Benito Cereno

While reading Benito Cereno, I found it interesting that the author thought it so necessary to imbellish the good nature and character of Captain Delano. All throughout the novel the reader is met with comments from the narrrator about how nice Delano is and how unsuspecting a person he is because his charitable nature always gives people the benefit of the doubt. This is almost to the point of propaganda at times because Melville litterally goes on for pages it seems about the almost saint-like nature of Delano. What is interesting about this is why Melville does it. It's understandable that the author would want to make the hero of the story a very likable charachter. Melville would surely not want a character readers cannot sympathize with or have disdain for to happen to do a good thing. But the frequency and directness of the lauding of Delano's "excellent" character go beyond simply making him more affable to readers. It seems that Melville has a more than normal interest in making Delano appear to be such a "good" person.

Young Goodman Brown

In his short story, "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne introduces the reader to an interesting and persistent double entendre. Goodman Brown has a wife that is named Faith and given the religious context of the story this is a very interesting and clearly deliberate choice for a person's name. What makes this choice interesting is that it is not always clear which meaning of "Faith" the author wishes to assert. When the word/name is first used, it is on the first page when Goodman Brown states, "My love and my Faith, of all the nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee." At first it would seem as though clearly Goodman Brown is merely referring to his wife, but after reading the story in its entirety, this sentence can be interpreted as "Faith" meaning to have faith and also as foreshadowing. As foreshadowing, it is clear that by the story's end, Goodman Brown has very clearly lost his "Faith" as he becomes fairly reclusive and very on edge around the townspeople. He no longer takes the sermons or religious piousness of others seriously and is skeptical of his wife, Faith.

Throughout the story, there are several more occasions where Hawthorne has Goodman Brown bring up "Faith" and it is an open interpretation as to wether it is the name or the word that the reader should take as the true meaning. Also, where the author could have had Goodman Brown say "my wife", he always had him use his wife's name. Furthermore, in the statements that Goodman Brown makes regarding "Faith", the context is nearly always ambiguous. For example, shortly after leaving his companion in the woods Goodman Brown begins to pray while looking up at the sky. He proceeds to say, "My Faith is gone! There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name." Hawthorne would possibly have the reader believe that Goodman Brown was referring to his wife, given that in the previous paragraph the narrator states that a pink ribbon (which the wife wears) has fallen into Goodman Brown's hand. However, the context of the aforementioned sentence could be taken either to mean that his wife was gone, or his actual faith was gone.

The Group

One thing that was particularly perplexing when reading "The Group" was the part where Sylla, Simple Sapling, Publican, and Hateall start talking about their wives. Sylla is asking whether or not the men have "no wife who asks thy tender care, To guard her from Belona's hardy sons..." This seemed all little odd for a few reasons. First, this play is largely satire. Satires normally have good reason for every bit of dialogue they have, as far as poking fun at the characters or situation. Having the men digress into a conversation about their wives, with most having nothing good to say about them at all, seems a bit out of place when taken into context with the entire play.

Another reason this section stands out is because the author of the play is a woman. It is not uncommon for members of a group to disparage their own in order to make a point. For example, a black author using racial slurs in his work in order to make a point about racism. However, it does not seem clear why Warren introduces this conversation about women into the play. Perhaps it is in order to make these men look worse than they already do as Tories, by pointing out that none seem to care a great deal about their wives.