The Symbolism Of Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    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.

In "Young Goodman Brown." Nathaniel Hawthorne considers the question of good and evil, suggesting that true evil is judging and condemning others for sin without looking at one's own sinfulness. He examines the idea that sin is part of being human and there is no escape from it.

    "'Lo! There ye stand, my children,' said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad, with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelis nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. "Depending on one another's hearts, ye had still hoped, that virtue were not all a dream. Now ye are undeceived! Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!'"

Notably Faith, the protagonist’s wife, plays a huge role as an allegory and a symbol throughout Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” In this story Faith’s name plays as an allegory. At first this could easily be missed because it sounds like a common name for a woman, but once the readers get further into the story they realize that her name plays an enormous role in the story’s plot. Faith’s name symbolizes Brown’s faith in God. In the story when Brown meets the man in the forest the man says, “You are late Goodman Brown,” and Brown replies, “Faith kept me back awhile” (Hawthorne 330). At this point of the story the audience knows for

In “Young Goodman Brown,” there is a fight between good and evil with one main character being torn between the two sides and every other character seemingly on one side or the other through the reader’s view, although many characters do deceive Goodman Brown about whether they are good or evil. This fight between the two sides and the deception that causes confusion for Goodman Brown is the source of tension throughout the entire story. In “Young Goodman Brown,” every character’s traits and dialogue, the setting, and even colors mentioned have double meanings and are symbolic to the main binary oppositions of either good or evil.

He has uncertainty towards everyone as they may be devil worshippers. Contrary to the beginning of the text, Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, was portrayed as a “blessed angel” that did no wrong (Hawthorne 7). The name “Faith” is symbolic because it represents Brown’s loyalty to following the Puritans beliefs which are to avoid going on witch hunts as it is a sin to be a witch. Goodman Brown is seen as a hypocrite because he is in shock that the people in his life have sinned by idolizing the devil; however, he also violated his beliefs by going to the forest to detect witch crafts. He begins to lose his innocence as his wife had delayed his trip because she wanted him to stay (12). By leaving her alone at home, he disobeyed her because instead of being an honorable husband, he was more curious about the devil that is in the woods. Moreover, Brown realized without the presence of Faith, he frets that he will be led to the devil and everyone will notice (46-50). He constantly is worried that he will be unfaithful; therefore, he feels lost without Faith being around as she represents the good in

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.

I loved reading this short story. To me it was so intriguing yet at the same time so creepy. I loved the ominous tone throughout the story and the symbolism too. This story does not necessary remind me of others that I have read or heard about, nonetheless, I still loved it because it was not what I had expected. I can relate to the story based on my own beliefs in that I am a Christian so the fact that this story deals with themes such as faith, good versus evil, hypocrisy, and things such as those, it just made the story even more personal and compelling to me. Also, considering I’ve had personal experiences dealing with struggle with my faith and hypocrisy within my beliefs only adds to the impact of the story on me. After reading this

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown”, author Nathaniel Hawthorne suggests that every human being, no matter how much he or she strives to be pure and perfect, still has an evil and wicked side within his or her self. The story follows a man named Young Goodman Brown, whose family happens to be Puritan. The Puritan society has strict guidelines for followers in that if a follower makes any sort of sin, he or she may be banished from the community and possibly even executed. At the beginning, Brown encounters two men in a forest, where one of the men starts telling Brown about how the two of them are well acquainted with his family and says, “And it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to

Another powerful symbol used to portray the theme of evil is the staff. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses this symbol in a clear way to represent evil in a form mainly about temptation. The devil is first shown as the traveler with the staff: “But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake” (Hawthorne, 454). Goodman Brown was mesmerized by the snake, which is relatable to Eve’s excitement for Tree of Good and Evil. The staff is shown as a symbol of a serpent, which is usually a strong symbol of evil and slyness. The serpent is normally painted with such negative nouns because of the infamous personality it holds—according to Wynne “perhaps most common is the portrayal of the

In "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I was able to find quite a few symbols through their repeated use in the story including: the serpent, the communion, and Faith. The serpent in this story symbolized the devil and evil. The elder man seemed to be daring Goodman Brown to pick up the serpent-like staff and follow him into the woods despite Goodman Brown trying to refuse and turn back, but in the end, he ends up picking up this staff and going to the communion like the other man had wanted. The next symbol, the communion, symbolizes the worship of the devil. When most people think of communion, they think of the last supper with Jesus Christ or communion at church. As demonstrated when Goodman Brown first arrives at the place of

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.

     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 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