The Devil in Young Goodman Brown And Rappaccinis Daughter :: comparison compare contrast essays

The Devil in teenage Goodman embrown And Rappacinis Daughter   In Puritan Massachusetts the key word was suspicion. In order to be accepted, by the community, you had to be a member of the elect, destined for a grime in the eternity of heaven. In order to be member of this elite group group of selected individuals you had to be free of sin and evil. It goes without saying, that you could never be caught conjury the devil, as is illustrated by the horrors of the infamous Salem witch trials. In youthful Goodman Brown, and Rappacinis Daughter Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays two different ways of soliciting or being solicited by the devil. The final scenes in both of these stories although similar in nature, are very conflicting in essence, and show the two adverse ways in which people and evil can become one.   In Young Goodman Brown, the protagonist, Goodman Brown goes off on a typical look for for the devil. The devil is associated with sinfulness and terror, a creature only to be sought after musical composition enveloped in the darkness of the night. As Goodman Brown himself replies to Faiths longing for him to wait until dawn to embark on his journey, My journey needst be done twixt now and cockcrow (611). Goodman Brown knows exactly what he is going to look for, he is distinct for evil. He goes to the forest to do his deed and he had taken a dreary road darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest to quiver there(611). Goodman Brown is willingly seeking the devil, and Hawthorne is throwing in all the stereotypes. This entire search for the devil is portrayed as being very ugly. What then is delightful? In Young Goodman Brown beauty equals inherent goodness, or Faith. Young Goodman Brown separates from this righteousness, for evil. From the beginning, he was leaving, at least for the time being, Faith behind. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, permit the wind play w ith the soft ribbons of her cap (610). The beauty of faith and her tip ribbons are left behind, his intentions are obvious.     In Rappacinis Daughter Giovanni does none of this. He never went out searching