How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Symbols In Young Goodman Brown

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” these literary devices are used to bring emphasis to Brown’s struggle with his moral and spiritual beliefs. Goodman Brown is challenged with an important decision to keep his faith or follow the temptation of evil. Allegory and symbolism of the pink ribbons, Faith, the staff, and the woods are used by Hawthorne to create an allusion that the town’s people could not be corrupted by evil.

Another symbol that we see in this story “Young Goodman Brown” is the pink ribbons that faith uses in her cap. “He looked back and saw the head of faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons” (Hawthorne 137).This seems to symbolize the ribbons as having a sort of positive emotion in this case towards the presence of Goodman Brown. In this story there were quite a few symbols that symbolized important events or ideas through the entire

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is full of symbolism throughout the story. Perhaps the most interesting examples of symbolism include the title character, Young Goodman Brown, as well as his wife, Faith, and the woods that Young Goodman Brown enters on his journey. Included are many allusions to Christianity and also to evil and sin. These references are expressed mainly through characters and settings in the story.

That is done through the use of “symbolic figures, imagery, and events which are condensed together to paint a specific moral, spiritual or political meaning in the story” (Jaynes, 2006). The story “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory and it is correct to state that the names of each character hold a particular meaning and characteristics of the owner. The main character Goodman Brown gets portrayed as a lover of adventure in a journey to satisfy his curiosity about the dark side of his Puritan town. The central idea in this story is the conflict faced by the main character as he tries to decide whether to join the devil or stay clean and maintain his faith. First of all, the main purpose of this story is to show that anyone can sin. In the beginning, Young Goodman Brown decides to set off on a journey of self-scrutiny despite his wife Faith begging him not to do that. In the beginning, Young Goodman wants to become the evil one. He then passes that stage “and holds onto his faith as the adventure in the woods unravel” (Hawthorne, 277). His name is symbolic and showcases his character in the story. The first name “Young” represents innocence, naivety, lack of experience and lastly a little immaturity. The second name “Goodman” represents his excellent character and strong faith as well as a clean heart. The name Faith portrays a person who wouldn’t sin, but in the setting, the character’s name does not fit her personality. At first, she seems worthy of her name and Goodman thinks she is innocent as portrayed by the pink ribbons. We see that Brown loses his faith in her as she ends up associating with devious activities despite promising him that she

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is an excellent example of the use of allegories and symbolism as a form of satire on Puritan faith. According to Frank Preston Stearns, author of The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Hawthorne may have intended this story as an exposure of the inconsistency, and consequent hypocrisy, of Puritanism” (Stearns 181). Throughout the story of “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne tries to infuse as many symbols and allegories as he can to enhance the overall meaning of his story. He uses the village, Goodman Brown, Faith, the man in the forest, and the time spent in the forest as either a symbol or an allegory to get his point across that Puritans are not always what they seem to be.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” we have an allegory that appears to be quite obvious. The pious young Brown literally and figuratively leaves his “Faith” and embarks on a walk with the devil. During his

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" the use of symbols contributes to the development of the story's plot. Symbolism is used as a means to uncover the truth about the characters. The author, in an attempt to manifest the moral aspects of his society, uses many kinds of symbols to support his points.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, “Young Goodman Brown,” is rich in symbolism, as this essay will amply illustrate.

Nathaniel Hawthorne also uses different objects in the story as symbols. One of these is the staff of the devil : "But the only thing about him, that could be fixed upon as remarkable, was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake . . ." (185). This symbol shows the reader the evil that is involved with the devil character because the serpent is an archetype of the devil, or some sort of evil, which is prominent in many different cultures. Another object Hawthorne uses as a recurring symbol is the pink ribbon. The pink ribbon symbolizes the purity and innocence involved with Faith. "And Faith . . . thrust her own pretty had into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons in her cap," is a great example of how Hawthorne correlates Faith with the pink ribbons of innocence (184). The pink ribbons are mentioned later on in the story as they fall from the sky: "But something fluttered lightly down through the air, and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon." (189). This symbolizes Brown's loss of his Faith, referring to both his wife and his faith in mankind, as she hovers over toward the devil's gathering.

Within many Gothic works, symbolism is profoundly used, especially in the tale of “Young Goodman Brown” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Was Faith his innocent companion or his trust in his religion? Why does Faith wear pink ribbons, innocence much like that of a child or a deep symbolic meaning? Deception is yet another symbol within this tale, because not everything is as it seams. By Faith, representation of colors, and deception, Hawthorne demonstrates Gothic symbolism within his tale of “Young Goodman Brown”.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown" is an excellent example of an allegory. Allegories use events, characters or symbolism as a bizarre or abstract representation of ideas in the story, and throughout "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne uses a heavy amount of symbolism, as well as his characters and the events of the story line to develop a religious allegory. A large symbolic role is played by protagonist Goodman Brown's wife, Faith. Also, the main event in the short story, Brown's journey into the forest, holds several major symbolic roles such as the traveler's staff, and the thick mass of black clouds. This essay will be exploring how Hawthorne used symbolism to achieve an allegory within his short story.

The premise of the story is mostly about how Goodman Brown leaves Salem village to undergo a spiritual journey in the woods. Although on this journey he runs into obstacles that might tempt him away from his rightful path, such as the elderly man, seeing the pink ribbons, and falling into the unholy assembly that occurs within the woods. On top of all that, there are details that Hawthorne decided to add a layer of complexity to through the use of two techniques: Ambiguity and Symbolism. Ambiguity is pretty much everywhere when the story shifts to Goodman within the woods, but if the reader truly wants to gain the most out of this allegory then they must find what Hawthorne uses as symbols within the story. Within Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown”, the symbols used in the story are as follows; the pink ribbons, Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, the woods, and the unholy assembly.

In the short story Young Goodman Brown, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Brown goes on a journey into the woods to do an unknown errand. He comes across an older man, the Devil, the Minister of the Church, Deacon Gookin, his catechism teacher, Goody Cloyse and later on his wife, Faith Brown. Throughout his journey he learns so lessons that change everything he has ever had, his religion, his views, his lifestyle, and his personality. Nathaniel Hawthorne conveys that everyone is good and bad, using symbolism and characterism, along with several others. He used everything from the ribbons on someone's hat, to the names of the characters, along with the underlining theme and plot.

Decisions are what separate one’s life from another life. In this case, metaphors have different meanings to them, which can make them have different interpretations. Therefore, one has to make a decision on how they interpret a metaphor. This is proven to be true in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, Young Goodman Brown. It is very crucial to look for metaphors as an individual reads. It helps foreshadow what is going to occur in the story. In addition, looking deeper into the meaning behind metaphors may give the reader a better understanding. Using metaphors may give the story much deeper meaning than just the text itself. Using the story Young Goodman Brown, the metaphors that Hawthorne used that enhances the story is the fire in Salem, names that are involved within the story, and the darkness that surrounds the character. During the time of interpreting metaphors, one will also see how Brown will be faced with several challenges that he is going to encounter. Also, Brown will be faced with the temptation in everything he will do. Contributing to this is using the five senses: smell, taste, feel, see and hear that actually deals with metaphors as well.

     Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism throughout his short story Young Goodman Brown to impact and clarify the theme of good people sometimes doing bad things. Hawthorne uses a variety of light and dark imagery, names, and people to illustrate irony and different translations. Young Goodman Brown is a story about a man who comes to terms with the reality that people are imperfect and flawed and then dies a bitter death from the enlightenment of his journey through the woods. Images of darkness, symbolic representations of names and people and the journey through the woods all attribute to Hawthorne's theme of good people sometimes doing bad things.