YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN: THE NEW AMERICAN ADAM?
YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN: THE NEW AMERICAN ADAM?

Summary/Abstract: Many critics have suggested that Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown is a relentless attack against the Puritan doctrine more precisely against the Calvinist idea of innate depravity of the human soul. In my study I argue that Hawthorne’s view on Puritanism as it is reflected in this short-story is much more nuanced. By rewriting the Faustian pact, the American writer demonstrated a deeper understanding of the Christian faith than most commentators are ready to admit. I argue that Brown’s mistake is not that he replicated the mistakes of the Puritan faith but rather that he does not internalize the main tenets of his faith. He is “theologically ill-prepared” to survive a meeting with the devil precisely because he is not a good puritan.

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