Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown †The Romanticism and...

â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† – The Romanticism and Realism The reader finds in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† a mix of realism and romanticism, with the former dominating the latter. Commenting on the presence of romanticism in Hawthorne’s short stories, Morse Peckham in â€Å"The Development of Hawthorne’s Romanticism,† talks about the author’s usage of romantic themes: In his early short stories and sketches Hawthorne was particularly concerned with three Romantic themes: guilt, alienation, and historicism. These three are so intimately intertwined in his work, as in most Romantics, that it is extremely difficult to separate them. . . .The Romantic historicist used the past for a double,†¦show more content†¦He is one of the new, and far better generation of your writer. The smell of your beeches and hemlocks is upon him; your own broad prairies are in his soul; and if you travel away inland into his deep and noble nature, you will hear the far roar of his Niagara. M. H. Abrams defines romantic themes in prominent writers of this school in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as being five in number: (1) innovations in the materials, forms and style; (2) that the work involve a â€Å"spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings†; (3) that external nature be a persistent subject with a â€Å"sensuous nuance† and accuracy in its description; (4) that the reader be invited to identify the protagonist with the author himself; and (5) that this be an age of â€Å"new beginnings and high possibilities† for the person (177-79). Let us examine â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† in light of the above. First of all, Hawthorne was a real innovator in his use of the psychological approach to characters within a story. A. N. Kaul considers Hawthorne â€Å"preeminently a ‘psychological’† writer – â€Å"burrowing, to his utmost ability, into the depths of ourShow MoreRelated Realism vs. Romanticism in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay2595 Words   |  11 Pages     Ã‚   Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic tale â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† is a good example of a short story embodying both characteristics of realism and characteristics of romanticism. M. H. Abrams defines romantic themes in prominent writers of this school in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as being five in number: (1) innovations in the materials, forms and style; (2) that the work involve a â€Å"spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings†; (3) that external nature be a persistent subjectRead MoreEarly American Literature Essay1511 Words   |  7 Pagesthink about the hidden meaning to many of their stories. Hawthornes fictional stories are considered part of the Romantic movement and more specifically, dark romanticism (Edgar). He used repeating themes in many of his stories that centered on the inherent evil and sin of humanity and his work often had a moral message and deep psychological complexity. A few examples would include, The Ministers Black Veil or Young Goodman Brown. For the first time in American history, readers were givenRead MoreEnlightenment, Realism And Literary Periods Before The 1850s1810 Words   |  8 Page sThere are many periods of literature that work in tandem to explain the history of America. Literary Periods before the 1850’s contain Renaissance Literature, The Enlightenment, Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Victorian Literature, and Realism. These periods show evidence of their impact on America because American literature periods before the 1850’s contain similar traits. They are The Colonial Period, The Revolutionary Period, The Era of National Expansion, The Early Writers/Concord Writers, andRead MoreThe History of American Literature3501 Words   |  15 PagesEquiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789) has long been considered an important African American text. American fiction was formally established after the American Revolution. The Power of Sympathy (1789), a tragic love story by William Hill Brown, is generally considered the first American novel . Another Literary milestone was Hannah Fosters The Coquette (1797), a novel in the form of letters, or an epistolary novel. Over the course of the 19th century the country progressed from anRead MoreHistory of the Development of the Short Story.3660 Words   |  15 Pagesfirst examples in the United States are Charles Brockden Browns Somnambulism (1805), Washington Irvings Rip van Winkle (1819) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820), Edgar Allan Poes Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) and Nathaniel Hawthornes Twice-Told Tales (1842). In the latter 19th century, the growth of print magazines and journals created a strong demand for short fiction of between 3,000 and 15,000 words. Famous short stories of this period include BolesÅ‚aw Pruss A Legend