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Brayton LaRochelle

English 102

Professor Cotter

21 April 2013

The Crucible and “Young Goodman Brown”:

Analysis Across Genres

The representation of an author’s ideas can be portrayed through a variety of genres, each

having its own unique strengths in reaching the imagination of readers. The examples being

provided that confirm this statement are The Crucible by Arthur Miller and “Young Goodman

Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The amount of “tools” at the disposal of each author depends

heavily on the type of genre that they are writing. It is clear through use of things such as

symbolism, figurative language, and intense imagery that a short story has much more freedom

as to what can be presented to a reader. A drama, on the other hand, is very limited and has little

but dialogue to present an entire story to the reader. This challenge is overcome in The Crucible

by adding small sections of normal prose, but examples are limited, and overall it is dialogue that

presents the real message. The Crucible is a drama based on the actual events of the witch trials

that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in the late seventeenth century, while “Young Goodman

Brown” is a short story that is entirely fictional but takes place in Salem as well. Although these

two works are alike in setting, yet different in overall plot, the genre in which they are written

has strong control over the tools such as symbolism, figurative language, and imagery that the

authors can use to present the stories in the way that is most effective.

The major factor that connects these two works is their setting, which is in Salem,

Massachusetts in the late seventeenth century. In a story that takes place in this place and time, it
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seems almost inevitable that religion, witches, and turmoil are going to appear. These two works

are by no means an exception to this statement. The difference between the two is that The

Crucible is entirely based on this massive witch hunt within the city of Salem, whereas in

“Young Goodman Brown,” this event is used as means to build a fictional short story. The

Crucible is a dramatic presentation of true events that occurred in Salem in the 1600s and

recounts the trial and execution of many innocent people who were wrongfully accused of both

literally and metaphorically dancing with the devil. Throughout the play, tension builds between

characters until the whole plot turns into a he-said she-said mess of lies and false accusations,

which can exist only because of the fact that witchcraft, as they knew it, was impossible to prove,

and therefore “hard evidence” extended to a witness or two. This four-act play follows the people

of Salem through the events of a witch hunt that works its way in circles due mostly to lies and

false accusations. It ends tragically as innocent men and women are hanged in front of the town.

“Young Goodman Brown” is a story of a man who sets off into the woods after bidding his wife

Faith goodbye, to meet with the devil for an unknown reason. He is then forced to decide if he

should take the side of the devil and join him in an evil ceremony. He declines, saying that he is

from a family of good honest Christians, and he is swayed only when he realizes that every

religious person from his town was too joining the devil for this ceremony. This story borrows

some of the witches from the Salem witch trials and makes them into characters within this story.

Characterization between the two works is in many ways identical to how

characterization typically occurs in each of the two genres, with the exception that some

characters are given a small background in actual story-like structure in The Crucible, which is

seemingly a little uncommon in drama (although not unheard of). In “Young Goodman Brown,”

Hawthorne provides a good description for each character as they are being introduced. He gives
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the readers information on the moral background of each character, along with their role in the

story and how they relate to the other characters. This outward description of characters to help

build their meaning for the rest of the story is a technique unique to a story. While Hawthorne

can spend as long as he desires presenting his characters, Miller is limited to just a brief stage

direction and the dialogue between characters. An example of the background Miller gives on his

characters is in a brief entry in the middle of an act where one the author stops to describe Mr.

Hale with more detail than you would receive from just dialogue and stage direction alone. It

reads “Mr. Hale is nearing forty, a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual” (Miller 32). It then

goes on to describe his history of removing witchcraft and his personal conflicts with other

characters from the story. He also uses clues to allow us to get into the heads of the characters

and even hints that some of the characters are not how they seem. He continues to describe Mr.

Hale’s disposition by proposing “His painfully acquired armory of symptoms, catchwords, and

diagnostic procedures are not to be put to use at last…and he has passed hundreds of rumors that

make him smile at the ignorance of the yeomanry in this most precise science” (Miller 36).

These long stage directions present characters similarly to how they would normally be

presented in a short story and are in some ways similar to how Hawthorne presents the characters

in “Young Goodman Brown.” On the other hand, the tools Hawthorne uses including the use of

intense imagery and highly descriptive characterization, give readers an excellent image of how

these characters act just does not exist as stage direction within plays such as The Crucible,

where playwrights are limited to only certain means of characterization.

The challenge of presenting characters to readers in a play is a little more difficult. In The

Crucible, characters are given a short, one-sentence introduction, and it is up to the reader to

draw further conclusions as they watch the roles of the characters play out through the dialogue
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between them. There are so many characters being presented in The Crucible that are being

introduced at a time, that it requires attentive reading to keep track of who is who and what their

overall contribution to the play is. This seems to be one drawback to reading a play, because

unlike a short story, a play has very little room to slowly introduce characters. The style of the

short story, in this case, is much more effective at providing an understanding of the background

and physical description of characters. On the other hand, the style of the play is more effective

at understanding exactly how characters respond to each other and act in conversation. This is

likely to be one of the reasons Miller chose to present this work in the form of a play. This is

arguably the most effective way of exposing the insanity that occurred in the late 1600s because

it allows readers to understand how this tragic event was able to continue solely by word of

mouth.

