Role of Duplicity, Allegory, and Irony in “Young Goodman Brown”
This essay will analyze the use of duplicity, allegory, and irony in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” It will discuss how these literary devices contribute to the story’s exploration of themes such as moral ambiguity, the nature of evil, and the loss of innocence. PapersOwl offers a variety of free essay examples on the topic of Allegory.
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The role of duplicity, allegory, and irony in “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne about its theme is as follows. In the story, the author says that what a person sees is mostly not the reality but just a show everyone puts on in front of each other. When Goodman sees around himself, he finds everyone hiding their true self and showing the side they think would earn them respect and honor in the society. Goodman believes that he is one of those people too who have a good and a bad side to them.
Everything that he thought was pure turned into evil in an instant. Goodman`s wife faith opposite to her name is very evil by nature. He name depicts that she’s a person with faith who can never do anything evil, but in the story, we see how she gets adapted to the evil along with the people of the town. Her un-reluctance shows that she’s been part of evil work before.
The story purpose is to show the fall of man. He tells the story of a man who gets tempted by the devil and gives up to him out of his curiosity and less faith. Goodman`s curiosity of what lies behind the secret of the jungle. And after he feeds his curiosity, he comes upon the knowledge that changes his life in a bad way. After Goodman and faith conduct the ceremony in the jungle, the devil tells them that as a consequence they will now be shown how wicked they are inside and the people around them. After Goodman return from the forest, he becomes skeptical of everyone including his wife around him. The irony in the story is that when he appears in the forest, he sees many pious church people participating in the ceremony afterward when he returned home his faith from everyman disappears. He is unable to recognize all those people he shared his life with. The story is written under strong influence from puritanism religion. The religion teaches to abide by all the rules commanded by the bible. To analyze the story, puritan faith should be understood first.
Role of Duplicity, Allegory, and Irony in “Young Goodman Brown”. (2021, May 17). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/role-of-duplicity-allegory-and-irony-in-young-goodman-brown/