(historical documents of the witchcraft trials) "Young Goodman Brown" not only presents the issue of the Salem witch trials, but a number of its characters have the names of Salem residents charged with witchcraft, and its major action takes place in the noisy pasture of the period designated as a witches' gathering place. Nancy Bunge comments on Hawthorne's knowledge and use of Salem history in Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Study of the Short Fiction: did not write out of ignorant fantasies about the Puritans. A dark, penetrating tale, as "deep as Dante," according to Herman Melville, "Young Goodman Brown" reveals Hawthorne at his best-skillful writer of symbolic allegory and astute interpreter of Puritan history. In "Young Goodman Brown," one of Hawthorne's most admired and critically discussed stories, he probes the psychology of Puritan Salem's witchcraft frenzy to offer insights into the moral complexity of human nature. The Black Man of the Forest with His Familiar (courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA) North Shore Community College, Danvers, MA The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692 and "Young Goodman Brown" Material prepared by:
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