Event Title
“My Faith Is Gone!”: The Complexity of Gender in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
Faculty Mentor
Sarah McFarland
Location
Library 3D
Session
Session 4
Start Date
13-4-2013 11:00 AM
End Date
13-4-2013 12:00 PM
Description
The nineteenth century was a period that involved substantial social changes that influenced individuals’ perceptions of gender roles and heightened the prevalence of gendered behavior in American society. One fictional depiction of these matters is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s celebrated short story “Young Goodman Brown.” I argue that examining Hawthorne’s story in relation to the hardened gender roles of his era provides great insight into understanding the unsettling position of these characters and their function as the writer’s demonstration of the hypocrisy and impossibility of upholding the dominant gender ideologies that prevailed in nineteenth century American culture.
“My Faith Is Gone!”: The Complexity of Gender in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
Library 3D
The nineteenth century was a period that involved substantial social changes that influenced individuals’ perceptions of gender roles and heightened the prevalence of gendered behavior in American society. One fictional depiction of these matters is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s celebrated short story “Young Goodman Brown.” I argue that examining Hawthorne’s story in relation to the hardened gender roles of his era provides great insight into understanding the unsettling position of these characters and their function as the writer’s demonstration of the hypocrisy and impossibility of upholding the dominant gender ideologies that prevailed in nineteenth century American culture.