Hawthorne & the Duality of Human Nature in “Young Goodman Brown” & “My Kinsman, Major Molineux”

Abstract

This article is intended as a portrayal of the exception to the rule. Specifically, it debunks the traditional plot of an initiation story wherein a character travels during the day in an effort to advance and improve. This concept is overturned in two of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories: ‘’Young Goodman Brown” and “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.” In actuality, the main characters and male protagonists, Brown and Robin, respectively, set about their journeys of initiation under the guise of night. Along the way, they are met with several trials and tribulations and Brown and Robin, it can be argued, are ill-prepared to confront these challenges. As a result, both emerge all the wiser after their journeys of initiation, but, unfortunately, not for the better. Once initiated, their naïveté is destroyed as the worlds they assumed they knew so well are turned upside down, effectively casting Brown and Robin as outsiders from their communities. Nothing will ever be the same for these characters.