Hawthorne To Faulkner: The Evolution Of The Short Story Essay examples

Hawthorne to Faulkner The Evolution of the Short StoryNathaniel Hawthorne and William Faulkners short stories materialisation Goodman brownness and A Rose for Emily use a moral to endorse particular ideals or values. Through their characters examination and evaluation of one a nonher, the authors lesson is brought forth. The authors style of preaching morals is reminiscent of the fables of Aesop and the religious parables of the Old and New Testament. The reader is faced with a life lesson after reading Hawthornes untried Goodman brown you cannot judge other people. A similar moral is presented in Faulkners A Rose for Emily. The use of morals combined with elements of Romantic term writing show the stories of Hawthorne and Faulkner to be descendants both of fables and of Romance literature.Nathaniel Hawthornes unexampled Goodman Brown tells the story of a young man who decides to league himself with the devil. Goodman Brown is a citizen of a typical town with its share of good people and not-so good people. Goodman Brown believed that he knew the inhabitants of the town fairly well. He knew Goody Cloyse, for example, to be a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual advisor, jointly with the minister and Deacon Gookin (598). He knew Deacon Gookin was a exigent man of the Church and was always bound to some ordination or ecclesiastical council (599). However, in his travels through the woods with the old man, Goodman Brown notices Goody Cloyse progressing eat the path.A marvel, truly that Goody Cloyse should be so far in the wilderness at nightfall, he Goodman Brown said (598).Just as he begins to mother doubts about the womans pureness of heart, he comes across Deacon Gookin in the woods as well. As they are supposedly fine, upstanding citizens of the village, Goodman Brown has to wonder why they are traveling through the woods on the same path that he is taking with the devil. After wards, he is astonished to see not only these two upstanding citizens at Satans ceremony, but almost everyone else in the town as well. It is through his assumption that his fellow townsfolk were good that Goodman Brown learns the storys most important lesson namely that you should not judge people at face value anyone can invest on airs, and his encountering of the devils ceremony emphasize... ...bthat he was not a marrying man (461).Later in the story, Faulkner makes reference to Emilys possible necrophilia, although no flat statement is ever made. Homosexuality and necrophilia would in no way be topics to be discussed in Hawthornes time. As a groundbreaking writer, Faulkner had a considerable amount of freedom in what he wrote, and this freedom is reflected in his work. The short story began as fables and parables that evolved into more complex psychological studies of virtues, ideals, and values. Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown emphasizes these morals as he examine s the inner workings of his main characters thoughts as he encounters the devil and the townspeople. Faulkner also uses these techniques in his modern style of writing, however he tailors them to fit the more controversial issue of his genesis while still maintaining a hold on the past generation he is examining. Over time, values and ideals stay the same, but the manner in which the technique is used evolves with current affairs and modern vocabulary.Works CitedCharters, Ann. The Story and Its author An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston Bedford Books of St. Martins Press, 1995.