Good And Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (New International Version Bible, Matthew 15:8). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story utilizes extensive symbolism to merge reality with imagination and expose the duplicity of the religious. The theme of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “Young Goodman Brown” is hypocrisy and can be established by Goodman Brown’s journey, epiphany, and transformation throughout the story.

As mentioned, when Goodman Brown wandered into the forest, he encountered a man. This man is seen to be the Devil due to the serpent like engravings that wrapped around his staff. With a resembling figure of Goodman, the

    "'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!'"

Epic heroes go on a journey to gain knowledge and wisdom from the gods. The hero enters the traditional journey with a strong sense of direction, has a noble goal, and is willing to overcome and persevere. However, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” the protagonist journeys for muddled, ambiguous reasons. Hawthorne’s protagonist in the short story “Young Goodman Brown” enters into an allegorical journey. Throughout Brown’s journey Hawthorne uses imagery and symbolism to show the fall of Young Goodman Brown.

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.

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.

He enters the woods one evening, even though Puritans believed that the woods harbored the Devil, with "evil purpose." The Devil plays with Young Goodman Brown’s mind by appearing as an old man—who looks a great deal like Brown. Throughout the whole errand, the old man kept urging Goodman Brown to take his snake-like staff to use as a walking stick, “‘...here is my staff, if you will’” (Hawthorne 4). The staff is symbolic for an evil guide because the Devil wants Goodman Brown to obtain and sacrifice himself to sin. After multiple rejections, the wicked one tried throwing the staff to Goodman Brown, hoping his reflexes would automatically catch the staff. As they walk and talk, Brown realizes that his ancestors were in league with the Devil for generations. Brown is surprised because this shows that his family has worked with the evil one before. Then, the Devil tells Brown that many people know and associate with him assuming that in a broad sense, these people sin—that is their association with the Devil. The last temptation thrown at Goodman Brown was that the Devil decided to use Faith against him. As Richard L. Fogle goes on to explain, “A pink ribbon, which he remembers having seen in his wife’s hair, comes fluttering down into his grasp” (451). At this exact moment, Young Goodman Brown realizes that his Faith is gone. Maddened with despair, he laughs loud and long and then, Goodman Brown grasp the staff and set forth again, at such a rate that he seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk or run. His swift movements imply that he is flying like a witch on a broom. Young Goodman Brown’s soul is taken and left him sinful and

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the reader is left with unanswered questions about what actually happened to Goodman Brown the night he took an unforgettable journey into the woods. Therefore, questions form about dream or real life occurrences, and it lingers over the minds of the readers after this ominous, short story ends. Experience versus imagination in the short story “Young Goodman Brown” are questionable because Hawthorne allows the reader to interpret their own imaginations with evidence to conspire if Brown only had a dream, or if it was all reality proving that evil lives within everyone.

It is hard to read beyond the third paragraph of “Young Goodman Brown” without finding allegory and symbolism. The opening seems realistic--Goodman Brown, a young Puritan, leaves his home in colonial Salem to take an overnight trip-- but his wife's name, “Faith,” immediately suggests a symbolic reading. Before long, Brown’s walk into the dream-like forest seems like an allegorical trip into evil. The idea that Hawthorne shows by this trip is that people are attracted to sin through temptation which leads them towards a path of isolation and distrust. He develops this thought in the allegory and in many symbols, particularly the staff, the pink ribbon, and Faith.

“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathanial Hawthorne, is a story about a man who goes on a journey into darkness and encounters his own evil/the devil. The evil comes within him and other people he knows and love. His wife named Faith is one of the individuals captured by the evilness/ the devil. In the story, Faith is very symbolic to Young Goodman Brown. Not only is Faith his wife, however she is also a symbol of his religious faith. At one point, Brown declares that he has “lost his faith.” While in the woods he heard a scream and realized it was his wife. He found her pink ribbon fluttering on the branch of a tree and says, “My Faith is gone! There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is this world given.” (Young

In the story “Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the evil there is in people by telling a story about the puritans. The puritans were a group of Christians that sought purification of the church; they made their own religion and changed their lifestyle to be pure and free of any sin. In this story, Goodman Brown, goes off on a trip to the woods and he encounters a second traveler. This traveler tells him about meeting his past ancestors and about the people in his town. While they speak, various townspeople appear going to a witch meeting.

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown," an innocent young man bids farewell to his wife Faith, who asks him to stay quite longer. Brown insists that he must leave that very evening. While venturing into the gloomy forest, a fifty-year-old man approaches him bearing a strange resemblance. The man has a living serpent that almost set Goodman Brown to turn back. The companion reminds him that his ancestors had walked the same path. A woman Goody Cloyse approaches resembling a witch and from such instances Goodman seats down and he is determined not to go any further. Goodman brown suddenly starts to hear voices and among them the lamentation of his wife back at home. He later sees an alter surrounded by around four blazing trees with sinners and criminal in attendance. Therefore, this paper is going to expound about the virtue of endurance as the main theme in all the three stories. It will later cover the motifs of female purity and their symbol in society.

At the end of the story, the Devil tells Young Goodman Brown and Faith that their new outlook on life will emphasize humanity’s inevitability to sin and condemns Young Goodman Brown to a life of disgust and anger at the sins of man. Young Goodman Brown now thinks the complete opposite of what he did in the beginning of the story. He thought his family was holy and Faith was pure. The Devil points out how naive his views are and allows him to see the darkness in any human. Young Goodman Brown returns to the town, trusting no one due to the fact that he cannot stop seeing the evil in everyone.