Theme Of Young Goodman Brown And The Cask Of Amontillado

The gothic genre is typically very dark and mysterious, and one of the ways that Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe compliment and counteract this goal in their works â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† and â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, respectively, is with irony. Their masterful use of irony engages the reader in the work and invites them to consider the story and the characters’ intentions. The irony presented in â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† by Nathaniel Hawthorne and â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† by Edgar Allan Poe allows us to understand the emotions of the characters and the mood of the work, however, Poe utilizes irony to convey humor, while Hawthorne uses it to convey fear. â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† by Edgar Allan Poe is about the thirst for vengeance†¦show more content†¦Nathaniel Hawthorne uses irony to a different effect in his short story, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†. â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† is about a m an who, unbeknownst to his wife, goes on a journey into the forest with questionable motives. While we do know how â€Å"Cask of Amontillado† will end, we do not know exactly where our protagonist is going in Hawthorne’s work. The author’s use of irony gradually provides us clues about Goodman Brown’s destination. Our protagonist’s name itself is ironic, given that he is â€Å"making more haste on his present evil purpose,† (Hawthorne 4). This is verbal irony because a good man will not be seeking out a wicked deed. Goodman Brown constantly feels guilty and considers his religion as he walks towards his goal. As he reminisces about his religious education, he recognizes the minister and deacon, â€Å"jogging along quietly, as they were wont to do, when bound to some ordination or ecclesiastical council,† (Hawthorne 8). The author does not revealed to us where exactly Goodman Brown is going, but the juxtaposition of the church with thi s journey is situational irony. On any other day, seeing the minister and Deacon Gookin jog along will let an observer know that they would be headed to church. After Hawthorne reveals to us that the protagonist is heading to a satanic ritual, the author describes to us the setting. The aspect that unnerves Goodman Brown the most is a figure that â€Å"bore no slight similitude, bothShow MoreRelatedTheme Of Young Goodman Brown And The Cask Of Amontillado740 Words   |  3 Pages â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† by Nathaniel Hawthorne and â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† by Edgar Allen Poe have surplus amounts of irony that animate both short stories. Demented felonious antagonists and clueless protagonists cause the stories to seem similar. Montresor, a cunning and licentious human from â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† and caring Goodman from â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† persistently use verbal irony, nevertheless, the irony is unique to each story. In â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† and â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†Read MoreYoung Goodman Brown And A Cask Of Amontillado Analysis1110 Words   |  5 PagesYoung Goodman Brown and A Cask of Amontillado both incorporate a gothic theme to the simple yet intricate plotline they hold. Within the two short stories, irony scatters, adding to the overall grim theme. Although they use the same 3 types of irony, the authors use them differently and similarly at the same time. In Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne and A Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, there are many examples of situational irony that are used comparably in both texts. DramaticRead MoreThe Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe763 Words   |  4 Pagesliterature, stories contain themes that can be similar or different. The themes are as diverse as the stories themselves. Three stories will be discussed in this paper -- first, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado tells a dark tale of revenge. Next, in Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, it is shown that a tradition can be dangerous when followed blindly. Finally, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown deals with the loss of innocence and faith. In The Cask of Amontillado, the narrator, MontresorRead MorePoe vs Hawthorne1992 Words   |  8 Pagesliterary element he employed, however, would be false. Throughout history, authors have endeavoured to master other forms of literary elements, to become the master of those elements, and equal to none in them. By comparing â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† with â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†, is to study two masters, at odds with their specific forms of writing, but each a master in his own right. Each story shows how two people that can be so far apart on a scale, can use the same literary elements in similar andRead MoreFamous American Authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathanial Hawthorne554 Words   |  3 PagesEmerson was also an Idealist, someone who trusted that man’s morals and values would out weigh terrestrial desires that came from modern society. These two notions were weaved throughout some of his works such as Nature also, the theme of nature itself was a major theme in works later in Emerson’s life. Emerson’s tone on metaphysics was that nature was directly created and connect to the Over Soul, god-like being, and all man had to do to experience true divinity was to trandsend hisself with natureRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s The Mind1900 Words   |  8 Pagesof literature as a dream. Using this technique was said to reveal hidden motivations within the writer. It was an amazing thing that allowed authors to repressed desires by applying psychoanalytic techniques. For example in the famous story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he uses symbols and feeling throughout the whole story, and things like this really draw in the reader s attention. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sigmund Freud both share an amazing writing technique, they like to rely onRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesthe process of change. So-called initiation novels, such as David Copperfield, Huckleberry Finn and the Great Gatsby, are examples. In each case the author has arranged the events of the plot so that they reveal the slow and painful maturing of the young protagonist coming into contact with the world of adult experience. Static characters leave the plot as they entered it, largely untouched by the events that have taken place. Although static characters tend to be minor ones, because the author’s principal