Blinded by Pride: A Study of Othello and Young Goodman Brown Essay

August 14, 2017 Religion

“Pride cometh before a fall” harmonizing to the well-known scriptural proverb and the two characters about to be discussed each has pride powerful plenty to hold blurred their judgement. Therefore. inordinate pride has caused irreparable harm. therefore the autumn. in each of the two rubric characters. The autumn may hold come in different signifiers but the accent is on isolation in both instances. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” . the chief character becomes isolated from his neighbours because of his pride.

His suspicion of everyone else has led to his ruin. Meanwhile. in William Shakespeare’s “Othello” the chief character’s pride is linked to his insecurities. Othello’s baronial self-esteem is sometimes utmost that he believes Iago’s susurrations about unfaithfulness on his married woman Desdemona’s portion. The imagined unfaithfulness is hurtful. insulating Othello from Desdemona. At the same clip. it confirms Othello’s belief that people consider him inferior and that cipher can truly love a Moor every bit black as he.

Even other people such as the scoundrel Iago. believes that: “I say. set money in thy bag. It can non be that Desdemona should long go on her love to the Moor– put money in thy purse” ( 1. 3. 342-344 ) . Excessive pride can sometimes do a individual feel superior to and sponsoring towards others. Goodman Brown believes that he is chaste and good compared to his fellowmen because of what he believes he has witnessed. Because of this vision of himself being separate from the others’ ruin. he regards others with misgiving and contempt.

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After all. other people are evildoers in his eyes. “A austere. a sad. a darkly meditative. a distrustful. if non a despairing adult male did he go from the dark of that fearful dream. On the Sabbath twenty-four hours. when the fold was singing a holy Psalm. he could non listen because an anthem of wickedness rushed aloud upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain ( Hawthorne ) . It can be said. on the other manus. that in the instance of Goodman Brown pride has been mixed with paranoia and hallucination that may hold resulted from associating with the Devil.

However. in associating with the Devil. Goodman Brown has already demonstrated pride. He thinks that he can traverse towards the dark side and come back into the light anytime. In covering with the Devil. he has rejected God and “Faith” in both its significances: his married woman and his religion in God. Furthermore. Goodman Brown must hold thought of himself as particular in order for him to believe that when he has sinned. the grounds and effects for him are different from those placed upon the others whom he has learned to be leery of.

Bing proud of oneself can sometimes be baronial and right. However. this same pride can be twisted into something that dwells simply on self-preservation and intuition. Hatred. intuition and a diffident belief that cipher can truly love a Moor have resulted into Othello’s suicide and his desire to destruct the 1 he believes do non truly reciprocate his love. The loving words turn into ciphering programs for slaying. all because of the word of one individual: “Ay allow her putrefaction. and perish. and be unagitated to-night ; for she shall non populate.

No. my bosom is turn’d to stone” ( 4. 1. 178 ) . He besides displays pride by instantly accepting his rushed judgement. It seems to be an illustration of inordinate pride for Othello to believe himself to be such a good justice of character that there is no demand to look into into the veracity of the accusal. This fast judgement may besides hold sprung from Othello’s self-pride. If there were mere intuitions before so Iago’s accusal has really become the proof that Othello needs in order to hike his self-pride.

He has happen a comrade whom he thought to be trusty because this other individual is non afraid to state him things that some people may be afraid to talk of with him because of his high place. Othello may hold believed that others are merely afraid to pique him by non uncovering to him that he is hard to love. Then. here is Iago who talks about his wife’s perfidy. Though he ab initio seeks grounds that will turn out his wife’s extramarital affair. when presented the alleged grounds from the really same accuser his head has become readily made up.

Since the presence of inordinate pride in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” has been established. it is the clip to look at the autumn. or the ultimate consequence of pride in the life of the chief character. It must be recalled that his first move is to go forth his married woman Faith every bit good as his religion in God the dark he decides to take a walk in the forests. “As about every bit could be discerned. the 2nd traveller was about 50 old ages old. seemingly in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown. and bearing a considerable resemblance to him. though possibly more in look than features” ( Hawthorne ) .

This resemblance may be a mark that deep within Goodman Brown’s pious surface. there is a individual who longs to venture into the dark side. It can besides intend that the Devil is blandishing him in order for him to yield farther into enticement. And so he does. but non in a manner that is clear to him. He thinks that he has escaped evil because the Devil has let him see evil everyplace and in everyone. and he has non. from what he can retrieve. joined their “coven” . …elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the immature amahs of their families ; how many a adult female. tidal bore for widows’ weeds. has given her hubby a drink at bedtime and allow him kip his last slumber in her bosom ; how whiskerless young persons have made hastiness to inherit their fathers’ wealth ; and how just damsels… have dug small Gravess in the garden. and offer me. the exclusive invitee to an infant’s funeral” ( Hawthorne ) . Goodman Brown has no thought that the Devil has polluted his ideas and has destroyed his religion by giving him a corrupted position of the universe.

He can no longer see goodness in any individual and has therefore lost contact with everyone else. Goodman Brown perceives even the most god-fearing actions as mere pretence and at worse. blasphemy. performed in order to dissemble wickedness and immorality. Because of this hurt. he even doubts his ain memories from the wood. However. unlike Kaye in the Snow Queen who in the terminal loses the sliver from his oculus. the perceptual experience of immorality has become excessively strong for Goodman Brown that it has affected his relationships with everyone. When he eventually dies. “they carved no hopeful poetry upon his gravestone. for his deceasing hr was gloom” ( Hawthorne ) .

For Othello. his autumn is more tragic. It is rather unlike the quiet devastation of Goodman Brown’s psyche. Because of inordinate pride. the Moor has murdered his ain married woman. Alternatively of humbling himself and non minding the possibility of being a butt and a cuckold. he should hold confronted his married woman straight about the affair and believed what she has to state. The matrimony can still be saved but his hurt self-importance can non. It is this ego’s demands that he has listened to along with the calumniatory prevarications uttered by Iago. who merely seeks to destruct Othello for advancing person else non him.

Meanwhile. Othello does non cognize that his choler and homicidal energy have been directed wrongfully. If merely he has known that it is Iago who is a nefarious. ambidextrous prevaricator. If merely he has realized this and the fact that his married woman is guiltless early plenty to salvage both him and his married woman from the calamity that finally strikes them. It is excessively late when he eventually confronts Cassio. his wife’s suspected lover: “O the baneful caitiff! How came you. Cassio. by that hankie that was my wife’s” ( 5. 2. 323-324 ) ? The adult male in inquiry has eventually had the opportunity to explicate why such grounds exists in his custodies.

Finally. Othello discovers his foolishness and how he “threw a pearl off richer than all his tribe” ( 5. 2. 352 ) . The Moor realizes that he has thrown away a adult female who loves him genuinely. but whose love he is leery of and is hence non worthy of. In the two texts. inordinate pride is shown to be an immorality in itself. Before Goodman Brown has taken a walk with the Devil he must hold been a proud adult male already. This is the failing that the Devil is able to place and play with. This ends up into a alone life and decease for the rubric character.

In Shakespeare’s “Othello” . inordinate pride prevents the chief character from believing clearly. researching the state of affairs and salvaging his and Desdemona’s life from the violent terminal they have suffered. If the lesson of “Young Goodman Brown” is to see your ain mistakes and failings before reprobating others’ . “Othello” reminds the readers of the value of puting aside the self-importance in order to do the right determinations. Furthermore. if Goodman Brown and Othello have non isolated themselves from others. they may hold seen the truth and see through the prevarications.

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