Symbolism And Symbolism In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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

"Young Goodman Brown," a story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, should be interpreted on a psychoanalytical level rather than a religious one. It is my observation that "Young Goodman Brown" may very well be the first published work alluding to divisions of the mind and personality theory. Although religion is a direct theme throughout the story, "Young Goodman Brown" appears to be an allegory with deeper meanings.

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.

However, some of the colors that stood out the most were pink, red, and pale. Faith’s pink hair ribbons are the color of innocence. Faith was very happy with her husband of only three months and she didn’t want him to leave, “prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed tonight” (Hawthorne 79). He realizes that her innocence is gone when she loses a ribbon in the forest and he cries out, “My Faith is gone!”

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.

     Goodman prides himself by telling the devil that he and his family have been " a race of honest men and good Christian," but the devil exploits something that shocks Goodman. The devil tells Goodman that his family and whole community went through the forest with the devil as they tortured women in Salem or burned the villages of Indians to the ground, and afterwards the devil and his ancestors would go for a "pleasant walk." Goodman's journey continues undisturbed until he meets his old catechism teacher, Goody Cloyse, who has changed dramatically. Goody Cloyse already has acquitance with the devil, and she asks the devil for help so she can get to the meeting. The devil drops the staff before her which made Goodman Brown astonished. Although this view deters confidence, he continues down the trail looking for hope in the heavens passing another test to fail him. When Goodman worries about his catechism teacher, the devil offers

Symbolism is a literary technique that is used to clarify the author's intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader.

     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.

“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathanial Hawthorne, is a story about a man who goes on a journey into darkness and encounters his own evil/the devil. The evil comes within him and other people he knows and love. His wife named Faith is one of the individuals captured by the evilness/ the devil. In the story, Faith is very symbolic to Young Goodman Brown. Not only is Faith his wife, however she is also a symbol of his religious faith. At one point, Brown declares that he has “lost his faith.” While in the woods he heard a scream and realized it was his wife. He found her pink ribbon fluttering on the branch of a tree and says, “My Faith is gone! There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is this world given.” (Young

Hawthorne gives symbolism to Faith’s character in this sentence. In the story, Faith starts to literally symbolize Young Goodman Brown’s faith in god and Christianity. When Goodman Brown sees Faith’s ribbons, he knows that the devil has taken her, so he says this sentence. With it, he means that his wife, Faith, is gone to the devil, and that his faith in god has also disappeared because his wife is taken by the devil, so he has no good in his life. After Faith is taken by the devil, Goodman Brown sees no other option but to join as well. After he goes back to the town, he never fully trusts Faith again, just like how he never has full faith in god again.

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.

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne provides historical, societal, religious, scientific and biographical contexts. The story is set in the period of the Salem Witch Trials in Puritan New England. The story describes Brown's journey into the depths of the forest, where he believes that he sees many of the members of his community, including his wife Faith, attending a satanic ceremony. The narrator implies that Brown may be sleeping, but either way the experience was real. It affected Brown very much. The story is often read as Hawthorne's condemnation of Puritan ideology, as it proposes that Puritan doctrine could strain so much doubt that believers were doomed to see evil-whether or not it truly existed-in themselves and

    In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne, through the use of deceptive imagery, creates a sense of uncertainty that illuminates the theme of man's inability to operate within a framework of moral absolutism.  Within every man there is an innate difference between good and evil and Hawthorne's deliberate use of ambiguity mirrors this complexity of human nature. Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, is misled by believing in the perfectibility of humanity and in the existence of moral absolutes. According to Nancy Bunge, Hawthorne naturally centers his story upon a Puritan protagonist to convey the "self-righteous" that he regards as the "antithesis of wisdom"(4). Consequently, Young

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.

“Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835, is a short story about a man named young Goodman Brown who leaves his wife, Faith, to go on an errand into the woods with the devil. Faith begs Goodman Brown to not leave her alone, but he chooses to go anyways. This short story shows many signs of symbolism, such as the forest, the devil, the staff, the pink ribbons, Faith, sin, and guilt. These symbols help in understanding the story of young Goodman Brown and his unconscious struggle with his religion. The trip not only takes Brown onto a journey of sadness, but also into the deepest parts of his soul. Goodman Brown wishes to enter the dark forest of sin, to satisfy his