"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne analysis

The Traditional Approach

1.) Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachusetts in 1804. Hawthorn was also a descendant of Puritan ancestors, one of which being a judge responsible for the Salem witch trials. Therefore the combination of Hawthorn’s family history and the given history of his birthplace, helped influences his choice for maintaining a Puritan New England type setting for much of his literary works.

2.) King William
“And yet, though the elder person was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner-table, or in King William's court, were it possible that his affairs should call him thither.”(Paragraph 12,Hawthorne)

Within Hawthorne’s work, he has made reference to King William. King William was a distinguished respectable man, hence by Comparing Goodman Brown to him suggests that he is also a man of great honour. Likewise, King...