost faith in his community, because of the religiously influential people he saw in the woods, committing a sin whilst doing so. In the same sentence, Brown adds, “come, devil; for to thee is this world given” (8), expressing that Young Goodman Brown has lost faith in himself. Brown comes face to face with psychological violence, battling his inner demon, which takes the …show more content…
The latter part of Hawthorne’s short story focuses on how Young Goodman Brown felt after returning from the woods, and the meeting with the devil. He returns to town and ignores everyone he comes in contact with, heading straight into his house. Then, on Sabbath day, while the church goers sang holy psalms,“...he could not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain” (Hawthorne 12). Young Goodman Brown cannot listen to the holy psalms because of the guilt he feels inside,sitting in a holy place when he has committed a sin. Because of that, Brown became “a stern, a sad, and a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not desperate man” (12). After the gathering in the woods, no longer believes he is a man of God, but of the devil. After seeing many townspeople in the woods, Brown no longer trusts anyone, making him a paranoid man. He makes sure no one comes near him or any of the people he encountered in the woods, which causes psychological suffering due to his paranoia. He feels so guilty that he cannot even lie with his wife, because he often “shrank away from the bosom of Faith”. Young Goodman Brown isolates himself completely from his community, and more importantly, his loved one. By cutting off his interactions with Faith, even giving her cold looks, Brown sentenced himself to a life in bitter loneliness, purely because