Religious Themes Found in Young Goodman Brown and Sweat

Religious Themes Found in Young Goodman Brown and Sweat

  • Submitted By: Lawhite
  • Date Submitted: 03/15/2009 11:02 AM
  • Category: Religion
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Running Head: RELIGIOUS THEMES

Religious Themes Found in Young Goodman Brown and Sweat

L.A. White

April 26, 2007

Religious Themes Found in Young Goodman Brown and Sweat

When a person faces a crisis his faith is often tested. It is usually during these times that his true character comes out and one is able to tell exactly how strong his faith is. The struggles we face on earth are temporary, but the way we deal with these struggles is what defines our faith. The characters in Young Goodman Brown and Sweat were both from deeply religious backgrounds with strongly engrained principles. Goodman Brown seems to be living a happy fulfilled life, whereas Delia, the main character in Sweat, lives a life of misery and hardship. In these stories the characters faced a major crisis, but the way they dealt with the trial shows the true depth of their faith, doubts, and religious visions. While it may seem that the characters are at different ends of the spectrum in the way they deal with their trials, in the end it seems that they are more alike than one might suspect.
Just how strong is the faith of the characters in Young Goodman Brown and Sweat? When examining the background of Goodman Brown and Delia one sees that they both come from a strict religious background. Goodman Brown is a 17th century Puritan that is attempting to reach the justification that his faith required (Wohlpart, 1998). One can tell that Goodman Brown held himself above others because his family had been “a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of martyrs,” he had studied his catechism, and his wife was an angel on earth (Kennedy, 2005). The views of the Puritans were extreme in nature, and they worshipped whatever they believed in with a vengeance. They believed that one must work hard to please God and to eventually earn their way into heaven (eCheat, 2004). Goodman’s faith failed him because at the end of his journey he could not confront...

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