Hawthorne’s story, “Young Goodman Brown,” appears to be a story about original sin with a lot of symbolism tied in to make it an allegory. An allegory is a story that can be interpreted in different ways to find the hidden meaning behind the symbolism in the story. The three things focused on throughout the short story is Faith, the forest that Goodman Brown takes his journey through, and the staff, which the old man who leads Goodman Brown on his way carries. The short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” uses several…

Young Goodman Brown is about to take a journey through the gloomy woods. As he sets off, his wife of three months pleads with him not to go because she has dreamed that something bad is going to happen while he is gone. He tells her, "Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee." He does think about staying and not going on his errand, but talks himself out of it saying that after this one trip he will stay with her forever. This is the plot summary of "Young…

The main theme of the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “ Young Goodman Brown,” is the struggle between Goodman Brown’s faith, power to resist his own evil impulses and his own doubts within him. It is a story of Young Goodman Brown’s personal conflict over his inner desires and its greater meaning conflict between good and evil in the world. The characteristics of Young Goodman Brown are similar to the life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne had his own doubts about his own Puritan life and beliefs…

The two short stories "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O 'Connor both have characters who allow their lives to be altered by the threat of evil. A detour taken by the family in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" wreaks havoc, while the wrong path taken by "Young Goodman Brown" leads him to despair. Although Brown, The Misfit, and the Grandmother have different attitudes and take different approaches to evil, all characters eventually go astray and…

Perceiνed through the archetypal lens, the short story, Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne asserts the uniνersal idea that eνil lurks within eνery man. Taken as a whole, the work conνeys that humanity can easily fall νictim to innate selfish instincts as well as society’s damaging influences. The main character, Young Goodman Brown, treks on a journey that challenges him to uphold his innocence and his belief in a decent mankind as he discoνers corruption in people. The allegory—a story…

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…

Young Goodman Brown: Good versus Evil Throughout Young Goodman Brown and other works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the themes of sin and guilt constantly reoccur. Like many authors, Hawthorne used events in his life as a basis for the stories that he wrote. Hawthorne felt that ones guilt does not die with him/her but is rather passed down through the generations. Hawthorne's great-great uncle was one of the judges during the Salem witchcraft trials. Hawthorne felt a great sense of guilt because of…

the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the triumph of evil over good. A supposedly good man is tempted by evil and allows himself to be converted into a man of evil. This is much like the situation that arises in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, where two people are tempted to sin and give in thus submitting themselves to the power of the devil. In this novel, the area where the devil resides is strictly parallel to that in “Young Goodman Brown”. As Goodman Brown sets off on…

the benefit of the afflicted”(5-6) and Young Goodman Brown, a fictional character created by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was written because a few male puritans wanted to publish a story to open up societies eyes and live in a more patriarchal society. Regardless of being a fictional character or a nonfiction, we get presented evidence in which both individuals experience problems that at the time the puritan society could relate too. While both Young Goodman Brown and Mary Rowlandson enter the forest…

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. In the dialogue that ensues between the minister and Deacon Gookin, we learn of an impending meeting expecting participants hailing from “Falmouth and beyond... Indian powows” (Hawthorne…