The use of symbolism between the two works is heavily unbalanced, similarly to any

drama compared to short story. “Young Goodman Brown” uses a substantial amount of deep

symbolism, whereas The Crucible, appeared at first to have no symbolic meaning whatsoever.

This is likely due to the fact that use of symbolism in a drama is much more difficult in general

than in a short story. Symbols from “Young Goodman Brown” include the serpent staff that is

carried by the devil, which is a biblical reference to the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve,

and is symbolic of the devil and temptation. This symbol is presented by Hawthorne in a way

that is only possible in a short story. He describes it as “so curiously wrought that it might almost

be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.” This use of imagery to present the

symbol is quite difficult for a playwright, and is an example of Hawthorne’s use of these tools to

make his work more effective at immersing his readers right into the scene of the story. There is

also the pink ribbon that is worn by Young Goodman Brown’s wife Faith. It is likely to
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symbolize youth and purity. This ribbon is mentioned three times throughout the story. It is

mentioned first in the beginning when discussing her innocence. The second time it is mentioned

is when she is seen by her lover going to meet with the devil. When Young Goodman Brown

witnesses her with the devil, it lands in his arms, showing that it was shed along with her

innocence. Brown cries out upon this realization, “My Faith is gone. There is No good on earth;

and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given” (Hawthorne 406). It finally

returns to her at the end of the story when all is seemingly all right, and Young Goodman Brown

is deciding whether the entire experience was a dream. The ribbon to symbolize this innocence is

absolutely impossible for a playwright because a pink ribbon that can only be worn by an actor

may mean nothing to an audience. On the other hand, Miller is able to use dialogue to present his

characters in a way that is effective for a play, and therefore does not need symbolism at all.

Hawthorne, on the other hand, can add this deep meaning to a seemingly meaningless article of

clothing Faith’s name itself is a symbol of her being heavily devoted to her religion and the least

likely to cross over to the devil, which intensifies the scene where she too is tempted to join in on

the disturbing ceremony. The name Young Goodman Brown seems to also be a symbol of his

character, which can give this story an almost allegorical meaning if a reader believes that these

characters were used to represent mankind in general. According to Paul Miller, Young

Goodman Brown himself can indeed be viewed as a symbol for either mankind in general or for

certain people of that time. He concludes:

Critics have agreed that Young Goodman Brown, in the course of the Hawthorne
story of the same name, moves from a state of simple faith in God and his fellow
man to an evil state involving damnation, or at least soul jeopardy. They have also
generally implied that as well as being an individual, Young Goodman Brown is
in some sense intended to be a type. They have not generally indicated, however,
whether they think he is intended to typify all man kind or only one segment of it
(Miller, Cynicism 255).
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He goes on to make clear that he finds Hawthorne’s point is well based if it is to refer to certain

groups, but not so much if it is intended to refer to humanity. This is an interesting case where

Hawthorne has the ability in the short story to include symbolism that can be very loosely

interpreted. D.M. Mckethian, however, does not see it to be open to such a loose interpretation.

He believes that Hawthorne saw that every man had some bad or “evil” side but did not find it to

be part of human nature. Mckethian states, “Hawthorne himself believed that evil impulses visit

every human heart, but he did not believe that most men are mainly evil or that most men

convert any considerable proportion of their evil impulses into evil deeds” (Mckethian 95).

Finally, the woods, which are given almost human qualities seem to symbolize temptation as

they lure in and scare Brown simultaneously, as if they too are tempting him. Hawthorne uses his

many available tools as a short story writer to bring life and deeper meaning to an already

exciting story.

Hawthorne also portrays a message of the good and bad contained within people of this

time in respect to the ironic idea that the holiest members of a town can also be those committing

the most evil, which is beyond apparent throughout The Crucible. During the crucible, the main

plot is that the religious and court leaders—people who are typically looked very highly upon

within the town— are the ones performing wrongful persecutions and putting people to death by

hanging. Clearly ironic, is as bizarre and horrible as the persecution of innocent people under

McCarthy almost two hundred years later. The difference in how it is portrayed by Hawthorne

suits the format of a short story wonderfully and this is by symbolic meaning as opposed to the

straight-forward dialogue of The Crucible. An example by Hawthorne of this that would work

only in a short story and not in a play is contained in the section of the story that reads “There

was one voice, of a young women, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and
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entreating for some favor, which, perhaps it would griever her to obtain; and all the unseen

multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.” This sense of interiority

that symbolizes the town being drawn towards evil is a technique he uses that is unique to a

story, and is an element that just would not work in a play. Hawthorne shows this idea further

through the slow revelation to the antagonist that the members of the church who he saw as the

most holy were, in reality, witches and followers of the devil. This is another example of an

element of the story that could not be used in a play. The dark traveler even reveals to Brown

that his father and grandfather (men that Brown saw as role models of his faith) were too secret

followers of the devil. This idea that men often have two sides is presented by Fennye Cherry:

