Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

   In the Bible, God commands Moses to go up Mount Sinai to receive divine instruction.    When he comes back, his people, the Israelites, have gone crazy.  They have forgotten Moses, and forgotten their God.  They form their own god, a golden calf, and build an altar.  They even had a festival for the golden calf.  "Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and sat down to indulge in revelry" (Exodus 32:6).  Moses then went down the mountain and got so angry that he smashed the tablets with the Ten Commandments on them.   The Israelites lost faith because they could not see the God they were worshipping, so they forgot him and began worshipping a false idol.  The Israelites are not very

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Young Goodman Brown based on morals and what Easterly in "Lachrymal Imagery in Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown' " calls "spiritual maturity" (Easterly 339). In the short story, Goodman Brown, a young Puritan leaves his wife of three months to watch a witch ceremony in the forest. During this point in time, Puritans based their lives on teachings of religion and morality; therefore, witch-meetings were surely immoral, and they betrayed the commitment of God. Dwelling in the forest throughout the night, Goodman Brown experiences an event that changes his entire perspective of life. In one night, the event destroys "his relationship with his wife Faith, isolates him from his neighbors, and destroys his ability to

Young Goodman Brown then finds himself alone in the forest, wondering whether he has awakened from a dream or if he really did attend the witches’ sabbath. Brown chooses to believe that his dream is true, and that everyone around him is involved in witchcraft. “The next morning, young Goodman Brown came slowly into the street of Salem village staring around him like a bewildered man.” (Paragraph 70) Because of this, Brown spends the remainder of his life being, "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man” (Paragraph 75). Goodman Brown now looks for the devil behind every bush and in the hearts of all those around him, never recognizing that his own soul is now hopelessly corrupt and blind to the light and goodness of God. The forest, the devil and his staff, and Faith and her pink ribbons are the main points to prove young Goodman Brown of a story full of symbolism. There is no doubt that the traveler meeting Brown is the devil and the devils staff is clearly the symbol of a serpent. Faith is both Brown’s wife and religion. The pink ribbons discussed are symbolized as innocence because his faith in God is the right thing to do. Unlike following the devil, which led Brown to sin and guilt. “Ha! ha! ha!” roared Goodman Brown, when the wind laughed at him. “Let us hear which will laugh loudest! Think not to frighten me

“Young Goodman Brown” is set right after the Salem Witch Trials and much of the story is based on the ideology of that era. Faith is clearly meant to represent Goodman Brown’s tether to Puritanism. Hawthorne gives us a flashing sign for this in only the second sentence “And Faith, as the wife was aptly named...” (315). This quote is fairly self-explanatory, but it is a bold message to pay attention to the character Faith and how she related to faith. Another description of the role of Faith, in Mr. Brown’s life, is in the form of the subtle wording he uses when talking to the devil. “ ‘Faith kept me back a while,’replied the young man,” (316) This quote may seem to be referring to Faith the character keeping him back a while, but with deeper inspection one can conclude that it references faith, as in his religion, kept him away from the sinful journey on which he is currently embarking. Another little key in the story is how Mr. Brown addresses his wife. “My love and my Faith,” (315). The faith in question is not the wife’s name, but instead he is calling his wife his faith or the holy that he believes in. The last quote that is needed to secure this symbolism is found as the devil is trying to seduce Goodman Brown to follow him further using the woman that taught him religion as incentive. “What if a wretched old woman does choose to go to the devil

The story Young Goodman Brown is about a man and his faith in himself, his wife, and the community they reside in. Goodman Brown must venture on a journey into the local forest, refuse the temptations of the devil, and return to the village before sunrise. The time era is approximately a generation after the time of the witch trials. Goodman Brown's struggle between good and evil is a struggle he does not think he can face. He reiterates his false confidence to himself repeatedly.

