Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    "'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!'"

Hawthorn’s use of dramatic irony in Young Goodman Brown succoring suspense build up, divulging the sanctimonious comportment of Puritans.(1) For instance, when Young Goodman Brown did not recognize the old man traveler, the devil in disguise when clear demonstrations stood in front of him.(2) As the pious old women passed the traveller he touches her with his staff and she she she cried out, “The devil"(pg.5).(3) Knowing the denouement of the story, Young Goodman Brown unknowingly encounters the devil and goes farther into the "unholy" forest.(4) In addition, Young Goodman Brown ponders over the fearful possibility the devil watches him.(5) Goodman Brown half-heartedly questions, "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow"(pg.2).(6)

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.

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many different allegories are used. One of the most important allegories is Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith. Faith represents innocence, naivety, purity and Goodman Brown’s loss of innocence. In the beginning of the story, before Goodman Brown leaves Faith, Goodman Brown is oblivious to the evils around him. Then by the end, after his encounter with the Devil and journey through the forest, his eyes are opened to the evils he did not see before.

In "Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne makes the reader believe that Goodman Brown has learned the truth about the world and how evil it really is. In the story, the accounts of Goodman Brown let you believe that he has truly seen the evil in the world and knows what lurks behind everybody masks. He is displayed losing his faith in God. Although Goodman Brown thought his family, town, and wife were good people, he fell for the devil's evil tricks in believing that his family was not as it seemed and gave into sin. The character Young Goodman Brown written by Nathaniel Hawthorne finds many issues of evil concerning the town's people in which he lives, about himself, and the reality behind the evil. Throughout “Young Goodman Brown,” the main character

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”, (Matthew 6:13). The theme of sin is supported by the use of symbols, the path, the forest, and the staff.

In the short story, Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne Faith is a character who wears pink ribbons that have a literary symbolic meaning to the story. The ribbons are symbolic for innocence and purity. As Faith wears the ribbons throughout the story they gain a double symbolic meaning. The ribbons help to show appearance versus reality. The pink ribbons also help Young Goodman Brown through his ambivalent journey. Faith’s pink ribbons are showing her physical appearance, but can be misleading toward her true self.

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

   It is the intention of this essay to demonstrate the compulsion toward gross evil in “Young Goodman Brown” that is indicated by the actions of the characters, a compulsion that includes not only the leading characters but virtually everyone in the tale.

“Young Goodman Brown”, a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne deals with not everything is what it seems to be which relates to evil lurking in the shadows including even those who are perceived as innocent. In the story Hawthorne refers to faith a lot in the story making it to be something that Goodman Brown is certain to have but soon it becomes uncertain. He writes “ A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream.” This refers that Goodman Brown no longer has faith and knows evil is always around. Hawthorne uses symbols, the characters of this story, and the setting to unravel this occurring theme.

Young Goodman brown is a short story about a Christian Brown who believed in people at first, but his lost faith after he saw a gathering. Brown was a good and young man, he was living with his wife, a pure and pretty wife. He believed the life is so wonderful for him. But one night, he left his wife to go out on a journey, he found all things are different to his imagine. He saw the evil, he cannot believe the evil of the humanity around him, even his innocent and pure wife showed up in the gathering, too. This is a struggle between God and Satan.in the beginning of journey, Brown believed in God, he tried to go back home, but he cannot withstand the evil’s temptations and finally his faith collapsing. Author uses a lot of symbolism to reveals the human nature between evil and good.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” addresses the Puritan belief that human existence is premised in a state of depravity in the exclusion of those born in a state of grace. Hawthorne focuses on the exposure of the hypocrisy that is prevalent in the Puritan culture. He focuses on diverse literary devices in narrating the story of Young Goodman Brown’s journey into self-scrutiny which results into the loss of belief and virtue. Further, Hawthorne demonstrates the essence of symbolism and allegory in writing.

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem Massachusetts which was steeped in the Puritan legacy. An early ancestor, William Hathorne, was a judge known for his rigid sentencing and his son, John Hathorne, was as well one of the three judges during the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s. These actions made Nathaniel Hawthorne to distance himself from his family and changed his last name by adding a “w” to it. Hawthorne was an early American Romantic writer who is considered a very significant person for the elevated American short story from a part time killer into a major literary form together with the effort of Edgar Allan Poe. Hawthorne expressed his New England Puritan heritage throughout “Young Goodman Brown”. This story develops though Goodman Brown giving into evil and the dishonesty in his wife Faith, as well as, all characters being symbols as all people fall into temptation and go from good to evil.

The short story Young Goodman Brown reflects Nathaniel Hawthorne’s beliefs concerning the Puritan religion. During the latter half of the seventeenth century, Puritans living in England fled their home country to escape religious persecution and conformity. These individuals sought freedom; as a result, the Puritans made America their new home. Here, in the New World, Puritans created a repressive society very similar to the one they left behind in Europe. Young Goodman Brown follows Goodman Brown, the protagonist, in his journey into the forest. It is here, in the dreary woods, where Puritan hypocrisy and sin are displayed. Through his characters, Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals how evil triumphs good; he demonstrates this theme through Young