Faith Brown, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” is presented as a righteous and good person; however, she is no better that Young Goodman Brown himself. In class we have discussed how Faith is representative of both Goodman Brown’s lack of Faith as well as how her name is showing the conflict of people’s lack of faith throughout the story.
At the beginning of the story Hawthorne takes the time to point out the color of the ribbons on Faith’s bonnet. Is this a way for Hawthorne to show, without actually saying it, that she is not as good as we want to believe that she is? In order to figure this point out we need to look at the cultural implications of the color pink. In today’s day and age we see pink and think of babies, specifically baby girls, which we know are innocent and sweet. But if we look at the colors that mix to make the color pink we know that it is made by mixing white and red together. White is perceived as a sign of innocence, and red as a sign of power and perhaps sin. By pointing out the color of the ribbons Hawthorne is saying that she is not all good.
Throughout the story Faith and Goodman Brown are both quoted saying things that lead you to feel that Faith is not as good as she seems on the surface but the reader is allowed to make their own decisions. Faith is quoted as saying “A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she’s afeard of herself, sometimes.” (pg. 340) Here Faith is saying that she’s not sure of her ability to be “good.” She is foreshadowing to the reader that things may not be exactly what they seem.
After Young Goodman Brown tells Faith that even though she’s afraid that he still has to leave her for the night, she responds by telling him “The God bless you and may you find all well when you come back.” (pg. 340) Here Faith is again telling him that she is uneasy about the fact that he is leaving. She seems to know that something bad is going to happen.
As the story goes on we are lead to believe that worst actually happens, that Faith is actually joining in the witchcraft. “By the blaze of hell-kindled torches, the wretched man beheld his Faith and the wife her husband, trembling before that unhallowed alter.” (pg. 347) Is this scene actually happening? Does Faith actually sign her name in the Devil’s book? We, as the reader, are left wondering.
“Turning the corner by the meeting- house, he spied the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously fort, and bursting into such joy at the sight of him, that she skipped along the street, and almost kissed her husband before the whole village.” (pg. 348) Here we see that Faith is willing to throw out the beliefs of the puritan faith to embrace her husband. Is she doing that because she does not care or because she is so overjoyed at the sight of him? So, is Faith actually bad? Let’s take a look at this quote from the story as our guide. Could it be that Faith is simply a young wife that doesn’t want to be away from her new husband. “ What my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married!” (pg. 340) She obviously is, in fact, deeply in love with Goodman Brown. She stands at the doorway of their house watching him walk away, heading for a trip that she knows nothing about. “He looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him, with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.” (pg. 340) She cares about him enough, and worries about him enough that her woman’s intuition is telling her that something bad might happen if he goes on the trip.
It is possible that Faith may not be all good as we, as the reader, may want to believe, but she also is not all bad. Clearly she cares about her husband, and knows that if he is there with her nothing bad will happen. But at the same time, we can see some defiance in her. Not every woman in Puritan society would run out into the street to embrace her husband in front of the whole town.
Faith Brown is a literary example of each of us as humans, we have to free will to choose what we will do. We are neither all good or all bad, and just like us she had a little of each in her.
The word choices that a poet makes help the poem to become musical. Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, and Walt Whitman clearly all have very different styles of writing and or word choosing. It becomes very clear as you read their work how the use of one word over another changes the musicality of the poem. That is not to say; however, that Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is more musical than Poe’s “Conqueror Worm” or Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” because she uses a more refined, genteel language that is easier on the ear. To compare the works of these writers in this way is like saying that the compositions of Franz Schubert are more musical than those of Gustav Mahler or Ludwig Von Beethoven because they are pretty and easy to listen to. To find the true music in a piece of poetry the text needs to be examined individually, not in comparison to another work.
When looking at the basic text of Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” it is easy to pick out the superficial musicality, the entire poem is about people singing. Does that mean that because “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “Conqueror Worm” does not have musical terms jumping out at the reader they are not musical? As a reader we need to look beyond the actual words to get the full picture and to find the music.
One of the first things necessary to “find the music” is a close examination of the words the poet chose. Why did they use one set of words when it would be easier to say it another way? It would definitely have been easier for the reader if Poe, instead of saying “Lo! ‘t is a gala night” had simply said “Wow! What a night.” But, that simple change in words changed the total effect for the opening stanza. Like wise, “the carriage held but just ourselves” would be much clearer if Dickinson had worded it, “We were the only ones in the carriage” but the overall effect of the lines is lost when a change like that is made, and with it a little bit of the musicality of the poem.
