Good And Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story centered around the psychoanalysis of Young Goodman Brown. Hawthorne was an American Novelist who wrote exceptional short stories, many of the Dark Romantic genre. The genre is characterized by dark, gloomy, psychologically crazed, romanticisms that often don’t have that typical happy ending. Throughout “Young Goodman Brown” his mental capacity is put to the test as he is forced to endure a battle between 2 conflicting emotions. Ambivalence is shown throughout the story as well, due to these conflicting emotions. Young Goodman Browns departure on his journey outlines the power struggle of good and evil within himself and the sinful nature his psyche imposes on the members of his community.

Young Goodman Brown is a short story where the main purpose is to show the social issue of religion during the Puritan time. Although the author Nathaniel Hawthorne had not being living in that time, he came from a long line of Puritans. He wrote Young Goodman Brown to show the flaws of the Puritans’ view of religion. They made God seem heartless and mean spirited, someone who just used humans for entertainment. The short story Young Goodman Brown demonstrates that people should test their faith of their religious beliefs and even people considered upright can fall short of their own religious faiths from temptations and imperfections. In addition, the story shows that there is some degree of evil nature in everyone because of the freewill

Once Brown is deep into the forest, he is surrounded by people from his town acting wicked and sinful, people who he had always assumed were noble and righteous. As he is led to the altar to be received into this association of evil, he is joined by his wife, Faith. Brown cannot believe his religious and heavenly wife is there. She represents what is good to him, and he cries to her to look heavenward and save herself. But

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!'"

Though Nathaniel Hawthorne is an author of many great works, his short story “Young Goodman Brown” still stays relevant because it has themes and subjects that are relatable in today 's world. In the story “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown leaves his wife Faith, to go into the woods near Salem to have a meeting with the devil. Appearance vs. reality is shown in “Young Goodman Brown” through the plot, the character of Goody Cloyse, and the symbol of the maple staff.

When it comes to the topic of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, most of us will readily agree that duplicity is a major theme in the piece, or the idea of different versions of reality. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether Hawthorne is implying that man is inherently evil. Whereas some are convinced that Young Goodman Brown was good until tainted by the Devil, others maintain that he was evil from the beginning and was completely aware of the evil he was indulging in. My personal view, however, is that Young Goodman Brown was inherently evil, but it did not come to light until the Devil began to influence Brown. This can be seen through the use of symbolism, biblical allusions, and the development of the main characters. While the Devil may have revealed that Young Goodman Brown was not as innocent and pious as he appeared, Brown was willingly indulging in sin and was inherently evil.

Goodman Brown fell asleep in the forest and was dreaming. I believe he was dreaming and that all that all the stories of witches, curses, and religion played a part in his dream. Salem, Massachusetts is well known for the Salem Witch Trials. In the text it says that Brown fell asleep so it is most likely that he dreamt this whole situation. In his dream, religious figures Deacon Gookin and the minister were going to the ceremony. At the ceremony, he saw everyone he knew was turning evil, but decided to stay with God for Faith. If Deacon Gookin, the minister, and Faith were for God before he left into the forest why would they change their religious views at the

Young Goodman Brown," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the story of a young Christian mans struggle between good versus evil, and the loss of his innocence. All of us harbor a propensity for evil regardless of the mask that we put on for society.

This loneliness comes only after he is far away from his Faith and God and traveling deeper into the darkness of the forest, only “assisted by the [evil], uncertain [false] light” (2187). Young Goodman Brown overcomes his loneliness when he meets an older traveler who tells him that even Brown’s own family has come to the woods and shows him other supposed Christians who are in the woods on this night, too. Deception, something that evil uses to try to lure all people into its darkness, begins to slowly take hold of Goodman Brown when he sees other people he admires and looks up to in the woods, such as Goody Cloyse, towns-people (both good and evil), and even Deacon Gookin and the minister. Goodman Brown wants to fight against the evil images that he is enclosing him in the woods and he even calls out to his Faith, which represents not only his wife but his own faith in goodness and God, but his cries are “drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away” (2191). Finally, evil wins over Goodman Brown when he cries that his “Faith is gone,” meaning his relationship with his pure, good wife and his relationship with his pure, good God, when he sees Faith’s pink

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne introduces Goodman Brown, who doubts himself and reiterates his false confidence to himself repeatedly. His struggle between the evil temptations, the devil, and the proper church abiding life, is a struggle he does not think he can handle. This story is about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. Goodman Brown must venture on a journey into the local forest, refuse the temptations of the devil, and return to the village before the sunrise.

Later that day, he went in the gloomy forest to be in the ceremony in which he wanted no parts of. As he travels deeper into the forest, he meets with a man who so happens to be the devil. The old man shows Goodman the truth about his family, some of the villages, and his wife. Goodman Brown now sees how they are not true Christian as they swear to be, instead they preach the evil. Young Goodman Brown goes back to the village with fear. Although, he does not know if it was a dream, he no longer looks at anyone the

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is a certain uncertainty, deviousness, and a riddle of wrongdoing living within the citizens of Salem. Young Goodman Brown, a very naive person, is ruined when he realizes the hypocrisy of his religion as he witnesses the truth in the middle of Salem woods. His own people worshipping a being that is not God! Ironically, when Brown confronts his fellow townspeople, he is angered by their responses; they seem to have no recollection of what occurred in the woods. Thus leaving him in a state of insanity, where all Brown senses around him are lies. The natural impulse to keep secrets and lies can harm others. This is embodied in Young Goodman Brown, who goes from a typical puritan to an unkind, judgmental, depressed man.

"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a haunting tale of evil's strength when morality is based on others perception of one's righteousness, which then cultivates mass hypocrisy. This story follows Goodman's breakdown of faith through the symbolism of his sacrifices, obstacles, and transformation.

“Young Goodman Brown” is a dark romantic short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne originally published in 1835.