Essay on the Evil in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

In "Young Goodman Brown." Nathaniel Hawthorne considers the question of good and evil, suggesting that true evil is judging and condemning others for sin without looking at one's own sinfulness. He examines the idea that sin is part of being human and there is no escape from it.

    "'Lo! There ye stand, my children,' said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad, with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelis nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. "Depending on one another's hearts, ye had still hoped, that virtue were not all a dream. Now ye are undeceived! Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!'"

I think one of the biggest symbols in the story was Satan himself. When we hear the word Satan we think, hell, fire, he it the symbol for ultimate evil and Brown himself continues that tradition. Satan represents a number of things in the story like evil lies within all of us. When Goodman Brown first had a meeting in the woods, Satan is described as an older version of Brown, "apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though more in expression than features. Still they might have been taken for father and son." In human form, Satan carries with him, a walking stick in the shape of a snake. Since the story of Adam and Eve, snakes have been symbolic representation of Satan.

“Young Goodman Brown” tells the story of Goodman Brown. Goodman Brown begins the story about to leave home and his Puritan Wife Faith to go on a journey that he felt guilty with to begin with. Despite his initial guilt, he leaves home a devout Puritan and sound in his beliefs. Throughout the story, Goodman Brown digresses as a man and loses his faith over the course of events of the story. On his journey, Brown meets a man who first tries to tempt him to go with him to a meeting in the forest. The man turns out to be the devil. Before parting ways, the devil gives Brown a staff

Later in the story, Young Goodman Brown has a conversation with the devil. The devil tells Brown that he was acquainted with his father and grandfather and that they had been involved in evil business. Brown shows no emotion when he receives this information. The reader does not know if Brown is frightened, repulsed or disgusted by the thought of his relatives consorting with the devil. Brown does not even try to deny such a claim which, in early New England, would surely have been heresy. Brown’s only response to the information is to say,” If it be as thou sayest, replied Goodman Brown, I marvel they never spoke of these matters. Or, verily, I marvel not, seeing that the last rumor of the sort would have driven them from New England.” Again, the reader had no clue as to Brown’s true emotions. In order for a reader to care about the story, how it ends, whether or not it is true, a reader has to have an idea of what the main character thinks. The reader needs to know more than the words that are spoken; he needs to know the sentiment behind the words. At the end of the story, the reader does not know if the story is true nor does he necessarily care because the use of the third person narrator did not enable the reader to feel a connection with Young Goodman Brown.

In “Young Goodman Brown,” there is a fight between good and evil with one main character being torn between the two sides and every other character seemingly on one side or the other through the reader’s view, although many characters do deceive Goodman Brown about whether they are good or evil. This fight between the two sides and the deception that causes confusion for Goodman Brown is the source of tension throughout the entire story. In “Young Goodman Brown,” every character’s traits and dialogue, the setting, and even colors mentioned have double meanings and are symbolic to the main binary oppositions of either good or evil.

Hawthorne's ambiguous ending in "Young Goodman Brown" leaves the reader asking one question. "Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch hunting?" Most readers of this allegory try to answer this question, believing that Goodman Brown did in fact take the "dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest." Hawthorne himself has avoided answering the question, and has instead left it up for the reader to decide Goodman Brown's fate. The reader can never be certain about what actually happened in the forest; the reader can, however, be certain, not only of the nature and stages of Goodman Brown's despair, but also of its probable cause. This can be seen through Faith, Brown's

The desires of humanity often reflect the temptations residing in the heart’s depths. Evil’s lure is a strong pull felt by all, regardless of the appearance put on through the conscious mind. In literature, temptation is explored thoroughly, especially in the short story, “Young Goodman Brown”. “The tale becomes in great part, thus, a record of temptation” (Pualits 578-579). The author of “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. His family has a long standing history in Salem, as his relative John Hathorne was a judge in the Witch Trials. Soon after the trials a ‘w’ was added to the family’s last name to distance themselves from the horrors of the time (Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography). Set during

Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” suggests that there is only darkness and evilness in man’s heart. The story begins with Brown—the protagonist—telling his wife, Faith, goodbye. Brown goes on his way; soon, he meets a man who greets him as though he was expecting him. Goodman Brown notices the distinct walking stick that the man carries—the stick features a “great black snake,” which seems lifelike. The man offers Brown the stick, saying that it will help him walk faster, but Brown refuses because the stick is a symbol for accepting the devil and darkness into one’s life. Because Brown wants to return to the village, he does not want to touch the staff since that would make him evil. Goodman Brown tells the man that he has come from generations

Young Goodman Brown is a story of the purest and the devil himself. Along a fictional journey, a young man discovers the truth with the nature of humans and those he thought to be faithful to the puritan religion within his life. As the journey continues a moral lesson is learned, there is sin within us all. Hawthorne used the common known symbols for evil and pure to create the idea of simple goodness and bad, to create a basis for the story. The symbolic elements Hawthorne used within Young Goodman Brown are uses in various ways to create the analysis of good are not without sin.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” how does the author present the characters, dialogue, actions, setting and events which comprise the narrative in this short story? This essay will answer these questions.

To lean on sin, one's eyes become opened to the darkness that lurks around us, but at the same time, we become numb to the extent at which the evil takes over. In the bible, the serpent is a metaphor for evil, when young Goodman Brown addressed his companion he noted heavily upon the fact that he (the companion) carried a staff “which bore the likeness of a great black snake.” The man; though friendly in appearance, brandished such a dark essentical object Young Brown was able to see how unstable it truly was, it's dark aura was simply too much to keep concealed. The precarious shape of the staff itself wasn’t enough to shock Brown though, rather, it was the fact that it appeared to be alive. Once again referring to the bible, during moses’s plea to free his people, he tried to show God’s might by asking for his staff to

He finds that all of the good people are participating in a frantic satanic ritual and god forsaken acts that forsake God himself. One of the key points in “Young Goodman Brown”, is the battle of whether or not Goodman Brown should remain good or joining the devil. The journey for Goodman Brown is very difficult, as he traverses through the woods at night, all while contemplating of the good things such as his wife Faith who he leaves behind. This internal conflict causes a destruction of the Young Goodman Brown and results in the creation of a completely different man.

Brown was able to withstand the devil's charm and temptations and he continued to believe in his God. The devil is personified in this story as the traveler that leads Young Goodman Brown deep into the woods and shows him a worship service like he had never seen before. While the traveler and Young Goodman Brown were walking along the path they ran into Goody Cloyse whom had taught young Brown his catechism. He would have never known the true people who lived in his community and even his own wife. It was an evil place and showed that the traveler and Brown originally had an evil

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne sets the locale of the story during the Salem witch trials at his convenience to include the Calvinist theme of sin, that belief in which formed the early history of New England’s social and spiritual identity. As a dark romantic, Hawthorne includes the elements of human nature, mysticism, good and evil, and one’s own spirituality to convey his message to the reader. However, it is left to the reader’s own digression to interpret his ambiguous conclusions. At the beginning of the short story, Brown finds himself on a journey to the enchanted forest outside of his village for a mysterious appointment. Unknowingly, Brown is traveling into the heart of darkness in which he will be