Alienation and Moral Dilemma as Portrayed by Nathaniel Hawthorne

In “Young Goodman Brown”, after his journey into the forest, Brown changes his entire outlook on life. He has lost his faith and has taken on a life of darkness and unrest because he is never sure whether the events of what happened in the forest were reality or imagined. From that point on he is never at peace because he is always expecting evil. And he is then depicted as a man who never has happiness with his beloved “Faith”, that is his wife and his actual faith in God, or in any other thing in his life. Brown becomes a victim to the nature of evil and the effects that it can play on the

Hawthorne in essence, portrayed Goodman as proof of the nature of evil in man by showing how easily even a young dedicated Puritan can easily be influenced by a complete stranger. This stranger was symbolically the Devil among men in this text. Hawthorne begins introducing the Devil immediately as trying to sway Goodman to follow him on a long journey. By leaving his wife, Faith to begin the journey, Goodman Brown was symbolically leaving his faith in God and entering a forsaken ground by following the Devil. The fact that Goodman Brown left with no regard for his wife Faith’s warning, symbolized the lack of regard for his own faith in God and his fellow human race. This simple disregard that Goodman Brown showed was evidence of the easily persuaded ability of man to choose sin over good.

Conflict and symbolism in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, Hawthorne in this story portrays these two elements that enhance the way the story is written. The story “Young Goodman Brown” first takes place in a small town with brown and his wife faith. Then in the story brown leaves faith to go in an adventure that he would later wish he hadn’t gone in. Brown takes a journey through part of the woods that are really scary and comes across the devil himself to later find out that faith was evil and that many from his town were also evil and had a secret evil organization or cult. Through the use of conflict and symbolism, Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” portrays what Brown’s journey represents.

That is done through the use of “symbolic figures, imagery, and events which are condensed together to paint a specific moral, spiritual or political meaning in the story” (Jaynes, 2006). The story “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory and it is correct to state that the names of each character hold a particular meaning and characteristics of the owner. The main character Goodman Brown gets portrayed as a lover of adventure in a journey to satisfy his curiosity about the dark side of his Puritan town. The central idea in this story is the conflict faced by the main character as he tries to decide whether to join the devil or stay clean and maintain his faith. First of all, the main purpose of this story is to show that anyone can sin. In the beginning, Young Goodman Brown decides to set off on a journey of self-scrutiny despite his wife Faith begging him not to do that. In the beginning, Young Goodman wants to become the evil one. He then passes that stage “and holds onto his faith as the adventure in the woods unravel” (Hawthorne, 277). His name is symbolic and showcases his character in the story. The first name “Young” represents innocence, naivety, lack of experience and lastly a little immaturity. The second name “Goodman” represents his excellent character and strong faith as well as a clean heart. The name Faith portrays a person who wouldn’t sin, but in the setting, the character’s name does not fit her personality. At first, she seems worthy of her name and Goodman thinks she is innocent as portrayed by the pink ribbons. We see that Brown loses his faith in her as she ends up associating with devious activities despite promising him that she

Young Goodman Brown’s travels through the uncharted forests were aided by a travel guide, Old Goodman Brown. Old Goodman Brown is said to have looked like Young Goodman Brown except older. Initially the older man, who is symbolic of the devil, is amiable toward the travel, but his persistence to get Young Goodman Brown to go deeper into the forest, spikes one to believe that he has an ulterior motive. Hawthorne’s usage of the old man transmits the message that the devil can appear in any form. The risk that Goodman Brown takes with walking down the same road is that he is becoming desensitized and growing apart from his faith at the hands of

“Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835, is a short story about a man named young Goodman Brown who leaves his wife, Faith, to go on an errand into the woods with the devil. Faith begs Goodman Brown to not leave her alone, but he chooses to go anyways. This short story shows many signs of symbolism, such as the forest, the devil, the staff, the pink ribbons, Faith, sin, and guilt. These symbols help in understanding the story of young Goodman Brown and his unconscious struggle with his religion. The trip not only takes Brown onto a journey of sadness, but also into the deepest parts of his soul. Goodman Brown wishes to enter the dark forest of sin, to satisfy his

