Young Goodman Brown Looses Faith In The Woods

During the early 1700s, a traveler met a man in the Massachusetts forest. However, this was no mortal man, but the devil. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Devil and Tom Walker,” two short stories, both start out in this way. Washington Irving wrote the latter in 1824, which tells how Tom Walker profited through working for the devil. In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown,” which describes Goodman Brown’s woodland encounter with the Devil. The two stories share specific ideas regarding the devil, overpowering minor deviations between each other.

Young Goodman Brown’s travels through the uncharted forests were aided by a travel guide, Old Goodman Brown. Old Goodman Brown is said to have looked like Young Goodman Brown except older. Initially the older man, who is symbolic of the devil, is amiable toward the travel, but his persistence to get Young Goodman Brown to go deeper into the forest, spikes one to believe that he has an ulterior motive. Hawthorne’s usage of the old man transmits the message that the devil can appear in any form. The risk that Goodman Brown takes with walking down the same road is that he is becoming desensitized and growing apart from his faith at the hands of

The story “Young Goodman Brown,” in its entirety is an allegory, a literary device used to teach a religious lesson. The reader is lead to wonder if the story’s events truly took place or if it was simply a bad dream. The story leaves readers wondering why Goodman Brown feels compelled to journey into the forest. “Young Goodman Brown” begins with Faith’s plea for Brown to not leave her on that night. He chooses to go out into the woods and ends up taking a “walk with the devil.” On his journey, Brown struggles with his decision and at times wants to turn back. His conscious tugs at him, much like the devil tempts individuals to do things that are wrong and evil. Brown seems to be concerned with what others will think if they see him in the woods. When “Goodman Brown recognized

Into the woods was an adventurous play that was perfect for the use of your imagination and spirit. Into the Woods had numerous different fairy tales involved which could make a small child feel like he/she was in heaven. The acting, music, concept, stage design, costumes, and even the language of the play all mixed to perfection. The crowd became involved right away with the irony of the play. I liked how Into the Woods was set up in the beginning because it made the play easier to follow. However, the play seemed to be a little lengthy and some of the characters became annoying. I do not believe the second part of the play altogether was necessary. Into the Woods did not fulfill my expectations to the max,

The story reveals that there is some degree of evil in everyone because humans are born with the freewill to do right or wrong. As humans, we are born into an imperfect world and we have many flaws. We can choose to be good honest people or evil doers. The older man in Young Goodman Brown said that Goodman Brown had more evil power then he did. This older man could represent an evil spirit or even the devil himself. This line in the story could

As Brown starts on his adventure he recalls that his wife, Faith, had dreams of this particular adventure, dreams that warned him not to go; this feeling of uncertainty sparks a feeling of anxiety in Brown as he continues walking through the forest and on with his journey. As he walks on, the scenery around him begins to change, "He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind." (310). This quote describes the dark and gloomy surroundings that Brown is walking through on his journey, it also creates the mood of fear and hesitance as he continues on his way. Then as Brown is walking along he comes to encounter a man dressed in grave and decent attire. The man states "You are late, Goodman Brown," and Brown replies by saying, "Faith kept me back awhile." (310) In literal terms he is speaking of his wife, but metaphorically he could be speaking of his faith in god and how it almost kept him from embarking on his journey. Hawthorne creates many metaphors in his story of "Young Goodman Brown." Later on in Brown's journey he meets a man with a cane that resembles a snake, the serpent is a symbol of evil, and then when Brown protests against the devil, "With heaven above, and Faith below, I will yet stand firm

Hawthorne in essence, portrayed Goodman as proof of the nature of evil in man by showing how easily even a young dedicated Puritan can easily be influenced by a complete stranger. This stranger was symbolically the Devil among men in this text. Hawthorne begins introducing the Devil immediately as trying to sway Goodman to follow him on a long journey. By leaving his wife, Faith to begin the journey, Goodman Brown was symbolically leaving his faith in God and entering a forsaken ground by following the Devil. The fact that Goodman Brown left with no regard for his wife Faith’s warning, symbolized the lack of regard for his own faith in God and his fellow human race. This simple disregard that Goodman Brown showed was evidence of the easily persuaded ability of man to choose sin over good.

