Goodman Brown Ambiguity

In “Young Goodman Brown”, after his journey into the forest, Brown changes his entire outlook on life. He has lost his faith and has taken on a life of darkness and unrest because he is never sure whether the events of what happened in the forest were reality or imagined. From that point on he is never at peace because he is always expecting evil. And he is then depicted as a man who never has happiness with his beloved “Faith”, that is his wife and his actual faith in God, or in any other thing in his life. Brown becomes a victim to the nature of evil and the effects that it can play on the

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the symbolism was used throughout the story. Hawthorne used symbolism to create another world of ideas concerning Goodman Brown’s faith. The symbolism in this short story shows points in Goodman Brown where he begins to make comparisons between his religious beliefs and the evil he is “witnessing.” Brown’s view on people and life becomes conflicted when he starts to realize that there is evil all around him. Nathaniel Hawthorne portrayed symbolism in this short story by giving his main character the name “Goodman Brown and naming Goodman’s wife “Faith”, the pink ribbons in her hair, the path Goodman chooses to take, the forest he goes through, the staff his companion carries and the significance of the townspeople he discovers in the forest all contribute to the symbolism that Hawthorne is delivering in this story.

Hawthorne in essence, portrayed Goodman as proof of the nature of evil in man by showing how easily even a young dedicated Puritan can easily be influenced by a complete stranger. This stranger was symbolically the Devil among men in this text. Hawthorne begins introducing the Devil immediately as trying to sway Goodman to follow him on a long journey. By leaving his wife, Faith to begin the journey, Goodman Brown was symbolically leaving his faith in God and entering a forsaken ground by following the Devil. The fact that Goodman Brown left with no regard for his wife Faith’s warning, symbolized the lack of regard for his own faith in God and his fellow human race. This simple disregard that Goodman Brown showed was evidence of the easily persuaded ability of man to choose sin over good.

Conflict and symbolism in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, Hawthorne in this story portrays these two elements that enhance the way the story is written. The story “Young Goodman Brown” first takes place in a small town with brown and his wife faith. Then in the story brown leaves faith to go in an adventure that he would later wish he hadn’t gone in. Brown takes a journey through part of the woods that are really scary and comes across the devil himself to later find out that faith was evil and that many from his town were also evil and had a secret evil organization or cult. Through the use of conflict and symbolism, Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” portrays what Brown’s journey represents.

    In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne, through the use of deceptive imagery, creates a sense of uncertainty that illuminates the theme of man's inability to operate within a framework of moral absolutism.  Within every man there is an innate difference between good and evil and Hawthorne's deliberate use of ambiguity mirrors this complexity of human nature. Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, is misled by believing in the perfectibility of humanity and in the existence of moral absolutes. According to Nancy Bunge, Hawthorne naturally centers his story upon a Puritan protagonist to convey the "self-righteous" that he regards as the "antithesis of wisdom"(4). Consequently, Young

Nathaniel Hawthorne constructs uncertainty throughout Young Goodman Brown by employing plot, point of view, and symbolism. For instance, the deception in plot occur as Young Goodman Brown traverses the threshold. Brown considers Faith to be pure and virtuous; a wicked act to leave such behind. Moreover, while conversing alongside the traveler Brown presumes the ethics of his ancestry and townspeople to be good due to high Faith in people. Brown’s perception shatters as the traveler discloses the sinful acts of the masses.

Finally, Goodman Brown arrives at the initiation ceremony only to be confronted by the image of his wife at the unholy altar. Although Hawthorne never offers any true evidence that Goodman Brownâs experience in the woods was anything more than a dream or hallucination, the Puritan passes judgment on Faith, and forever doubts her goodness. By allowing his audience to internally assess Faithâs guilt or innocence, Hawthorne forces his reader into a role of complicity with Goodman Brown (McFarland 37). Thus, Hawthorne has created a troubling character with both light and dark facets.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “Young Goodman Brown”, is a suspenseful story in which we see various forms of symbolism. This story presents us with the protaganist, a young and innocent man named Goodman Brown, which by his name is actually a good religious man. He departs away from his wife faith, to embark on a journey into the woods, he will return by morning. His wife faith begs him not go. On his journey, he finds himself on a dark path and it swallows him up as he advances along the path. Goodman Brown shows us that his faith is not as strong as he thought himself to be. Symbolism in this story, is used to illustrate the uncertainity of Brown’s faith, and the evil that tries to pull him in.

In “Young Goodman Brown”, the reader is taken on a journey with a Puritan man named goodman Brown. The reader takes this journey with an evil counterpart who takes him down the literal path of sin. Nathaniel Hawthorne, like most gothic authors, used symbols to elaborate further on some of his major themes including the hypocrisy within the church. He shows the reader that there is more than meets the naked eye with people, places, and everyday object.

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.

Evidence of Brown’s encounter being real is the fact that, when the ritual suddenly ended, Brown found himself in the exact spot that he had been, instead of in his bed, seeming to indicate that it wasn’t a dream. However, this same scene can also point to the event being a result of Brown’s imagination. All the members of the cult, who have physical bodies, vanish instantly. Brown could very well have been sleepwalking. For all we know, Brown may have already been a little crazy, in which case his paranoia would have preceded and caused his dream, which in turn would have accelerated the pace of his own downward spiral.

Hawthorne relates his own experience to share the life of Brown, and he also uses internal conflict to explore Young Goodman Brown’s identity crisis. In the beginning there was a conflict between the husband and wife. There is a slight conflict between the husband and wife as Faith fears danger and does not want Young Goodman Brown to leave her during the night, and this causes the distance between them. It then escalates into a conflict between the good and evil in the world when Young Goodman Brown meets the devil in the forest.

These events provide the main conflicts of the story both internal and external. The internal conflicts of the story are prompted by the external ones. For example, after seeing the magic serpent, Brown became conscious of the evilness of the journey and began to show hesitation about following it up. This is reflected in the devil’s words of encouragement which were addressed to Brown, "'Come, Goodman Brown’ cried his fellow-traveler, [the devil] ‘this is a dull pace for the beginning of the journey. Take my staff, if you are so soon weary."' Seeing the old woman Goody Cloyse in the forest, further enhances Brown’s fear and hesitation and further deepens the conflicts within him “Goodman Brown sat himself down on the stump of a tree and refused to go any farther. ‘Friend,’ said he, stubbornly, ‘my mind is made up. Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman Does choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven:...’” This shows that Brown is deeply divided by what he has seen in the forest and is now in earnest about giving up the journey. Moreover, the appearance of Brown's wife gives him a harder blow which amounted, unexpectedly, to a decalration of his disbelief. The appearance of Faith in the forest

The journey taken by Young Goodman Brown in his discovery of the evil in the world itself is both symbolic and mysterious, for the purpose, while that purpose must be important to draw young Brown away on this night, is never explained. It is offered as an important duty, a duty that is almost religious for the young man, but at the same time there is in the way the young man approaches the task the aura of evil to be met and fought. He worries that the devil himself might be following him, and indeed he does meet the devil and converse with him freely. The idea that this is all a dream is evident from the first as the young man worries about dreams and his wife:

Young Goodman Brown was a pure Christian that believed in everything good in God. Until, he went to the forest and spoke with the devil which changed his life forever. That meant that Goodman’s faith was weak and anything could’ve changed it. After his experience with the devil, his life was nothing but dark. He was never happy and didn’t trust anybody because he thought everyone was