The Setting as It Relates to Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

The literary device of setting is often overlooked in its impact towards the plot and character development of a story. However, as can be extrapolated from the assigned readings thus far this semester, setting plays a vital role in determining the direction, feel and structure that a particular story invariably takes. The setting is a reflection of many significant pieces of a work: time, location, culture and tone, thereby immediately creating an ambiance and establishing connotative emotions within the reader. Characters are a direct and ultimate byproduct of the communities and surroundings in which they live. They can be put at ease by pleasant accommodations or, as in the cases of the two works at the base of this paper, place a character in a position of trepidation. Moreover, setting generally transcends its own simplicity by affecting the structure of a piece, permeating into the plot's innermost dealings. Throughout the semester, two short stories immerge as paragons of a setting's importance, these being Young Goodman Brown by Nathanial Hawthorne and, more contemporarily, Girl by Jamaica Kincaid. Both exemplify the importance of setting as it reflects and applies to the core meaning of each piece.

On a very basic level, the setting of Young Goodman Brown gives historical insight into the characters and their lifestyles. From the story's onset, it is established that Brown lives in a 17th century Puritan society, specifically Salem, Massachusetts. Therefore, one can make several inferences of Goodman Brown's character based simply on one's predisposition to the standard of living marking this epoch. The piety and fervent religious devotion associated is important in understanding Hawthorne's intentions for writing. One can presume that Brown, more than likely, is a man bound to his Christian faith, an assumption that proves most accurate. Others around Brown, his closest friends and family, also appear to be devoted to Puritan dogma. Yet, as Hawthorne makes clear, they were astonishingly hypocritical, consorting with the devil and engaging in late night satanic masses. With this in mind, it becomes more facile for the reader to understand the actions or feelings of characters within the story and gives indication of the concepts at the center of the piece.

More influential in Hawthorne's tale is the shift in proscribed setting from the town of Salem to the dark and ominous woods, completely altering the mood and tone of the piece. Hawthorne describes the woods as "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" (Hawthorne 634). As previously stated, the setting is essential in establishing the mood of the work. Hawthorne, by placing Brown in a precariously spooky forest, makes his character and, in turn, the reader uneasy and uncomfortable. Moreover, these surroundings appropriately reflect the excursion on which Brown is embarking. Hawthorn admits to its evil nature. It is much more apposite for a story about wickedness and satanic religious services be set in the dead of night and in a dreary forest. The setting suitably represents the nature of the work and helps to add ambiance to a story more allegorical in plot.

In fact, the midnight trek into the woods shakes Goodman Brown's formally stony and unflappable faith. Although he clings to his beliefs in Puritanism blindly, taking solace in the fact that they will be there when he returns, Brown is still adversely and immediately affected by the eeriness of the forest's setting. As the protagonist travels deeper into the forest, his religious devotion diminishes accordingly. Immediately after discovering his wife darting and disappearing into the woods Brown screams, "my Faith is gone", referring to both his loyalty to the Christian doctrine and his wife of the same name (Hawthorne 639). He concludes "there is no good on earth; and sin is but a name" (Hawthorne 639). Goodman Brown grows increasingly tense and the woods become exponentially more portentous. Hawthorne writes, "And, maddened with despair, so that he laughed loud and long, did Goodman Brown grasp his staff and set forth again [...] the road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced [...] leaving him in the heart of dark wilderness" (Hawthorne 639). The setting is no longer inanimate but a functional piece of the story, perhaps even another character. It reacts to Goodman Brown and causes Goodman Brown to react. By the time the protagonist leaves the dreaded forest, his trust in religion is shattered and the world around him has been tainted. The setting plays a crucial role in this unenviable epiphany.

The forest in which the bulk of the story takes place, including Brown's interaction with the stranger (who is the devil incarnate) and the midnight mass, has symbolic value as well. The devil takes refuge within its haunted oaks and dark trials. He is comfortable there. All of the denizens of Salem pilgrim deep into the wood and engage in satanic wickedness. It becomes quickly apparent that the forest is more than just a collection of trees and more than just a scary location for Brown to be placed. Rather, the forest is representative of man's capability for malevolence; a symbol of the Puritans' horrible hypocrisy. When Goodman Brown enters the woods on his journey, first meeting the stranger (who again, is symbolic of the devil), the protagonist still holds steady to his faith and its heritage, conjecturing that his "father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him" (Hawthorne 635). Rather, Brown considered his family to be a "race of honest men and good Christians" (Hawthorne 635). The stranger shatters these conceptions, admitting that on several occasions Brown's family members have trekked into the woods, or as is its symbolic value suggests, caved into evil. The devilish man concedes to helping Brown's grandfather lash a Quaker cruelly and aided the protagonist's father in burning Indian villages. Therefore, Hawthorne is making that argument that these woods have history; that past generations have been equally repugnant, stirred by iniquity and immorality in the face of their apparent piety.

With all of this in consideration, the setting of Young Goodman Brown is crucial to the structure of the story. The forest is at the center of the plot. It is the facilitator of the change in Goodman Brown. As he travels further into the woods, immersing himself more and more in the setting, Brown's devotion to his religion and his beliefs in the true goodness of his fellow denizens deflates until he is a broken shell of a man. The setting elicits fear in Brown but also facilitates the character's ultimate development,

...