Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Number 5: Find words and phrases from the story that give it a dream-like or surreal feeling. List them along with page references. Explain or...

I will answer question number five.  Page numbers will not be possible, because I am going through my version of the story which is contained within an anthology.  


For me, a genre that consistently feels dreamlike and surreal is the fantasy genre.  The reason for that is because it usually has a supernatural element, a creepy forest, strange creatures, and a journey.  "Young Goodman Brown" has each of those fantasy elements.  


The story has a supernatural element, because Goodman Brown is speaking and walking with the Devil.  It doesn't get more supernatural than Satan himself. The reader might suspect for some time that the man is the Devil, but Goodie Cloyse confirms it for Goodman Brown.  



The traveller put forth his staff and touched her withered neck with what seemed the serpent's tail. "The devil!" screamed the pious old lady.



Moments later the supernatural element is elevated when the Devil throws his staff on the ground and it turns into an actual serpent.  



So saying, he threw it down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi.



The dreamlike feel of the story is enhanced at this point, because Goodman Brown isn't sure if what he is seeing is really happening or not.  



Of this fact, however, Goodman Brown could not take cognizance. He had cast up his eyes in astonishment, and, looking down again, beheld neither Goody Cloyse nor the serpentine staff, but his fellow-traveller alone, who waited for him as calmly as if nothing had happened.



The story does have a "creepy" dreamlike forest in the story as well.  The forest is described very early on as Goodman Brown leaves his wife that evening and enters the forest.  



He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.



The description leaves the reader feeling that the forest is enchanted or alive. It's almost like the trees are strange living creatures of thought and action.  The text says that the trees "stood aside" and "closed behind" him.  That paragraph also contains words like "gloomiest," "peculiarity," "dreary," and "darkened."  Everything about the paragraph makes the forest feel like a forest from nightmares.  Not a forest full of happy fairies. 


Before Goodman Brown steps foot in the forest, he recalls his conversation with his wife, and the reader is given a reminder of the dream motif.  



She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight.



 As for my last requirement for a dreamlike, surreal, fantasy world (a journey), Young Goodman Brown is on trip to meet someone.  But an important word for me is the word "journey" itself.  People don't use that word in normal conversation.  Even if I'm going on a road trip, I don't tell my friends that I'm going on a "journey."  "Young Goodman Brown" though, uses that exact word.  



"Dearest heart," whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night.



For me, the word "journey" and "quest" are essentially the same thing.  Those are words reserved for surreal, fantasy worlds.  

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