《年轻的古德曼·布朗》中的“永久罪恶”主题(3)
1.1 Young Goodman Brown
In English, Goodman means “a good person,” which implies that the protagonist is a “good man”, and his heart is good and pure.” Many people regard Brown as a nice man. But what kind of person Brown is on earth? Is he a good man or a bad one? If he is a good man, why does not he accept his wife’s advice and resist the temptation of the devil? We can see that living in this world, it is hard for human beings to resist all sorts of evil temptations. How to face the temptation is a key test of human nature. Not only the wicked men will go to the devil’s meeting, Goodman will be also irresistible (Martin 85).
At the beginning of this novel, it tells that Brown knows that the trip is full of evil purpose. First of all, “evening” has evil and dark meaning; secondly, Brown stepped on a desolate road, each side of the road standing many gloomy trees and everywhere is deserted. Besides, because of these trees, travelers don’t know what will be hidden behind thick branches. All these descriptions about the road permeate the evil atmosphere. Brown goes into the dating sites with the temptation of the elder. However, to our shock, Brown sees very pious Goode Clouis, respected minister and Deacon Gookin. He even hears the voice of the villagers. Finally, he is completely despaired and his Faith is gone. The next morning, Brown walks slowly on the street of Salem village, although he does not become a hopeless villain, he also has become a sad and suspicious man. He is unhappy until his death. At this point, Brown is the deepest-hurt person. In fact, young Brown always plays the role of hypocrisy.
At first, newlywed Brown knows the trip with evil purpose, but he insists on going to the devil’s party ignoring his wife’s request. It has been shown that Brown has already planted the seeds of evil. Second, Brown holds prejudice and resentment against Indians. When Brown walks into the dark forest, he says to himself, “There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree” (Geng 96). He doesn’t say evil spirits to others, which can be seen that he has prejudice against the Indians in his heart. When he knows that his Faith comes to the party, he laughed “...come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow, come devil himself...” (Lou 542). He puts the Indians with the devil and he is not entirely a disinterested person. But he is biased.
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