Faith plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”. From the start of his journey to his arrival back home, Faith is always in the back of head, making him question his surroundings and own thoughts. It’s hard to determine when he’s speaking of his lovely wife Faith or his Faith in his God and religion. Through his many

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

He has uncertainty towards everyone as they may be devil worshippers. Contrary to the beginning of the text, Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, was portrayed as a “blessed angel” that did no wrong (Hawthorne 7). The name “Faith” is symbolic because it represents Brown’s loyalty to following the Puritans beliefs which are to avoid going on witch hunts as it is a sin to be a witch. Goodman Brown is seen as a hypocrite because he is in shock that the people in his life have sinned by idolizing the devil; however, he also violated his beliefs by going to the forest to detect witch crafts. He begins to lose his innocence as his wife had delayed his trip because she wanted him to stay (12). By leaving her alone at home, he disobeyed her because instead of being an honorable husband, he was more curious about the devil that is in the woods. Moreover, Brown realized without the presence of Faith, he frets that he will be led to the devil and everyone will notice (46-50). He constantly is worried that he will be unfaithful; therefore, he feels lost without Faith being around as she represents the good in

In reference to faith, Brown’s wife is named Faith, and she begs him not to go into the Devil’s playground. This is a metaphor for faith in God. When Brown arrives in the forest and meets the old man, he tells Brown that he is late. Brown then replies with "Faith kept me back a while," which is

Faith is the most pure hearted character in the story. As Faith asked Brown to pray with her every night and he replied to her “My love and my Faith” (Hawthorne 251). When Brown stated this he wasn’t referring to his wife as his Faith but simply to connect about his Faith in God and referred to her as his love. This shows that he had Faith in God that he would protect him doing his journey that he was preparing to take. “With

The Devil tries Brown's faith with tales of his 'friends'. Whether the devil is testing Young Goodman Brown's faith or merely just trying to destroy it is an ambiguous point in the story. As he and the devil start through the forest, the old man begins to tell the stories of Brown's father and grandfather. His father set an Indian village on fire and his grandfather beat a Quaker woman, both with the help of their friend. He passes the news off as merely

“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, consist of beliefs that all humanity exists in a state of wickedness, except for the people who are born in a state of grace. The view of the story shows how swiftly Young Goodman Brown goes swiftly down the wrong path, when his faith is lost or is blinded by something, even without his knowledge. Faith is the key to his happiness and without it, he is unable to live his life to the fullest. Faith in a symbolic idea refers to the most pure hearted. Goodman Brown is a holy and a faithful man, until one day everything changes in his life.

Goodman Brown is adamant to retain his own religious piety and desires to sleep in the warm bosom of his wife Faith. He vainly attempts to return homeward but is thwarted once more. Hawthorne himself returned often to Salem in search of renewing his own faith. Satan continues to test Goodman Brown’s very spiritual faith and resolve by confronting him with the two most pious individuals of his community. The spiritual leader Deacon Gookin and the pious minister of the church are the two shepherds of Salem’s communal flock. These two gentlemen are in eager anticipation of a vast gathering and initiation of a “goodly young woman” (James, 225). This is an obviously intended reference by Hawthorne to associate Young Goodman Brown’s virtuous wife Faith. These respected leaders will sit in judgment of his Faith in the same manner as

First, Hawthorne uses Faith to represent young Goodman Brown’s faith in God. When Young Goodman Brown prepares to leave on his journey, Faith tries to warn him not to go on his set course and to stay with her (Hawthorne 261-262). By leaving her, the author symbolizes that Brown is consciously deciding to walk away from God, which ultimately leads him down the wrong path.

He was full stop but hadn’t experience and easy to be tempted by his friend, "having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to return whence I came. I have scruples, touching the matter thou wot'st of." (406) Finally, he continued to move forward. Brown’s first name is Goodman, it reveals he was a good man, he is nice and innocent. “Young Goodman Brown,” author tried to be forming a young and promising man, he structured a huge contrast after Brown meet the gathering. Faith, is the name of Brown’s wife. But “faith” can also means religion or belief. At first, Brown believed in his religion, but he was shake of it when he was in the journey, and when he saw Faith also joined the religious ritual, the wife who he thought pure and pretty, He felt that his religion and belief had been false. The reality what he thought was beautiful and lovely society were unreal and illusory all the