goodman brown

         Well, this is my second time through Young Goodman Brown", by `Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Clarity is still emerging slowly, but it is emerging.  I have to admit that this story is easier to follow than "The Scarlet Letter", also by Hawthorne.   Maybe Hawthorne was trying to get in touch with his roots when he wrote "The Scarlet Letter", and his vocabulary reflects it.   Fortunately, he had not quite found  his ancestors while writing "Young Goodman Brown". 
       So far I have managed to make it down the path through the encroaching trees and sticks that become snakes, and I have not wandered of in the woods with out Goodman Brown as I did the first time.  I still think he was unknowingly high on LSD though.  If not his imagination was working on triple time.
        I have to admit that I am intrigued by Hawthorne's use of words.  Even though I know the meaning of most of the words I still have been looking up the words because my definitions do not fit Hawthorne's use.  It is interesting to find that the words have meanings that never occurred to me.   It also changes the meaning of the story when you plug in the different meanings.  One of my favorites was, "simple husbandman".  Now I thought I knew what a husband was but all of a sudden someone added man to it. Sooooo, I had to look it up and low and behold it now means  'farmer' instead of spouse.  The quote then changed for a conversation about Brown being married to Brown being a lowly farmer. 
        The first time I read this story I exerted so much energy on just making through the story that I did not take the time to seek out the meaning of the words.  This time I am able to note those meanings and enjoy the story a bit more.