Can you critique "Young Goodman Brown" from a New Critical Approach?

New Criticism is a formalist literary criticism in which critics approach the work of literature as a stand alone work,  as if it were self-contained. The reader's response, author's intention, or historical and cultural contexts are not considered as important as the inherent qualities of the work. New Critics believe the structure and meaning of the work of literature should not be examined separately. They pay special attention to the use of literary devices in a text. So, if you want to criticize Young Goodman Brown as a New Critic, in the strictest sense of the word, you would have to ignore its historicity. That is hard, don't you think? Because part of the impact of this short story is the historical context in which it was written and the society and values it was meant to criticize, the Puritans.

But, let's be New Critics and look at the work itself, irrespective of its historical milieu. The work can be viewed as an allegory for hypocrisy. This is certainly a modern idea and can be appreciated in this work whether it is criticizing Puritan society or 21st century society. Does the short story create an effective allegory in your mind? What about the symbolism? There are some very strong symbols in this story that a New Critic would appreciate, especially as they relate to the theme of hypocrisy. There are the wife's pink hair ribbons, the stick that turns into a snake, the trees of moral support the preacher attempts to cling to amidst his wavering faith. Also, take a look at the foreshadowing. It is excellent. The dark forest, the darkness of the Minister's soul, the description of the devil. Look at the metaphors, personification, similes and imagery in the text:

He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind.

Hawthorne is very skilled at creating mood with words.

You can read about this short story as well as read the text of it right here on eNotes.

Criticize 'Young Goodman Brown' using the New Critical Approach.

Among the assumptions of New Critical Analysis are that analyses should emphasize intrinsic meaning over extrinsic.  This intrinsic meaning is found in the organic unity of the text and in the use of literary conventions and semantic tensions that apply.  The best interpretations are those which seek out ambiguities in the text and then resolve these ambiguities as a part of demonstrating the organic unity of the text.

The main ambiguity that arises from Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is the question the author himself poses,

Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?

This ambiguity of Hawthorne's story is resolved through his uses of metaphor, double entendre, and counter-balanced sentence structures.

METAPHOR

The most obvious metaphor is the supposed wife of Goodman Brown, whom the reader discerns represents the conscience of Goodman.  For example, in the exposition of Hawthorne's story, Faith begs him to stay "this night of all nights," but he says he must go "this night."  He promises his Faith that he will return after this night, but as he leaves he notices "trouble in her face."  It is apparent that Goodman Brown wrestles with his conscience; when the old man recognizes him, indicating that there have been previous meetings, Brown blames his Faith who "kept me back awhile."  As he embarks on his journey into the forest with the old man, Brown worries about breaking Faith's heart, and is in conflict with his conscience as he asks the old man/devil, "...is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her [Goody Cloyse--a witch]"

DOUBLE ENTENDRE

Hawthorne employs semantics to convey the ambiguities regarding the experience of Young Goodman Brown.  In many of his sentences, there are double meanings which can be construed.  For example, after the old man has flown Goody Close to the black mass, he tells Deacon Gookin that he must hurry and nothing can be done "until I get on the ground."  This phrase can mean that he arrives at the mass, or he lands from the air in which he has been flying.  Then, Goodman Brown "caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart."  Here, too, Brown may be flying on the devil's stick or he may being feeling guilty.  But, later Hawthorne writes that Brown "seemed to fly" and "he flew."  He hears voices in the clouds "aloft in the air." (He or the clouds?)

COUNTER-BALANCED STRUCTURES

Creating ambiguities that actually contribute to the intrinsic unity of Hawthorne's theme of hypocrisy in the Puritan, Goodman Brown, Hawthorne writes sentences that balance conflicting ideas:

It was strange to see that good shrank from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints.

Another verse of the hymn arose, a slow and mournful strain, such as the pious love, but joined to words which expressed all that our nature can conceive of sin, and darkly hinted at far more.

Verse after verse was sung; and still the chorus of the desert welled between like the deepest tone of a mighty organ;...and every other voice of the unconcerted wilderness were mingling and according with the voice of guilty man in homage to the prince of all.

At the wor, Goodman Brown stepped forth from the shadow of the trees and approached the congregation, with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart.

Through the use of these counter-balanced terms which reflect the pangs of conscience in Goodman Brown, along with metaphor and double-entendre, the final ambiguity of Goodman's experience in the woods as reality or a dream is resolved as the workings of his inner self, a hypocritical self that projects his guilt onto others, much as the congregation of Rev. Cooper's do when the minister dons a veil over his face in another of Hawthorne's stories about Puritanism.

Would you please write a new critical essay on "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

While the students must write their own essay, enotes editors may provide suggestions of possible topics.  In addition, students may wish to read some professional criticisms on the literary work and its author.

Critical essays have involved analysis of Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" in its allegorical dimension, its psychological dimension, or it moral dimension, or its dimension of ambiguity as "multiple choice."   As an allegorical tale, the names of the characters are significant:  Goodman Brown represents "Everyman" as Goodman is a title for someone beneath the rank of a gentleman; Faith is obviously Brown's Puritanical beliefs, the Old Man is the devil, and so on.  As a psychological tale, interpretations have been made that Brown's Freudian id is in conlict with his ego and superego.  As a narrative containing ambiguity, the story is open for various interpretations of Goodman's experience and his conclusions from it.

There are some excellent critical essays available here on enotes as cited below.  Reading these may give birth to an original idea.  For instance, rather than considering all of the characters or the main character, you may wish to focus on the influence of a secondary character, such as Faith and her influence upon Brown as affecting his final reaction.  Or, perhaps you wish to interpret the story completely as a dream with the ambiguity of the forest scene as the conflict between Brown's subconscious and his conscious which begins to awaken--a conscious so influenced by Puritan doctrine.