External and Internal Conflict in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay

External and Internal Conflict in Young Goodman embrown Nathaniel Hawthornes short story Young Goodman Brown manifests a duality of conflict both an external conflict and an internal conflict. It is the purpose of this essay to research both types of conflict as manifested in the story. In the opening lines of the tale there is a compulsion, representing internal conflict, indicated on the part of both the protagonist and his married woman Faith Dearest heart, whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, prythee, put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed tonight. A l onely(prenominal) woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that shes afeard of herself, sometimes. Pray, tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year My love and my Faith, replied young Goodman Brown, of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, m ust needs be done twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, lovely wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married And Faith, hopeful that the compulsion will not get the best of her during the night, responds Then God bless you give tongue to Faith, with the pink ribbons, and may you find all well, when you come back. Q.D. Leavis says in Hawthorne as Poet that It is a journey he takes under compulsion, and it should not escape us that she tries to dispel him because she is under a similar compulsion to go on a journey herself (36). So the main male and female characters are manifesting similar compulsions toward pestiferous against which they must struggle. And these are the main in... ...ung Goodman Brown. And both strands come together at the baptismal ceremony at the climax of the story where Goodman resolves his conflicts favorably. WORKS CITED Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. 1835. http//www.cwrl.utexas.edu/daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.h tml Lang, H.J. How double is Hawthorne? In Hawthorne A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Leavis, Q.D. Hawthorne as Poet. In Hawthorne A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Martin, Terence Six Tales. In Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York Twayne Publishers Inc., 1965. Wagenknecht, Edward. Nathaniel Hawthorne The Man, His Tales and Romances. New York Continuum Publishing Co., 1989.