The syllabic rhythm of the poems also lend to the overall musicality of the poem. In some poems, like those of Dickinson, it is easy to find the syllabic rhythm pattern. The lilt of the 8-6-8-6 syllable pattern in “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” makes the poem feel comfortable even with the difficult subject matter. On the other hand the varied syllabic rhythm in “Conqueror Worm” makes the readers feel uneasy, which follows the uneasiness of the text.
A poem has definite musical qualities. They are defined and outlined by the word choices that the poet makes. The word choices then allow the reader to have a specific emotional attachment to the poem, be it uneasy like in the Poe, comfortable like in the Dickinson, or proud like in the Whitman. All of this shows the musicality of the poem.
"At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be."
The symbolisim within this story is amazing to me. I was really struck by the fact that she is obviously compairing herself to the woman behind the "bars" of the wallpaper. That she is feeling trapped by whatever illness that is plaguing her.
" In this very attitude did I sit when I called to him, rapidly stating what it was I wanted him to do-- namely, to examine a samll paper with me. Imagine my suprise, nay,my consternation, when without moving form his privacy, Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice,r replied, 'I would prefer not to.'" (pg. 5 paragraph 6)
I was amazed at how ambiguous Bartleby came across in the story. Exactly why does he always "prefer not to"? If it is because hhe simply does not like the job that he is doing why doesn't he quit and get a different job?
As I was reading the chapter that concludes the story of the Scarlet Letter, I was amazed at how difficult it was for the townspeople to pin point exactly what had happed during Rev. Dimmesdale's final speech. " Most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a Scarlet Letter- the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne- imprinted on the flesh. As regarded its origin, there were various explantions..." (Ch 24, Pg 242). The fact that they all had different speculations was intersting... how amazing that Hawthorne was able to create a group of people who act exactly like we would act if placed in that situation. Would we be able to accept what had happened, and not try to include our own views? Or would wetry to justify what had happened?
While reading the next section of the book the passage in chapter 14 where Hawthorne discribes the change in Chillingworth jumped out at me. I found it interesting how he chose to show the true evil of Chillingworth by saying "Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into the devil." (ch 14, pg158) Until this point in the story Hawthorne had eluded to how evil he was but not to this extreme.
I was struck, while reading "Young Goodman Brown", that the editor of our text book had taken the time to point out the majorty of the indiviuals named in the story who were actual people, except for one wo stuck out at me. The name Martha Carrier, is listed as the woman that the devil had promised that she would be the Queen of the Damned or the Queen of Heb. The fact is that she was an actual person, not just a person made up for the sake of the story. Why am i so interested in the fact that Martha Carrier was not listed as an actual person when she is? Martha Carrier is one of my step-father's ancesters 13 generations ago. Unfortunately, the exact web-sites that detail the geneaology from my little sister, to my step-dad and on back through the generations, was lost in a move, so I am currently researching it. I have learned; however, that the connection is through my step-gramdnother, whose mother was an Erland. As soon as I find out more of the information it will be posted. The text of Martha Carrier's trial can be read at the following web-site: http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Literature/Quakers&Witches/YoungGoodmanBrown/MMD826.html or can be read in the book "Cotton Mather on WitchCraft"
While reading the next assigned section of "The Scarlet Letter" I was struck by how the towns people were viewing Hester at this point. It is interesting to me how the townspeople were no longer looking upon her and the Scarlet Letter as a detrament to the town but they were looking instead at the good works that she had been doing since her release from prison. "It is our Hester,- the town's own Hester,- who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!" I find it interesting that the townspeople had become so accustomed to seein the Scarlet "A" on her that they began to no longer see the letter, but were now looking past it to the person who was behind it.
"'She will not Speak!' murmured Mr. dimmesdale, who, leaning over the balcony, with his hand upon his heart, had awated the result of his appeal. He now drew back with a long respiration. "Wondrous strength and generosity of a woman's heart! She will not speak!'" (The Scarlet Letter, chapter 3, Page63)
The fact that the minister is so overwhelmed with the fact that Hester would not speak out the name of the father of her child really struck me. It was in such stark contrast with the passage earlier in the chapter where he is pleading with her to give the name.