Innocence In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Faith attempts to hold Brown back from his journey, yet for reasons unknown, he insists upon going. As Young Goodman Brown embarks on a journey into the forest without Faith, he also leaves behind his faith in society. Repeated images of the road Brown takes and the dark forest around him, add to the allegory. “He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be, and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead, so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.” (Hawthorne 198). As Brown wanders down the dark foreboding path that closes behind him, the potential for spiritual danger arises, foreshadowing the loss of his spiritual faith.

This short story is characterized by the main character being led astray from the path that society had set for him to follow the ethics and ideas of a puritan society. He remains oblivious to the idea that everyone around him is a sinner while remaining in the presence of society, this is seen in the mention that “My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians, since the days of the martyrs. And shall I be the first of the name of Brown, that ever took this path and kept’”(Hawthorne 2), Brown is under the impression that he himself is the only sinner in the entire town of people this occurs because the community from which he was born and from which he was raised as successfully convinced him to fear sin, and that if he does sin he will be the sole sinner amongst a society of pure people. This fear of isolation caused Brown to resist temptation to sin for the majority of his life, though this also kept him from thinking independently outside of the ideas that the community thrust upon him. When Brown finally does stray from the ideas of the community he begins to realize that he lives amongst sinners, and no one is pure amongst them, “‘There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil! For to thee is the world give’”(Hawthorne 5). This idea is important because it demonstrates the idea that despite individuals changing, the community remains the same. This in turn means that the ideals of a community can be based on fallacies and it is imperative for the individual to question every idea to fully understand its implications and

Young Goodman Brown's inability to acknowledge, and even embrace Faith's humanity, leads to the climatic loss of his "faith" in the forest. He beholds the pink ribbon that has

   Faith is believing what you can’t see or touch. Faith is knowing something especially when there is no proof to back it up. “Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a man who leaves his wife, Faith, home alone for a night while he journeys with the devil down the road of temptation. During the course of his journey, the man sees many people who seem out of place, including his wife. When he returns home to Salem, he is a changed man. In this story, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism and characterization in order to imply that when an individual loses faith in the goodness of mankind, that individual may conclude that mankind (including friends and family) has given in

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown,” the author Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the fragility of humans when it comes to their morality. Goodman Brown goes on a journey through the forest with the devil to watch the witches’ ritual and observes the evil in the Puritan society. He loses his faith as he sees the people he respects the most participating in the sinful ritual. Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes setting, and symbolism in his short story “Young Goodman Brown,” to show how a person’s perspective can change by showing the hypocritical nature of the Puritan society

The author, William Faulkner, has a collection of books, short stories, and poems under his name. Through his vast collection of works, Faulkner attempts to discuss and bring awareness to numerous aspects of life. More often than not, his works were created to reflect aspects of life found within the south. Family dynamics, race, gender, social class, war, incest, racism, suicide, necrophilia, and mental illness are just some of the aspects that Faulkner explored. In “A Rose for Emily” the aspects of necrophilia and mental illness along with the societal biases that were observed in a small-town setting are seen to be a part of this captivating story. These aspects ultimately intertwine with the idea of insanity that characterizes “A Rose

Young Goodman Brown" tells the tale of a young Puritan man drawn into a covenant with the Devil. Brown's illusions about the goodness of his society are crushed when he discovers that many of his fellow townspeople, including religious leaders and his wife, are attending a Black Mass. At the end of the story, it is not clear whether Brown's experience was nightmare or reality, but the results are nonetheless the same. Brown is unable to forgive the possibility of evil in his loved ones and as a result spends the rest of his life in desperate loneliness and gloom.

He knows that the men (minister and Deacon Gookin) represent good but ironically are heading towards the evil as well. At this moment, he still seems to have faith. However, when he sees his wife, Faith, heading to the ceremony, he is in shock and dismay. On page 259, he says, “My Faith is gone! cried he, after one stupefied moment.

On he flew among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to inspiration of horrid blasphemy, and now shouting forth such laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around him” (6). With the absence of his wife, this outrageous anger within Brown explodes, and he begins to let his demons out, which would make any passerby, fearful. Everyone on Earth is a sinner, but not everyone is completely evil. However, Faith, both his wife and his faith in God, were the only things keeping Brown at bay. When his wife Faith is lost, so is he because she is the only reason for him to have faith in himself and in God.

The reader sees different examples that can explain this particular theme. Brown lost all innocence after his meeting in the forest with the devil. He lost all his innocence because he chose to take that road, he chose to meet with him, and find every respectable member of his community serving the devil. During his meeting with the devil, he realized

In the late 1600s, the infamous Salem Witch Trials occurred. The Salem Witch Trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of those accused of witchcraft. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne shows that the Puritans are hypocrites by showing that members of the Puritan community lie about their beliefs. Young Goodman Brown lives with his wife, Faith, who urges him not to travel into the forest, but Young Goodman Brown chooses to ignore Faith’s advice and continue into the forest. In the woods, Brown meets with a strange traveler who he later realizes is the devil in disguise and witnesses him speak to Goody Cloyse as if they are friends.

In the short story, Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne Faith is a character who wears pink ribbons that have a literary symbolic meaning to the story. The ribbons are symbolic for innocence and purity. As Faith wears the ribbons throughout the story they gain a double symbolic meaning. The ribbons help to show appearance versus reality. The pink ribbons also help Young Goodman Brown through his ambivalent journey. Faith’s pink ribbons are showing her physical appearance, but can be misleading toward her true self.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is about a Christian man, the title character who walks through a dark and dreary forest, witnessing some people in his community he thought were godly walking deeper into the “path of evil.” He has to make a decision whether to keep walking towards the satanic meeting or go back home. The characters Hawthorne chooses have some relation to either the trials or the Christian way of life. Back in the middle 1900s, the society relied heavily on the church. During the time of the trials, many were accused of witchcraft if for no other reason than because they did not “fit” the norm of society. If a person was not seen as “normal” in their society they were not accepted. Society

The only person that felt any different from that night in the woods was Goodman Brown. As he entered the village he saw Faith gazing anxiously forth any sign of him.. Once she saw him, she burst into such joy at sight of him that she skipped along the street and almost kissed her husband before the whole village. But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting"(947). Goodman Brown is then punished the rest of his life, due to his unrealistic belief that everyone is perfect and no one sins. Goodman Brown is very distrustful to everyone in his community and ironically creates his own hell.

   This essay will examine the main physical settings within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown.” These are four in number and begin and end in the village of Salem.