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Essay “Young Goodman Brown” and “Dream Within a Dream”

               Many ideas come from people remembering their most fearful dreams however, when it comes down to their most loving and peaceful ones no one really seems to remember them. In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he gives us the reader to imagine whether this story was just a dream or reality. The poem “Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allen Poe talks about how a dream can make you wish your dreams don’t become reality, and create  fantasy into your life. The story gives you examples on how a dream that seems real can change your way of seen things. In the poem it shows how people would rather dream and hold on to them longer. Although, this short story and poem seems to have things in common they also have great differences.
             The short story of “Young Goodman Brown” was written to show that everyone isn’t always who they seem to be. In the beginning young Goodman Brown left his wife Faith behind and she was only described by wearing a pink ribbon. When he was walking into the woods he found an old man with a staff. Although, Brown didn’t want to continue walking, he still did somehow.While they were walking he found the minister, Deacon Gookin, and Goody Cloyse. He looked up to these people, until he found out they were evil and with the devil. Brown was scared until he heard Faith’s voice however, he couldn’t see her. After her voice disappears the pink ribbon fell into the ground. When it fell he lost his faith completely and turned evil. In the ceremony the figure was welcoming his people. Brown cried out loud when he saw Faith at the ceremony but, she didn’t seem to hear him. When he woke up he was in the woods and while he was walking to town everyone that was at the ceremony seemed normal. He could never trust his faith for what she did. In the poem “Dream Within a Dream” it starts of by someone saying goodbye. He hopes that life isn’t like a dream neither in day nor night time, and dreams seem hard to understand. In the second stanza it says how it’s hard to remember a dream and the more you think about what the dream was about, the least details you can remember about it.
               Both the short story and the poem are very similar by the elements used and literary techniques used by both authors. In “Young Goodman Brown” it says “My love and my Faith,” replied young Goodman Brown,”of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee” (par.1) In the poem “Dream Within a Dream” it shows “Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in part from you now” (stanza 1, lines 1-2). These two show foreshadowing because both the characters seem to be leaving someone behind. This decision is going to create some type of danger later on towards the main characters. In “Young Goodman Brown” it says “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream” (par.44). I the poem “That my days have been a dream; yet if hope has flown away” (stanza 1,lines 5-6). These are showing imagery by giving specific details on how horrible a dream can be, and hoping life isn’t like a bad dreaming in anyway. Both the authors seem to create similar details, like they both start of the same, and both show why they wouldn’t like to make their dreams come into reality.
               Although, it seems like the story and poem are very similar, they are also very different by the messages that each author gives us. In “Young Goodman Brown” it shows “But the only thing about him, that could be fixed upon as remarkable, was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent“ (par.7). In “Dream Within a Dream” it shows “O God! Can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp?” (stanza 2 lines 19-20). These two quotes are showing allusion towards who the main character belived in or is seen. These two are different because in the story it shows the devil appears in the story, and in the poem it is showing the character is asking for God and believes in him. In the story it says “Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away” (par.44). In the poem is says “And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand - How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep - while I weep!” (stanza 2, lines 14-18). The differents is the imagery used in these quotes because in the story the author is restating the characters dream about what  happened on the night he lost his faith, and in the poem it shows how hard it is to remember a dream and wish to hold on to it longer. These are the main details that make them dissimilar from one other.
               The story is showing that a dream can appear to be so real that when you wake up from it you believe what you saw, and don’t question whether it’s real or not. In the poem it shows how a dream can impact the way you see things and can confuse you. Both the authors have an overall similar writing style although, Edgar Allen Poe made his thoughts on dreams in a much shorter way. Although, the story are similar the main idea for “Young Goodman Brown” was to show that you can’t trust eveyone because they are not always who they seem to be.

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