Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Roslyn Morrow- Young Goodman Brown
In my honest opinion I don't think it really matters if he was dreaming or not. I feel that it doesn't matter because whether it was a dream or reality he still had a change of perception of all the people around him after it. So whether or not he was dreaming he still reacted to it afterwards. I think that's why the question is so hard to answer because the difference between dreams and reality is how we react to them and since he reacted like it was reality it is hard to distinguish if it was a dream or not.
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Well put, Roslyn. I really like your statement: "The difference between dreams and reality is how we react to them." The more I consider this claim, the truer it seems!
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, doesn't our belief about what is real or dreamt in this story change OUR understanding of it?
For example, if we believe that Goodman Brown was dreaming, how do we view his reactions at the end of the story? Would such reactions to a dream make Goodman a weak man, or a man of outrageous conviction?
If we believe the events in the forest were somehow real, how do we view the characters in the village at the end of the story? (It makes them a bit creepier, no?)