Irony in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay -- Young Goodman Brown

Irony in Young Goodman dark-brown Nathaniel Hawthornes tale Young Goodman Brown is replete, is saturated, with irony. This essay will luxuriously illustrate the validity of this statement. At the outset of the story a juvenile Puritan husband departs at sunset from his juvenility Puritan wife, And Faith, as the wife was capably named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, permit the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap, while she called to Goodman Brown. The author says that Faith is aptly named, an ironic statement since she, later in the evening, is being received into the forum of devil-worshippers as a new convert to the evil group. Not barely is her name ironic, notwithstanding also the description of her as pretty, and as draining pink ribbons (an indication of youthful innocence and a cheerful prospect on life). In a futile attempt to persuade Goodman to live home, Faith says A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that shes afea rd of herself, sometimes. Pray, expect with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year Her self-description as afeard of herself seems ironic since she is not afraid later in the evening to venture into the darkest depth of the forest to indulge in satanic practices. Goodman is save as ironic in his speech as his wife. He trys to blow out Faiths troubled feelings by saying My love and my Faith, replied young Goodman Brown, of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must of necessity be done twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married Goodmans affectionate appelation my ... ...d a master of this literary device. WORKS CITED Benoit, Raymond. Young Goodman Brown The Second Time Around. The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review 19 (Spring 1993) 18-21. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Complete presently Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne . invigorated York Doubleday and Co., Inc.,1959. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. 1835. http//www.cwrl.utexas.edu/daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.html The Holy Bible, King James Version-Old and New Testaments, with the Apocrypha http//etext.lib.virginia.edu/kjv.browse.html James, Henry. Hawthorne. Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press, 1997. Martin, Terence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York Twayne Publishers Inc., 1965. Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.