This statement can be taken one of two ways, either for the literal sense in which the old man is urging him to come or for the allegorical way in which this shows Goodman Brown has a choice in his destiny to make the right decision and turn his back on Satan when he sees God's way is better. Upon returning home Goodman Brown comes to the realization that all the people that meant most in his life that he believed were righteous, upstanding, God fearing citizens were all guilty of being influenced by the devil. Whether he dreamed this or not what happened to him in the forest changed his life in such a dramatic way that it compels him to live the rest of it out in gloom and despair as evident from this paragraph:

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.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown” the allegory Goodman Brown, a man devoted to his faith in our Father the Lord, after making a hard decision that would follow him for the rest of his life ends up trying to make peace with the fact that he cannot take away the decision but can try to not make the matter worse. When Goodman Brown discovers the “depths of darkness” he is in he begins to have a loss of faith. The line for the story “’My Faith gone!’ cried he, after one stupefied moment. ‘There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil! for to thee as this world given.’” represents the fact that it appears that Goodman Brown lost his faith. That line also shows how he wished for the devil’s worship to come and retrieve him.

Young Goodman Brown's inability to acknowledge, and even embrace Faith's humanity, leads to the climatic loss of his "faith" in the forest. He beholds the pink ribbon that has

He finds that all of the good people are participating in a frantic satanic ritual and god forsaken acts that forsake God himself. One of the key points in “Young Goodman Brown”, is the battle of whether or not Goodman Brown should remain good or joining the devil. The journey for Goodman Brown is very difficult, as he traverses through the woods at night, all while contemplating of the good things such as his wife Faith who he leaves behind. This internal conflict causes a destruction of the Young Goodman Brown and results in the creation of a completely different man.

This loneliness comes only after he is far away from his Faith and God and traveling deeper into the darkness of the forest, only “assisted by the [evil], uncertain [false] light” (2187). Young Goodman Brown overcomes his loneliness when he meets an older traveler who tells him that even Brown’s own family has come to the woods and shows him other supposed Christians who are in the woods on this night, too. Deception, something that evil uses to try to lure all people into its darkness, begins to slowly take hold of Goodman Brown when he sees other people he admires and looks up to in the woods, such as Goody Cloyse, towns-people (both good and evil), and even Deacon Gookin and the minister. Goodman Brown wants to fight against the evil images that he is enclosing him in the woods and he even calls out to his Faith, which represents not only his wife but his own faith in goodness and God, but his cries are “drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away” (2191). Finally, evil wins over Goodman Brown when he cries that his “Faith is gone,” meaning his relationship with his pure, good wife and his relationship with his pure, good God, when he sees Faith’s pink

Young Goodman Brown then finds himself alone in the forest, wondering whether he has awakened from a dream or if he really did attend the witches’ sabbath. Brown chooses to believe that his dream is true, and that everyone around him is involved in witchcraft. “The next morning, young Goodman Brown came slowly into the street of Salem village staring around him like a bewildered man.” (Paragraph 70) Because of this, Brown spends the remainder of his life being, "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man” (Paragraph 75). Goodman Brown now looks for the devil behind every bush and in the hearts of all those around him, never recognizing that his own soul is now hopelessly corrupt and blind to the light and goodness of God. The forest, the devil and his staff, and Faith and her pink ribbons are the main points to prove young Goodman Brown of a story full of symbolism. There is no doubt that the traveler meeting Brown is the devil and the devils staff is clearly the symbol of a serpent. Faith is both Brown’s wife and religion. The pink ribbons discussed are symbolized as innocence because his faith in God is the right thing to do. Unlike following the devil, which led Brown to sin and guilt. “Ha! ha! ha!” roared Goodman Brown, when the wind laughed at him. “Let us hear which will laugh loudest! Think not to frighten me

Goodman Brown is also very suspicious and mistrusting of his wife and does not acknowledge her when he sees her. "..But Goodwin Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting." After witnessing the meeting with the Devil, Goodman Brown has a different view of the people in Salem and society as a whole. He originally viewed many people as trustworthy because they were very religious, and gave the illusion of being trustworthy. After witnessing the meeting, his views changed and he became very suspicious of them. Goodman Brown's view of society as a whole also changed. Many people at the meeting were members of Salem who were held in high regard. After seeing these people there, Goodman started to question many things about society and became very suspicious and mistrusting of many people in Salem. Goodwin Brown realized that many people are not who they pretend to be. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, and distrustful, if not desperate man did he become.”