The Analysis of Short Story “Young Goodman Brown” Based on the Intrinsic Elements

1.   Theme

The themes in the story are religion themed, mysterious and secret story, implicit moral education story/contain moral or philosophical implications.

2.   Plot

a.    Exposition

The exposition occurs at the beginning of a story or the first paragraph, this is story, the author reveals as the protagonist. The protagonist is Goodman Brown, a man trying to find his way through life. He makes a journey through the woods with an elderly man who is the antagonist. This is evident when Goodman is at home he knows who he is and what kind of man he wants to be, but when he leaves the shelter of his home and family, he seems to struggle with decisions he must make in the forest.

b.   Complication

The rising action begins when Brown, out of the village, enters the dark, gloomy, and probably haunted forest. He has not gone far before he meets the Devil in the form of a middle-aged, respectable-looking man, whom Brown has made a bargain to meet and accompany on his journey. Perhaps the full realization of whom his companion is and what the night may hold in store for him now dawns on Brown, for he makes an effort to return to Salem. It is only a feeble attempt, however, for, though the Devil does not try to detain him, Brown continues walking with him deeper into the forest. The struggle or complication between the opposing forces through a series of events leads to a crucial situation.

c.    Climax

The climax of this story occurs when Goodman Brown, standing before the altar with Faith to receive the mark of baptism from the devil, hesitates at the last minute and urges his wife to “look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one.”

d.   Revelation or Problem Solving

It occurs when the issue or outcome of the turning point in which a series of events occur in contrast situation and condition in this story.

e.    Denouement

The conclusion, or denouement, of this story then begins when he suddenly finds himself alone in the forest, as if he has just awakened from a dream. What he experienced in the forest – whether dream or reality – changes his life. He is now suspicious of everyone, just as the Puritans of real-life Salem were when they participated in a witch hunt that resulted in the execution. After the incident Young Goodman Brown was never the same again, he was one who liked to be sad when he had it firmly, like the gloomy solitude, a desperate man “. Finally, in this story he died (Young Goodman Brown) leaving his wife and family.

3.   Setting

The action takes place in the second half of the seventeenth century in Salem, a town northeast of Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Puritan settlers established Salem in 1626 under the name of Naumkeag. Several years later, the town changed its name to Salem, apparently after the Hebrew word shalom, meaning peace. (Jerusalem derives the last two syllables of its name from the same Hebrew word. In full, Jerusalem means city of peace.) Salem was a theocracy in which the Christian moral law, as interpreted by the Puritan settlers of the town, was supreme. “Young Goodman Brown” takes place around the time of the Salem witch trials, held in the spring and autumn of 1692. During these infamous trials, twenty innocent women and men were found guilty of witchcraft and executed.

4.   Characters and Characterization

a.       Goodman Brown : Recently married Puritan who lives in Salem in the 1600′s. He believes in the goodness of the townspeople until he sees many of them attending a witches’ sabbath in the forest. Goodman is a title equivalent to Mister.

b.      Faith : Goodman Brown’s wife. The Devil Figure : Mysterious man who meets Goodman Brown in the forest and accompanies him part way to the witches’ sabbath, where Brown is to be inducted into an evil brotherhood.

c.       Minister : Church leader who leads Goodman Brown to the unhallowed baptismal altar in the forest.

d.      Deacon Gookin : Salem Churchman who attends the witches’ sabbath.

e.       Goody Cloyse : Teacher of cathechism who attends the witches’ sabbath.

f.       Martha Carrier : Salem resident, described as a “rampant hag,” who attends the witches’ sabbath. The devil had been promised her that she would be the queen of hell. With Goody Cloyse, she leads Faith to the unhallowed baptismal altar.

g.      Powwows : Indian medicine men who attend the witches’ sabbath.

5.   Point of View

The short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” is told from the Third Person Omniscient point-of-view. The Third Person Omniscient narrator has the ability to both describe the outward appearances of the characters and to explain the character’s motives, desires, fears, and hopes. The difference between a limited and an omniscient narrator is the degree of insight that each is able to provide. The omniscient narrator is all-knowing, able to offer the reader absolute and unquestionable insight into a character.  For instance, the narrator in this instance provides information on Goodman Brown’s thoughts and reactions as he encounters the characters of Good Cloyse and Deacon Gookin.

6.   Moral Messages

a.       Faith : The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God’s will.

b.      Evil : Having qualities tending to injury and mischief; having a nature or properties which tend to badness; mischievous; not good; worthless or deleterious; poor; as, an evil beast; and evil plant; an evil crop. (Not well; ill; badly; unhappily; injuriously). “Shape of Evil”, “the mystery of sin,”

c.       Innocent : Not harmful; free from that which can injure; innoxious; innocuous; harmless; as, an innocent medicine or remedy.

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