Young Goodman Brown is about a story of a young everyday man and his journey through a darkened forest with a dark and foreboding stranger. The theme of the story is about a test of faith, how one man figuratively abandons his Faith to seek a treacherous task with the dark stranger. His young wife Faith, is an allegory to faith, and his lying to and leaving Faith is a figurative demonstration of Young Goodman Brown literally abandoning his faith in God. There is also a use of foreshadowing in the phrase “There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree … What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!” (Hawthorn, 1835). This use of foreshadowing is very important, because this also denotes a shift in the story. This leads me to believe that the events following are just a dream, as it seems that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The staff that the man carries is repeatedly referred to, and compared to a snake, a serpent. The serpent is a biblically evil creature; the talking snake in the Garden of Eden was the manipulator of Eve that caused the fall of man.

In “Young Goodman Brown”, the reader is taken on a journey with a Puritan man named goodman Brown. The reader takes this journey with an evil counterpart who takes him down the literal path of sin. Nathaniel Hawthorne, like most gothic authors, used symbols to elaborate further on some of his major themes including the hypocrisy within the church. He shows the reader that there is more than meets the naked eye with people, places, and everyday object.

There are many interpretations of the main character in “Young Goodman Brown”. A group of authors such as D.M McKeithan and Selina Jamil believe that Brown’s journey into the woods was a journey in which he nearly lost his faith, as well as flip his world upside down due to his sinful actions. However, Walter Paulits claims that Goodman Brown only follows the Devil through his temptation since he is uncertain for, “Young Goodman Brown develops ambiguity … service of a more pervasive theme of ambivalence”

   The themes in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” are not as obvious as might be expected. This essay intends to present an interpretation of the tale along the lines of theme.

There are several themes in “Young Goodman Brown.” One of the themes that is mentioned throughout the story is love. The reader can tell Goodman Brown is a worthy husband by the way he talks and worries about his wife, Faith. Another theme in “Young Goodman Brown” is loss of innocence. In the beginning of the story Goodman Brown and Faith are a newlywed innocence couple. Throughout the story it shows the corruption of evil has gotten to them. The last theme is fear of wilderness. Brown battles between good and evil on his journey through the wilderness to find his true faith as he goes to meet with the devil.

   Nathaniel Hawthorne's works are notable for their treatment of guilt and the complexities of moral choices. "Moral and religious concerns, in short, are almost always present in Hawthorne's work"(Foster, 56). Given Hawthorne's background, it is not a stretch of the imagination to say that his novels are critiques of Puritanism. Hawthorne lived in the deeply scarred New England area, separated from Puritanism by only one generation. His grandfather had been one of the judges in the Salem Witch Trials. Personal issues include the various ways Hawthorne's family and specific events in his life influenced his writing. Readers can easily recognize how "Young Goodman Brown" incorporates

The way the theme of evil is shown in Young Goodman brown is through the adventure in the forest. In most stories the forest is always symbolized with a negative effect. It is shown with evil and something bad to become which is the case in Goodman Brown. As he journeys out of his little town to go for his adventure he leave his wife which is named Faith, showing symbolism of evil to come through the adventure through the forest. Predmore states, “As he leaves Faith he knows that hes night journey has an ‘evil purpose’"(251). This shows that Goodman Brown is leaving his faith behind which can be interpreted as his religion to venture out into the forest. This means that the theme of the forest is evil and he comes to danger because he leaves his religious belief (a form of protection) behind to go to a place

Throughout the story we see how Browns character transforms from good to evil and his attempts in resisting his nature. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown’s characterization is presented as innocent, righteous, and faithful, however, as the story develops the reader realizes that this isn’t an exact portrayal of his nature or that of the people he believed to walk on the right path, but rather a testament of the lost faith and innocence in the characters and Nathaniel Hawthorne himself.

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne presents several different literary devices such as: imagery, symbolism, and allegory to artistically and elegantly contribute to the story’s main theme. Hawthorne uses these devices to display his themes and ideas regarding the twisted dark path of evil and the inner fears of a man who treads the unknown path of temptation and curiosity. Hawthorne creates depth within the story, characters, and the setting by allowing them to be viewed differently than who they are and what their title holds. Hawthorne applies comprehensible religious ideas in order for people to perceive his theme