Sin In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

In the story of "Young Goodman Brown" setting plays an important role. It provides symbolism to certain events and provokes emotions amongst the characters, especially those of Goodman Brown. The story of "Young Goodman Brown" is that of a man on an adventure to feed his curiosity and to visit the dark side of his Puritan town. Once he arrives at the destination of his adventure, he realizes that many of his elders have followed in the paths of evil and that holiness and innocence has been vanquished from his once thought to be holy Puritan town. The central idea of "Young Goodman Brown," is the conflict in Goodman Brown between joining the devil and remaining

The dialogue, action and motivation revolve about the characters in the story (Abrams 32-33). It is the purpose of this essay to demonstrate the types of characters present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” whether static or dynamic, whether flat or round, and whether protrayed through showing or telling.

“Young Goodman Brown,” a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, recounts the tale of a young Puritan man who is transformed by witnessing the bitter truths of humanity. In Goodman Brown’s journey into the woods, he discovers the hidden evils of the individuals that once appeared virtuous to him. Throughout the story, the forces of good and evil are contrasted. In this short story, Hawthorne uses symbolism, the discordance between a character’s appearance and his/her true nature, and contrasting colors to portray the vicious and hypocritical nature of Puritans.

  There is no end to the ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”; this essay hopes to explore this problem.

There are many obvious cues in “Young Goodman Brown.” The first example is the name, Goodman Brown. His name is symbolic of the good man he is and of the faith he bestows. Another example is his wife named Faith, “and Faith, as the wife was aptly named.” (Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”) She is a representation of his own religious ‘faith’ and reflects their innocence and purity, sin, the consummation between married couples, and the complications of living in a world where these qualities are mingled. When she "thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap"(Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”) we associate the purity of ‘Faith’ and the ‘pink ribbons’ as a sign of the innocence and goodness of the town he must leave behind. His leaving her to enter the dark and dismal forest is symbolic of him leaving his faith in the religious sense. This is the first decision he has to make - to leave his faith and enter the evil that is the forest. It is obvious that he is frightened as he walks through the forest. He runs into an old man there holding a staff that resembles a serpent. This is the man that he was looking for. This man is evil and Goodman Brown is confident that he can resist the temptations he is offered. It is obvious that this man is representative of the Devil who Goodman Brown so obviously fears and wants to avoid.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne introduces Goodman Brown, who doubts himself and reiterates his false confidence to himself repeatedly. His struggle between the evil temptations, the devil, and the proper church abiding life, is a struggle he does not think he can handle. This story is about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. Goodman Brown must venture on a journey into the local forest, refuse the temptations of the devil, and return to the village before the sunrise.

Should we accept our sinful nature, or run from it? This is a question that is explored in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne through stories of Puritan society. Hawthorne creates characters that both give in to and deny sin. However, the only characters that are immovably miserable are Goodman Brown (“Young Goodman Brown) and Arthur Dimmesdale (The Scarlet Letter): those who cannot accept their sin. While Dimmesdale does eventually admit to his sin, Goodman Brown never does and lives out his life miserably. Hawthorne specifically makes characters unhappy due to their inability to admit to their own sin to demonstrate that those who do admit to their sin are far happier.

In the short story Young goodman brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goodman Brown realizes something extremely important about the world. Around the beginning of the story, we can tell that Brown is very easy going and trusting. However, that changes by the end of the story.

“Young Goodman Brown,” by Nathanial Hawthorne, is the story of one man’s journey to find himself. In it, Hawthorne uses many elements as symbols to add significance throughout the chronicle. The author does a good job of portraying some of the people and objects with symbols and allows the story to become more developed.

In Hawthorne’s fiction, he shows sin is inevitable and inherent. Sin is essential for growth as well. Everyone should not hide their original sin and be afraid of it. Hawthorne’s use of symbolism in his story “The birthmark” to reveal that sin is unavoidable and inborn.

The allegory displayed in “Young Goodman Brown” through different symbols reveals a moral, which is the corruption of life through the indulgence of sin. The name of the protagonist, which is Young Goodman Brown, can be seen as an underlying metaphor shown throughout the story. Brown begins the story as a young and naive man who is in good spirits, as described in the beginning of his name “Young Goodman”. But as the story ends the name “Brown” symbolizes how he becomes “a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate, man” (Hawthorne 34). The name of Brown alludes to the dark and corrupted life that evil or sin had induces into his life.

“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a complex tale with many hidden meanings and themes. Hawthorne uses literary devices to propel his story further into speculation of the unknown world. In his essay, Fogle uses examples of irony and symbols of opposites to convey the mystery behind Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” Without both ambiguity and clarity, the story would not portray an atmosphere of doubt which is at the core of Hawthorne’s tale.

To me, Goodman Brown was a symbolic representation of a good hearted Puritan filled with innocence and faith. Even so, his willingness to venture inside the forest despite knowing the dangers it hold shows how even the purest people can be corrupted. Even after meeting the old man, who was a symbolic representation of the devil, he continue further along inside the forest. If you notice, never did the old man forced him to go deeper inside the forest. Even At one point, Goodman Brown refused to go any further and stated "my mind is made up. Not another step will I budge on this errand" (Hawthorne). The old man did not mind this and even told him to "sit here and rest yourself a while; and when you feeling like moving again, there is my staff

Brown was able to withstand the devil's charm and temptations and he continued to believe in his God. The devil is personified in this story as the traveler that leads Young Goodman Brown deep into the woods and shows him a worship service like he had never seen before. While the traveler and Young Goodman Brown were walking along the path they ran into Goody Cloyse whom had taught young Brown his catechism. He would have never known the true people who lived in his community and even his own wife. It was an evil place and showed that the traveler and Brown originally had an evil

"Youthful Goodman Brown" is a short story distributed in 1835 by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story happens in seventeenth century Puritan New England, a typical setting for Hawthorne's works, and addresses the Calvinist/Puritan conviction that all of humankind exists in a condition of corruption, however that God has ordained some to unlimited decision through ridiculous elegance. Hawthorne often concentrates on the pressures inside Puritan culture, yet soaks his stories in the Puritan feeling of transgression. In a typical manner, the story takes after Young Goodman Brown's trip into self-examination, which brings about his loss of excellence and