Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic short story “Young Goodman Brown” is a good example of a short story that embodies both the characteristics of realism and romanticism. MH Abrams defines the Romantic themes in the foreground the writers of this school in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were five: (1) innovations in materials, forms and style; (2) that the work involves a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”; (3) that external nature is a persistent subject with a “sensual nuance” and accuracy in its description; (4) that the reader is invited to identify the protagonist with the author himself; and (5) that this is a time of “new beginnings and great possibilities” for the person (177-79). Let's examine “Young Goodman Brown” in light of the above. First of all, Hawthorne was a true innovator in using the psychological approach to characters within a story. AN Kaul considers Hawthorne “predominantly a 'psychological' writer” – “delving, to the best of his ability, into the depths of our common nature, for the purposes of psychological romance. . . .” (2). QD Leavis states: “Hawthorne has imaginatively recreated for the reader the Calvinist sense of sin. . . . But in Hawthorne, through a marvelous feat of transmutation, it has no religious meaning, it is explored as a psychological state” (37). The reader experiences most of the story through the eyes and feelings of the protagonist, Goodman. In the following passage the reader is allowed, as is typical, to read his thoughts: "Poor little Faith!" he thought, for his heart smote him. "What a wretch am I, to leave her with such an errand! She speaks of dreams, too. It seemed to me, as she spoke, that there were troubles... middle of paper... Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Hawthorne, Nathaniel “Young Goodman Brown.” http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.htmlJames, Henry Hawthorne http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net /nh/nhhj1.htmlKaul, AN “Introduction.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A. N. Kaul Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Leavis, Q. D. “Hawthorne as Poet.” Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. “Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1995. Swisher, Clarice “Nathaniel Hawthorne: a biography.” In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.