The weary everyman, trapped by of his own allegiance to wrongdoing, for reasons we can’t, or he can’t fully understand. This is Young Goodman Brown’s dilemma. His story is a think piece, but it’s more than just the cautionary tale that it may initially be presumed to be, denouncing those who choose to stroll on Satan’s path and whatnot. The greatest defeat was not Goodman’s loss to evil, it was his loss of himself that lead to the loss of his faith and of his right to prosperity. It’s precisely this concept is what proves to be the largest setback with much of the Puritan thought, while instinctively and in quintessence these were a people of the absolute greatest of intentions, their focus was always triumph over evil. Their enemy, and their scapegoat, was and always must be the devil and his wicked manipulation of the downtrodden. From the get-go it was, in Brown’s eyes a challenge, “With Heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!” (p. 70) Well I’ve got news for you, if you want to take the devil head on, that’s your funeral and it’s as effective as punching under water. It does no good to swing at a target that you can’t see, instead (oh…boxing metaphors) just take the hits your given and endure for later rounds…that was crap. And notice throughout this entire aggressive endeavor, the longer he treads to defy the devil, the farther from faith he ultimately strays. To truly seek redemption, the path to righteousness or whatever your own, personal intentions are, the focus should be more introspective, accepting the presence of evil in the world and our necessity to endure despite our temptations or frailties. This was Goodman Brown’s largest mistake, but not mine.
Boxing metaphors! I like it. They might be cliche, but they are apropos in this instance I think. The puritan fight against evil is not a quick fight that is over in an instant. The puritan battle was/is a long, grueling, epic battle for the heavyweight crown. Your last point about introspective focus is correct. Puritans and others should take the Satan's jabs and endure the body shots until they can muster enough strength to catch evil with a right hook and bring the belt back to Jesus... now that was crap.
ReplyDeleteI still think they are fighting themselves. They are fighting things that go wrong, they are fighting the humanness of themselves. And as with any fight with yourself, you're always going to lose, at least part of you is. And in this case, Goodman Brown lost his faith part.
ReplyDeleteGood post. :)