Nathaniel Hawthorne' s stories that exemplify the diversity of his writing are " Young Goodman Brown" , " Ethan Brand" , and "The Birthmark" .

Essay by michael duncanUniversity, Bachelor'sC, March 1997

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"... it is no delusion. There is an Unpardonable Sin!" , a quote by Ethan Brand

that is at the root of many stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthornes

gloomy, dark style of writing is an emphasis on his theme of evil at societies heart.

Writing about what he knew Hawthorne described the puritan society in different

periods of time and defined different characters but all connected through his style.

The stories that exemplify the diversity of Hawthornes writing are " Young Goodman

Brown" , " Ethan Brand" , and "The Birthmark" .

Having read these stories it is possible to become engrossed in the darkness

that is portrayed and none is better than " Young Goodman Brown" . Young Goodman

Brown, the character, is first introduced to us in the clearing of Salem village and

we learn that he has faith in the goodness of the village and Faith for his companion as

well. The people that we meet in Salem village in the first few paragraphs are just

Goodman and Faith. These two characters are very important to understand for their

surface characters or illusional characters. It is soon learned that Goodman Brown is

not such a good man and later Faith shows us just as much false character. Goodman

and Faith are not the only characters that are not all they seem to be. We come to

meet more characters in the short story that are superficial as is the village itself.

Goodman Brown leaves the bright, warm, goodness of his village to make a journey in

the woods to meet a stranger. A good place to meet a stranger would be these

surrounding woods of Salem for it is here that described by Nathaniel Hawthorne that

"He had taken a dreary road,darkened by all the gloomiest...