Young Goodman Brown Essay

In “Young Goodman Brown”, after his journey into the forest, Brown changes his entire outlook on life. He has lost his faith and has taken on a life of darkness and unrest because he is never sure whether the events of what happened in the forest were reality or imagined. From that point on he is never at peace because he is always expecting evil. And he is then depicted as a man who never has happiness with his beloved “Faith”, that is his wife and his actual faith in God, or in any other thing in his life. Brown becomes a victim to the nature of evil and the effects that it can play on the

Young Goodman Brown takes a look at the life of man after venturing into the woods in order to complete some unknown errand in the middle of the night. He encounters an

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

Due to his naivety, Goodman Brown continues on his journey with the stranger, to spite what Faith and his instincts tell him, which ultimately turns him into a corrupted man. When the reader first meets Goodman Brown he is departing from his young wife, Faith. Faith urges young Goodman Brown to stay with her and not go on his journey but he refuses, assuring her that his journey is one of no real danger: "'A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she's afeared of herself, sometimes.' […] 'My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise'" (620). Faith tells Goodman Brown about nightmares she has been having and how she wishes that he will stay beside her. Goodman Brown ignores her warnings and continues on his journey as if it is just a trip to the grocery store. After meeting the stranger, Goodman Brown inquires about turning back but the stranger has other ideas in mind: "' Let us walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go, and if I convince thee not thou shalt turn back, We are but a little way in the forest yet.' 'Too far, too far!’ exclaimed the Goodman, unconsciously resuming his walk" (621). The stranger wants Goodman Brown to continue on his path, and even though young Goodman Brown desires to turn back towards Faith, he is easily swayed to keep walking with the stranger. Hawthorn says he "unconsciously" resumes his walk,

He goes anyway. This trip will lead to the guilt that Goodman Brown will feel for the rest of his life. Goodman Brown goes into the forest to meet a man which we later find out is the devil. He was late because his wife had kept him in town. "You are late Goodman Brown." (p.383) He replies "Faith kept me back" (p.383), which is ironic because his wife Faith really kept him back that day, but his religious faith also kept him from confronting the devil previously. Goodman Brown follows the man or devil through the forest which leads to an open field. This is presumed to resemble The Garden of Eden. He sees the whole town there including his wife worshiping the devil. On his return to the town, Goodman Brown cannot look at anyone. The life that he knew before this journey was over and would never be the same. He didn't go to church or talk to barely anyone because of his guilt for going to worship the devil. When he died, "there was no hopeful verse upon his tombstone for his dying hour was gloom" (p. 391) This is like the "The Minister's Black Veil" showing that someone must live and breathe everyday knowing of the sin that they have committed.

This madness that Young Goodman Brown experiences escalates further more the psychological struggle he is having. What he learns in this forest changes him so much that he cannot look at anything without judging it in the manner of his experience. As Walter Shear puts it, "he underestimates the power of time, failing to see the degree to which he has…made himself a particular kind of individual, (and) ultimately the prisoner of his own psychological prisoner" (Shear, 545). Young Goodman Brown came into the journey somewhat aware of what he would see in terms of the presence of evil but did not believe that one night of this evil could change his life forever. Due to the strict Puritan society he was used to, Young Goodman Brown underestimated the power that this journey would hold and therefore he becomes a

Goodman Brown, a young man who was only married for three months, left his home and his wife, Faith, to go into the forest and spend the night on some mission that he will not explain. Even though Faith has strong feelings about his journey and begs him not to leave, Brown has made his decision and leaves everything behind.

Young Goodman Brown must leave behind his known world, Salem village, and enter an unknown world, the forest, to face challenges he must be capable of overcoming. Allegorically, he embarks on a psychological and spiritual odyssey. Entering an unknown territory is scary and puts a person at a much higher physical and emotional risk. "There may be a devlish Indian behind every tree" shows how insecure Young Goodman Brown is in the forest because he is exposing himself to danger, which in this case, is evil itself (pg. 88). He must stay strong and overcome his weaknesses to get past his biggest fears and continue his Hero's journey. Goodman Brown is tempted to turn around and go home, but he sticks it out, and continues onward. Goodman Brown remarks, "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!" just before noticing a man, similar in appearance to himself, sitting under a tree (pg. 88). This man speaks as if he was expecting Brown

Faith is all Goodman Brown has known. He had even married a Faith. The double meaning of Faith within this story shows major Irony for us as the readers. Brown marrying a Faith was almost shown as he made the biggest devotion towards God. The main character has put every ounce of Faith he has into his life that would completely give himself to God forever. This is

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.

Throughout these two stories, the forest serves to represent evil and the unknown; however, it also represents truth, as it is the place where secrets come out and people express their true selves. In the very beginning of Young Goodman Brown, Goodman Brown’s wife Faith, advises him to wait until sunrise of the next morning to start his journey into the forest instead of leaving at night time, suggesting that Brown is traveling towards, and into the ominous darkness. This darkness represents everything evil, or the devil’s abode, so by having Faith urge her husband not to travel during the dark nighttime, it can be inferred that she is attempting to help him avoid the devil. However, Brown does not listen to the advice of Faith, and ventures deep into the path of sin, eventually coming to a terrifying realization

While in the forest he meets a man who resembles him and carries a stick resembling a serpent. Since the resemblance between Goodman Brown and the traveler was distinctly point out, the traveler could be taken as an alternate version of Goodman Brown, the version which diverges from his faith in the future because he continues to guide Goodman Brown away from Faith and holds a figure of the devil in his hand which he tries to pass onto Goodman Brown saying “Take my staff, if you are soon weary.” Insisting that if you are tired of questioning your faith, then just be evil. The pressures of society is represented by the cult members and sinners, people who he looked up to were pressuring him into accepting the devil while him and faith were actively being put up against one another. His journey happens in Salem infamous for devious practices to show the whole journey is a

Later that day, he went in the gloomy forest to be in the ceremony in which he wanted no parts of. As he travels deeper into the forest, he meets with a man who so happens to be the devil. The old man shows Goodman the truth about his family, some of the villages, and his wife. Goodman Brown now sees how they are not true Christian as they swear to be, instead they preach the evil. Young Goodman Brown goes back to the village with fear. Although, he does not know if it was a dream, he no longer looks at anyone the

"Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? (387)" The story "Young Goodman Brown" is portrayed as a straight forward tale of a man on a venture. It is not overly difficult to comprehend or interpret, however it does have several great ambiguities. As Hawthorne's tale has a great deal of symbolism, it is all in retrospect to the ambiguous entities within the tale. The formalistic approach will be used to analyze the ambiguities in the story, mainly focusing upon the use of dark and light contrasts. The questions of why did Goodman Brown leave his wife Faith and venture into the forest and was his journey into the forest a reality or a dream bring a grand weight of ambiguity upon the

Furthermore, from the moment he steps into the forest, Goodman Brown voices his fear of the wilderness, seeing the forest as a place where no good is possible. In this he echoes the dominant point of view of seventeenth-century Puritans, who believed that the wild New World was something to fear and then dominate. Goodman Brown, like other Puritans, associates the forest with the wild “Indians” and sees one hiding behind every tree. He believes that the devil could easily be present in such a place and he eventually sees the devil himself, just as he had expected. He considers it a matter of family honor that his forefathers would never have walked in the forest for pleasure, and he is upset when the devil tells him that this was not the case. He himself is ashamed to be seen walking in the forest and hides when