When Hawthorne includes in his congregation of witches those in whom

their neighbors find no sign of evil, those who sit at the council board of the
province, and those who “Sabbath after Sabbath” occupy the “holiest pulpits in
the land,” he apparently intends his picture of the Witches’ Sabbath to be a
symbol of the good and bad in the heart of man… (Cherry, 345)

This life-altering revelation that causes Brown to question his entire faith ends with a moment in

the story where Brown reaches a point of no return. It is in the second to last scene where Brown

is at the devil’s ceremony and he sees that Faith —his wife and final remaining symbol of purity

and belief in God— appears. It is this realization that his wife too has crossed over to the side of

the devil that will ruin Brown forever. Upon returning to the village in the final scene, Brown is

unaware if everything that happened was all a dream. Nonetheless, he is ruined forever and his

entire life continues downhill due to this revelation that the people in his town may all be living

lies. Walter Paulits views this idea by Hawthorne as a symbol of the ambivalence that persists in

humankind in regard to the seemingly fine line between the choice of good and evil. Although

Brown does not give in to the devil himself, he is changed to the point where he does not
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understand good from evil after seeing his entire faithful community dance with the devil

himself. Walter Paultis makes this argument by stating, “His stance becomes, therefore, that of

the man who opts for the wrong by seeing the wrong as right. And the decision does not remove

ambivalence, because all the rest of his life is spent in pursuing the knowledge he has denied

himself” (Paultis 583).

Although The Crucible apparently lacks symbol altogether, it becomes clear after reading

Bruce Daniel’s idea that “These ghosts [ghosts of the witches that now “haunt” modern

classrooms] were brought out of the attic and put on the stage in 1953 when Arthur Miller

discovered the roots of McCarthyism in Salem”(daniels 663). It is fair to assume that anyone

who has any familiarity with this scandal that occurred in the 1950s can connect the series of

court hearings and false accusations that led to criminal convictions, to the witch trials. The fact

that these law-abiding members of society were put on trial simply because someone from town

accused them of being a witch is nearly identical to the McCarthy hearings where people were

put on trial simply because of unsupported suspicion of communism. This idea transforms this

non-symbolic story of an ancient witch hunt into an entire allegory that was quite politically

relevant at the time it was written. This is an ingenious example of how a playwright can use the

little tools at their disposal to create a vast collection of deeper meaning, which in this example is

consistent throughout the entire story. Although Miller is unable to use symbol and interiority

like Hawthorne to present a message, he instead uses the tools such as dialogue of the characters

to provide an allegory to the dialogue that may have occurred during the McCarthy hearings.

This is an equally effective method of characterization which is an excellent way for a

playwright to portray a message to the audience.

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These two works show contrast that exemplifies and puts emphasis upon the common

differences between the characterization, symbolic meaning, structure, and overall presentation

of a drama compared to a short story. In both pieces of literature there were examples presented

that express the intense imagery, although each work was forced to use an entirely different

approach. Miller used the few tools available, which consisted of dialogue and stage direction, to

present both a historical tragedy, and allegorical message that conserved historical accuracy

while presenting an overall message of the McCarthy hearings of the 20th century. Hawthorne

also made use of the tools at his disposal by using symbolism to present other ideas about faith of

the time and possibly even a timeless account of man in general that maintains relevancy in

modern times when many people do not always practice what they preach, as the saying goes.

Together both works presented stories that were very relevant to the scene in which they took

place, a place that was teeming with religious turmoil. Whether it is a farfetched fictional short

story, or a very real play, both authors used virtually every tool in their arsenal to present the

theme in a way that is likely to draw the attention of readers for centuries to come.
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Annotated bibliography

Cherry, Fannye N.. The Sources of Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”. American
Literature, Vol. 5. No. 4 (Jan., 1934) 342-348

Daniels, Bruce C. Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered: Salem’s Witches Haunt New England
History. Reviews in American History, Vol. 26, No 4 (Dec., 1998) 663-667

McKeithan, D.M.. Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”: An Interpretation. Modern

Language Notes, Vol.67, No. 2 (Feb., 1952) 93-96

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin, 1965.

Miller, Paul. Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”: Cynicism or Meliorism?. Nineteenth-

Century Fiction, Vol. 14, No.3 (1959) 255-264

Meyer, Michael. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown. “The Bedford Introduction to

Literature.” New York: 2011. P. 402-410.

Paulits, Walter J. Ambivalence in “Young Goodman Brown”. American Literature, Vol 41, No 4
(Jan., 1970) 557-584