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Analysis Of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's ' Young Goodman Brown '

Decent Essays

Austin Barrett
Gosia Gabrys
English 1110.02
29 September 2015
Testing Faith In the allegorical short story Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses suspense and mystery to keep the reader interested. Throughout the story, Hawthorne makes the reader wonder what all the witchcraft, mysticism, and the double-sided lifestyles of the characters really means. Young Goodman Brown may be suspenseful, but the reader also has to look at it from a symbolic point of view. Hawthorne shows that a strong faith can basically make or break a man or a woman. When that strong faith begins to fade away, the world begins to be filled with doubt and second guessing. Before Goodman Brown heads into the woods at sunset, his wife tries to get him to stay at home that night and go on this journey in the morning while the sun is in the sky, but Goodman Brown argues against his wife saying that of all the nights if the year he has to go on his journey this night. Goodman Brown tells his wife he will return first thing the next morning and this shows he has a strong faith. Hawthorne uses Goodman Brown’s wife’s name, Faith, to show this throughout the story. His faith can be seen when Hawthorne describes Goodman Brown’s wife as aptly named with a pretty head and pink ribbons on her cap. This description suggests that Faith is pure and innocent, just like Goodman Brown’s faith in God. Goodman Brown reassures Faith of his faith by telling her that if she says her prayers and goes to bed by

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