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Carnivalesque freedom in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown.(Nathaniel Hawthorne)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 20070322
Author:Jamil, S. Selina

In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts a carnivalesque moment when the eponymous protagonist, "laugh[ing] loud[ly] and long," reaches the nocturnal witch meeting in the depths of the forest, where "pendent twig[s] and leafy festoon[s]" are ablaze (97). This grotesque humor of the "despair[ing]" man exemplifies a feature of Bakhtinian carnival: "'Ha! ha! ha!' roared Goodman Brown when the wind laughed at him. 'Let us hear which will laugh loudest!'" (97). And he adds with dramatic irony, "Think not to frighten me with your deviltry!" (97). For, although the ...

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