“Young Goodman Brown” – Romanticism and realismThe reader finds in “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne a mix of realism and romanticism, with the former the second dominates. Commenting on the presence of romance in Hawthorne's stories, Morse Peckham in “The Development of Hawthorne's Romanticism,” speaks of the author's use of romantic themes: In his early stories and sketches Hawthorne was particularly interested in three romantic themes: guilt , alienation and historicism. These three are so intimately intertwined in his work, as in most Romantics, that it is extremely difficult to separate them. . . The Romantic historicist used the past for a dual, interconnected purpose. On the one hand it was a means of separating oneself from society... . . .May be aware of the institution's failure to realize its stated intentions and social function. . . . Romantic historicism, therefore, is never an end in itself but a strategy to place current social conditions in an ironic perspective. . . .(91-92) Peter Conn in “Finding a Voice in a New Nation” comments on the mixture of realism and romance in Hawthorne's stories: Nearly all of Hawthorne's finest stories are remote in time or space. The glare of contemporary reality immobilized his imagination. . . Hawthorne, however, despite his disclaimers, had long ago discovered in the early history of his New England the ruins and grim wrongs which he found congenial. The elusive geography of romance, that landscape where imagination and reality could collaborate in acts of transformation, had perhaps disappeared from the frenetic commercial world. . . but I... half the paper... Essays, edited by AN Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.Leavis, Q.D. “Hawthorne as Poet.” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by AN Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. Melville, Herman. “Hawthorne and His Mosses,” The Literary World 17, August 24, 1850. http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/hahm.html“Nathaniel Hawthorne.” The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1995.Peckham, Morse. “The Development of Hawthorne Romanticism.” In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.Swisher, Clarice. "Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography." In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.