Young Goodman Brown
"Young Goodman Brown"
I am not interested in the question, whether Brown's night in the woods was a dream or reality. As the the main interest of this work is concentrated on the Puritan elements and Hawthorne's attitude towards these elements.
Right at the begin of the story, Brown kisses his wife Faith good-bye. When he comes back, he sees her "gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such a joy at sight of him, that …
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…is Browns wife. The Puritan condemning of sexuality concentrates on extramarital sex. It is the combination of guilt and innocence, of good and bad. Hawthorne shows that one is not possible without the other, that there is always good and evil in man. It is a stain like Georgiana's birthmark or Beatrice Rappaccini's poisoned body. This makes Faith the tainted innocence, the spiritual imperfection of mankind, in contrary to the ideal of the elected Puritan.15
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