Review of Selected Criticism of "Young Goodman Brown"
Kavis Fleming (VCU, 1995)
Baym, Nina. "Thwarted Nature: Hawthorne as Feminist." Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Study of the Short Fiction. Edited by Nancy Bunge. New York: Twayne, 1993.
This chapter looks at "Young Goodman Brown" from the perspective of the female characters. Baym notes that the protagonists, usually male, reject any sexual relationship with a woman, ordinarily the wife or fiancee (136). Usually, the rejection has a fatal effect on the scorned woman. Baym notes that stories written before 1842 have a female character who is de…
