Nathaniel Hawthorne 's Young Goodman Brown

Many authors who write of religious, philosophical, or moral issues frequently use symbolism and allegory to spark the reader’s interest. This style of writing builds on the emotions of the reader. It creates a visual image making the story real and believable.

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.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” tells the tale of a man whose Puritan beliefs were shaken to the core because reality turned out to be much different than he was taught in catechism. Goodman Brown showed readers how much he believed in his family’s goodness when he claimed “We have been a race of honest men and good Christians… We are a people of prayer, and good works, to boot, and abide no such wickedness” (Hawthorne 247). Because of this, Brown is surprised when he comes to know that people he thought were holy were in fact advocates for the devil and sinners- especially his wife Faith. People that he held in the highest regard were nothing but the lowest of the low to him now. He becomes surly, loses all faith in humanity, and develops a bitter worldview after this revelation.

In this extract from “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism, imagery and point of view to depict Goodman Brown’s eventual journey from naivety in man’s purity of faith to recognition of man’s disposition to evil. It reveals Brown’s misplaced faith in man, who is deficient, instead of God.

Faith plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”. From the start of his journey to his arrival back home, Faith is always in the back of head, making him question his surroundings and own thoughts. It’s hard to determine when he’s speaking of his lovely wife Faith or his Faith in his God and religion. Through his many

Within Nathaniel Hawthorne 's short story "Young Goodman Brown" (p.317), Young Goodman Brown travels through a dark and mysterious forest late at night. Ignoring the pleas of his pure wife Faith, he ventures deep into the woods with many dangers around him, only to emerge in the morning a changed man with bewildered views on his own Puritan life and the Puritan community around him. At the cause for this change in mindset, the dream of an old man symbolizing the devil appears, showing him the community partaking in a ritual which can only be described as an act of worshipping the devil. This symbol is one of the more obvious ones found within the story of "Young Goodman Brown", some are equally obvious while others may require more in-depth analyzing. These symbols are so prevalent in the story that they all have meanings that advance the story and create more depth within the characters.

While Faith may be a largely moral person, by living in a town in which every town member was shown succumbing to the lures of the devil, Faith is influenced by society to conform. Thus when “something fluttered lightly down through the air, and… the young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon,” Goodman Brown, as well as the reader, becomes aware of Faith’s inner darkness (Hawthorne, 9). Moreover, when Goodman Brown sees Faith being inducted into the devil’s cult with him, Goodman Brown tries to make Faith remain pious and moral when he exclaims “Faith! Faith! Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!” (Hawthorne, 11). While there is ambiguity following this exclamation pertaining to whether or not Faith did, in fact, resist the temptation of the devil, Faith’s arrival at the devil’s cult in itself exposes that “evil is the nature of mankind” (Hawthorne, 11). However, at the end of Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, Faith reverts back to being the good, moral and pious wife, as she never abandons her religion and all the while takes care of her husband who has transformed from loving to grumpy due to his experience with the devil. By characterizing Faith as the pure and pious wife of Goodman Brown, Hawthorne successfully demonstrates how even the most moral person can give into the temptations of

At the beginning of the story Brown is already letting temptation get to him and it starts him on his journey Hawthorne writes, “Young Goodman Brown come fourth at sunset, into the street of Salem village, but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange with his wife”. (368) His wife is the first person he meets, she is ironically named Faith and Faith is seen to represent Browns religion, innocence, or even God. Upon meeting Faith she pleas to him not to go and to stay with her she says, “pithree, put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night. Alone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she’s afraid of herself, sometimes. Pray, tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year!” (368) Brown has a guilty conscious, this ius conveyed through his Faith, he knows what he is about to do and it burns in his mind. He eventually rejects these pleas, justifying that he will only do this once and he will come back to Faith, Brown says, “Well;

In this story “Young Goodman brown” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835 the plot is that there is a young man a really devout Christian who goes through life thinking everything is perfect until he finds out not everything is as it seems. Young Goodman Brown portrays the average man going through life trying to do right by everyone else but can never seem to do that. In life everything always seems like one thing but in there end it turns out they were completely wrong. In this story it shows that nothing is as it seems, the names of the people in this story suggest one thing but then they represent something else this is represented by the characters, theme, and setting.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” (repr. in Thomas R. Arp, and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 8th ed. [Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2002] 316) is a short story with strong Puritan influence. Puritanism is a religion demanding strict moral conduct and strong faith. Puritans held that Christians should do only what the Bible commanded. Analyzing “Young Goodman Brown” is dependant upon understanding the Puritan faith. The influence of the Puritan religion is vivid in literary elements such as setting, allegory, and theme.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne short story “Young Goodman Brown,” he takes us on a journey of the human heart, in which he would later coin the phrase that “there is a fund of evil in every human heart”. Though, the story is filled with dark gloomy imagery, still Hawthorne was able to keep us wanting to know more base on the fact its Salem village and we all know their history. With the uses of symbolism, and irony the author incorporate nature such as the “deep forest”, and “Faith” the newly wife of young Goodman brown working hand in hand to illustrate the purpose of the story. Hawthorne shows us that our faith should not be define base on the perception of others, see with Goodman Brown, would be compromised and weaken.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work Young Goodman Brown reveals how hard it is in the revelation of the harsh realities of the society. The society with is characterized by secrecy.  People hide behind the curtains of daily practices and a normal life despite the odd their practices. However, anxiety reveals the realities of people in the community that may come with great prices as for the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s main character Goodman Brown. Viewing the carefully the sense at the beginning of the story and towards the end of the story tells us how much is changed for Goodman Brown’s involvement and perception of the society and all these are the harsh reality.

“Young Goodman Brown” may have been published more than a century ago; however, it is a story whose deeper meanings can still provoke a stirring within the hearts of many today, especially amongst those who consider themselves religious. Hawthorne composed a literary work that creatively illustrates the quintessential human struggle between the good and evil within every human to ever walk the earth. However, “Young Goodman Brown” does not simply walk us through this struggle, as many other stories do, but it also demonstrates the consequences a person must face after a fall from faith into corruption. Young Goodman Brown decides to travel down a dark path, taking part in acts of moral depravity, all of his own inclination; and he must face the reality of a decision he made all on his own, one that may have changed how he saw the people around him but more importantly how he saw himself. Although it is so much simpler for young Goodman Brown to condemn those around him for their wickedness, the blame rests squarely on his shoulders, and his personal sin and consequent guilt is the root of his demise.

"Young Goodman Brown," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the short story of Goodman Brown and how the choices he makes shake his faith and change the person he is. In the story, Goodman Brown is intent on setting out on a nighttime journey in lieu of staying home with his wife of three months, Faith. Through the decisions that he makes, Goodman Brown not only loses connection with his wife, but also loses his faith in humanity. As such, Goodman Brown's exclamation of "My Faith is gone"¦There is no good on earth and sin is but a name. Come devil; for thee is this world given" takes on two meanings, one of which is metaphorical and the other literal.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown”, he addresses the value of the intense religious culture of that early American time period and the hypocrisy that often went along with it by examining motifs of true faith and self-scrutiny. The symbolism in Hawthorne’s story isn’t meant to be subtle in the slightest whether it’s the wife of the eponymous character, a woman aptly named Faith, or the “mysterious” hooded man in black who leads him down a dark path, which can be easily inferred to be the Devil if one takes a look at it. Literary analyst Thomas Walsh explains, “For an understanding of what happens to Goodman Brown the reader should be conscious of three sets of symbols: first, Faith, Brown 's wife, represents religious faith and faith in mankind; second, Brown 's journey into the forest represents an