To have Dreamt? Or to have been Awake? That is the Question.

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After I had finished reading this, two thoughts came to my mind:
The first was, “Wow this guy should really go talk to Descartes, neither one of them can tell a difference from when they are awake or dreaming.”
The second thing I thought of was a bunch of terrible puns that I eventually decided to not put in this blog post for the sake of you the reader.
Anyways, I really enjoyed this short story overall, but the one thing I want to focus on is how it left me feeling great sympathy for Faith. Let’s say that Goodman Brown had just been dreaming and that none of what he saw in the forest was real; he still blamed and pretty much hated Faith his whole life for something that she never even did.  All that Faith knows is that her newlywed husband left one night, and when he came back he no longer loved her. Can you imagine what that must feel like to her? To have someone suddenly lose all the love and care they once felt for you? I felt so bad for her. Now, of course, if you go with the side that he didn’t dream up the whole thing, then you feel bad for him. I, however, have the opinion that he dreamt most of it, either by himself or by the devil forcing the wicked dream on him; either way, I think it wasn’t real. I am quite curious, though, and completely open to debate on this issue. So, do you think that what Goodman Brown saw in the forest was real or simply a dream?

P. S I commented on Faith and Abigail's 

Comments

  1. Trey NorthcuttNovember 5, 2017 at 9:32 PM

    It could go either way, to be honest. I saw it as a vision (not unlike those from the Bible), since it inspired him to do so much better in driving out evil. However, he very well could have seen a witchcraft meeting in the forest and blacked out. It's all up to interpretation.

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  2. Abigail BrockNovember 5, 2017 at 9:44 PM

    I want to say that it was a dream but he also woke up out of his house, in the woods. Sleepwalking Is always a possibility but that would mean his conversation with Faith before he left his house was also part of the dream. Either this was real or Faith is a hard sleeper

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  3. UnknownNovember 6, 2017 at 2:06 PM

    I think it is interesting that the majority of us (at least those that have commented!) want to give the benefit of the doubt to Faith and Goodman Brown's situation and say this is a dream. I, too, would prefer to say it was a dream. But to explore it as reality, I say we'd have to question first if Faith ever sold herself to the devil or not. Why wouldn't Goodman Brown ask her about it? He is acting as if he believes the experience as true so why not verbally question? His actions reflect craziness, his words wouldn't fall very short, only give explanation to at his wife on why he is the way he is.

    Zelda, channel your puns and Descartes connections for our script in the Honors Project!! There is so much there that we can use. :)

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  4. Noah PalframanNovember 7, 2017 at 10:02 PM

    I'd say it would be better to consider it as a dream, that way the reality could be warped in a positive form or a negative form. If the reader wishes Goodman to have only see this experience as a nightmare and that it was all a dream as a sigh of relief, then it creates a lighthearted atmosphere for the reader as they can form what they believe to be the reality.

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