The Puritan Influence in Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Rummel gives an analysis of the history and development of Puritanism in New England during the 1600s. In simple words how the people had formed a society in order to reform England and separate church from government. Puritans had God as an almighty, they were known as people with strict education, solitary environment, and own beliefs such as their obsession with the devil, evil and good. Rummel states that even if Hawthorne mentions religion in his short stories most of it Puritanism, he still never recommended any particular opinion. The story is focused on Puritan elements and Hawthorne’s approach to it. Hawthorne uses religious phrases and elements that makes the reader analyze each several object, action, figure, and scenario in the story. That’s why Goodman Brown has too much conflict going on and is very detailed on what he feels and sees. The article is one great piece of information that supports the understanding of the Puritan religious mindset and Hawthorne’s attitude towards it. Of course into the interpretation of what might had happened in the story.

Shirley Jackson and Nathaniel Hawthorne were two American authors who were born over a century apart and shared the same love of literary works but in a sick and twisted kind of way. They were authors who simply wrote with passion about beliefs, sin, and the natural temptations of evil in all humans. The story of “Young Goodman Brown”, takes places at the end of the 17th century, around the time of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, in New England in colonial Massachusetts, Hawthorne’s keen interest which is sin-and-brimstone a Puritans past.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” these literary devices are used to bring emphasis to Brown’s struggle with his moral and spiritual beliefs. Goodman Brown is challenged with an important decision to keep his faith or follow the temptation of evil. Allegory and symbolism of the pink ribbons, Faith, the staff, and the woods are used by Hawthorne to create an allusion that the town’s people could not be corrupted by evil.

Young Goodman Brown is a short story where the main purpose is to show the social issue of religion during the Puritan time. Although the author Nathaniel Hawthorne had not being living in that time, he came from a long line of Puritans. He wrote Young Goodman Brown to show the flaws of the Puritans’ view of religion. They made God seem heartless and mean spirited, someone who just used humans for entertainment. The short story Young Goodman Brown demonstrates that people should test their faith of their religious beliefs and even people considered upright can fall short of their own religious faiths from temptations and imperfections. In addition, the story shows that there is some degree of evil nature in everyone because of the freewill

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown illustrates vividly how society and culture can very much influence a person's sense of identity and belonging, or in the case of Young Goodman Brown the lack thereof. Being a Puritan man in a society that scorned the ways of witches and the devil, Young Goodman Brown grew up with a very pious outlook on life. Yet when it occurs to him to look at life a little bit differently, Young Goodman Brown receives more than he has bargained for. The journey he embarks on sheds a whole new light on his society that not only creates a struggle between himself and his fellow men but also one within himself.

Young Goodman Brown is a short narrative written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Just like many of his other works, the story is set in the 17th century Puritan New England, and the author primarily addresses the puritan beliefs at the time which state that humanity exists in a state of degradation and God holds some unconditional love to humans by giving them unmerited grace. “The author mainly focuses on underlying tensions within the puritan way of life” (Jaynes, 2006). He thus uses symbolism to showcase the story of Young Goodman Brown’s journey. The main character delves deep into self-scrutiny and ends up losing his beliefs and virtue.

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” would convey these ideals, emphasizing symbolism and  contrasting the generally accepted Puritan morality with Goodman Brown’s individual, personal morality.

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 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.

In “Young Goodman Brown”, Hawthorne demonstrates common inter turmoil, especially in regard to spiritual state. In an attempt to discover himself and satisfy his innermost being, Young Goodman Brown becomes a shattered, shell of a man. The question at hand is not religion, nor is it purely spiritual, Hawthorne simply encourages his reader to search themselves with the understanding and realization that once searched, the readers may not like what they find. Hawthorne himself seems to struggle with this reality as he straddled his Puritan upbringing and transcendentalist revelations, as expressed through Young Goodman Brown’s realization of the hypocrisy of the Puritan with whom he resides. Hawthorne shows the potential horror of man to his readers as hidden evil inside of man. As Hawthorne develops his story, the reader is challenged by the nature of man, and what the reader wants the nature of man to be, which Hawthorne understands to be sinful.

Educator and critic, Thomas E. Connolly, in his essay, “Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’: An Attack on Puritanical Calvanism” (November, 1956), claims that, despite what most critics think, the story “Young Goodman Brown” is an individual tragedy about a newfound realization of faith that also criticizes the teachings of Calvinism. Connolly supports this assertion by first illustrating how Goodman Brown’s faith makes him certain he will go to heaven, then he demonstrates that Goodman’s faith starts to waver when he realizes his ancestry has been acquainted with the devil and that even the catechism he was taught is “the way to the devil and not the way to heaven”; Connolly describes next that Goodman has a realization that, because of the

Nathaniel Hawthorne has presented his disapproval of Puritanism in the form of "Young Goodman Brown" who has been presented as the living embodiment of Puritanical sect. Where the influence of Hawthorne's background on his work is evident, he has managed to present evidences for his argument. In his short story, he portrays Young Goodman Brown as a character who, on the basis of his own staunch beliefs, disapproves everyone bearing conflicting ideology and religious beliefs and thus, continues to live a sad life followed by cynicism and distrust. Hawthorne appears to be highly ashamed of his relation to his ancestors who were rigid believers of Puritanism. Through this story, Hawthorne argues that the Puritanism is a form of extremism which takes away the liberty and freedom of choice from general public whereas leaders of this sect are divulged into hypocrisy which makes them impose religion on others but provides them all the opportunities to enjoy blessings of life while imposing misery and distress on others.

Many American writers have scrutinized religion through their works of literature, however none had the enthusiasm of Nathaniel Hawthorne. A handful of Hawthorne's works are clear critiques of seventeenth century Puritan society in New England. Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter illustrate his assessment by showing internal battles within characters, hypocrisy in religious figures, atypical punishment for crimes, and accenting women's roles in Puritan society. Firstly, Hawthorne's literature often stresses internal battles in main characters. In both Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter, these battles are

Young Goodman Brown protagonist struggles with Puritanism is a reflection of Hawthorne personal conflicts with Puritanism. Hawthorne uses the story of Young Goodman Brown to illustrate Puritanism's disconnection between