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Personification
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
"Young Goodman Brown" is set in the town of Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan era of the 1600s. The Puritans were known for their strict religious beliefs and strident moralism, and particularly for their belief that God doesn't reward people for good behavior on Earth but instead selects the people who will someday go to heaven before those people are even born. These heaven-bound Puritans are known as the "elect," and Puritans believed the elect could be identified by their moral purity on Earth. This notion created a culture of moral perfectionism among the Puritans, in which people tried to project their own unblemished virtue while thoroughly examining themselves and their peers for flaws that might indicate that they were destined for hell. "Young Goodman Brown" depicts the underbelly of such a culture, where there's no outlet for what Hawthorne sees as humankind's inherent tendency toward sin.
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