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Using Source Criticism to Teach “Young Goodman Brown”

The purpose of this assignment is to show you how you can work what you learned in this class in your broader teaching. In my own teaching, I have come to use Source Criticism in my analysis and teaching of “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I also use Source Criticism to try to unravel an interpretive mystery that has dogged Hawthorne scholarship since 1956. Earlier scholars had disagreed about many aspects of the story, but they all at least agreed that by the end of the story, Brown had lost his Christian faith. Then Thomas E. Connolly threw a clod in the punch bowl of scholarship by pointing out that the story is an allegory, that on the literal level Brown remains married to Faith on the literal level, and that therefore he retained his Christian faith on the symbolic level. His argument is so convincing that do scholar since has disputed it. But that raises a new question: Then what is wrong with Brown when he returns from the forest? Based on my reading of the story, and my analysis of Hawthorne's possible sources, I believe that Brown retains his faith, but it has been permanently damaged by his experience in the woods.

Period 1 Assignment

• Reading:
  
• Packet 48a, "Young Goodman Brown." Here is the MLA entry for the story:
  
• Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." Mosses from an Old Manse. Vol. 1. London: Wiley and Putnam, 1846. 69-84. Bruce R. Magee. Web. 26 Apr. 2010.  <http://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/ 102/texts/Young_Goodman_Brown.pdf>.
  
• Packet 3, "Three Religious Lies."
• Browse through the syllabus and the table of contents for a topic for research. It must be a literary paper about a specific work in our text, or about one of our collateral readings.
• Writing: Do the prewriting questions below.
1. What is the significance of Goodman Brown's name? Of Faith's name? Goody Cloyse? Deacon Gookin?
2. As you read the story a second time, make a list of all the qualifying words that Hawthorne uses to suggest that the events described may or may not be actually happening--words like seem, appear, perhaps, etc. What does Hawthorne achieve through this word choice?
3. Consult an encyclopedia to find out exactly what the meaning of a Witches' Sabbath is. Is Hawthorne's description accurate?
4. What causes Goodman Brown's tragedy? What is it that ruins his life?
5. List at least 5 words that describe the setting of this story.
6. Point of View. What kind of narrator does the story have? What does the method of narration imply for the impact of the story?
• Lecture

 

Period 2 Assignment

• Reading: John Bunyan.  Pilgrim's Progress "Good man Little-Faith".  
• Illustration of Little-faith being robbed from Bunyan Ministries
• Matthew 6:24-34 (Luke 12:22-30);
  
• Matthew 8:23-27;
  
• Matthew 14:22-33;
  
• Matthew 16:6-12;
  
• Mark 9:14-29
  
• Lecture

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