Hawthorne

Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown is surely one of his masterpieces perfectly balancing allegory with mystery, religious didacticism w psychological angst. Ygb of the title 30 years old and three months married leaves his wife the aptly named Faith to go off on some kind of overnight mission. It is never stated precisely why he's leaving or even why he tells her he's leaving. These are colonial times in Salem and any night journey thru the woods is drought w danger as Hawthorne makes clear - there is a foreboding that brown may never see his wife again. In the woods he meets a satanic figure - again it's mysterious whether this was the intended assignation or the interruption of a mission. In either case the devil tempts brown - but is a very strange and threatening way showing brown that many prominent people in Salem have secretly come over to the dark side. Eventually in the heart of the forest brown comes upon a cabalist satanic ceremony that includes the minister and final even his wife. Is it a delusion or has he seen something really at the heart of Puritan society and culture? He finally seems to "wake" and to return to his village but forever changed - he no longer loves his wife and he has lost his "faith" - Hawthorne brings us at end of story right to his graveside. Strange and alien as this story seems and seemed even in Hawthorne's day - the colonial village - it also taps into universal emotions and fears - the dark journey thru the night the testing of values the dark knowledge the uncovering of hypocrisy the loss of balance and direction. Has anyone ever filmed this story or adapted it to a modern setting? It seems to be a trope for many contemporary films about dream journeys and passage thru darkness and return home forever changed.

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