Hawthorne's Attitudes Toward His Ancestors' Religious Belief As Reflected In "Young Goodman Brown"

Abstract

This paper discusses Hawthorne's attitudes toward his ancestor's religious belief depicted inhis work "Young Goodman Brown". The analysis is conducted byusing sociological approach asthis approach concentrates ondie social context of writing or on die literary text and its social meaning. It also explores the relationship between the artist and society asthis approach believes that thewriters are partoftheworld they describe. Thus, thebiographical sketch oftheauthorisalsopresentedto support theanalysis.Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that "Young Goodman Brown" reveals Hawthome's skepticism toward Puritanism, his ancestors' religious belief. The main character's inner conflict dealing with his religious beliefportrays the writer's question onthe worth ofthe very strict doctrine that hisancestors possessed. Expressing hisanti-Puritan view, he creates the setting of the story which reminds his audience of the outrageous trials conducted by Puritans in 1692 known as Salem Witch Trials. He also borrows the characters' names from the victims ofthose trials. The downfall ofhis tragic hero caused by his distrustful feeling toward his own religion also indicates Hawthome's skepticismto Puritanism. K^words: sociologicalapproach,skepticism, Puritanism. A. IntroductionLiterary works cannot be separated from diesociety since literary works often depict the phenomena which happen in it. This is in line with Bums's statement mentioning that "a literary work should be considered as a social phenomenon" (Bums 35). Furthermore, itisbelieved that what the writers create is 45 ,c, ?.