Young Goodman Brown

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.

Faith attempts to hold Brown back from his journey, yet for reasons unknown, he insists upon going. As Young Goodman Brown embarks on a journey into the forest without Faith, he also leaves behind his faith in society. Repeated images of the road Brown takes and the dark forest around him, add to the allegory. “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. It was all as lonely as could be, and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead, so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.” (Hawthorne 198). As Brown wanders down the dark foreboding path that closes behind him, the potential for spiritual danger arises, foreshadowing the loss of his spiritual faith.

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.

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown,” a good and proud Puritan man; Goodman Brown, encounters a devil that causes him to become aware of the town he lives in. Goodman Brown believes that a meeting with the Devil cannot change his faith in religion. He desires to find more about his inner domains, but later finds out how hypocritical his town is. He then comes to realization that man is imperfect and defect. Goodman Brown later dies a sore death from the insight of his journey in the forest. In “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses imagery, symbolism, and allegory throughout the story to question the faith of man. The narrator uses dark and light imagery, people and names to illustrate the irony.

When Brown finally reaches the meeting of the townspeople, his hope rises again because his wife Faith, whom he expects to see is not there. However, she soon unfortunately joins him and the others whom are about to undergo initiation. They are the “only pair, as it seemed who were yet hesitating on the verge of wickedness in the dark world” (Hawthorne). They stare at each other in frightened anticipation, and for the last time Brown calls out for help: “Faith! Faith!...Look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one” (Hawthorne). But “whether Faith obeyed he knew

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.

The reader knows that the twig had supposedly been ablaze and the rock used as an altar, however now both of those things appear to have not been recently touched. Through Hawthorne’s use of symbols and vivid imagery, the reader is able to feel as though they were there with Brown on his journey, and whether they believe it was reality or fantasy, they are able to completely comprehend how Brown is able to fully accept the events that night as absolute reality; coming out of his intense spiritual and emotional excursion a broken, sad, and distrustful

The devil refers to seeing Goodman Brown’s grandfather whipping a Quaker in the streets and handing Goodman Brown’s father a flaming torch so that he could set fire to an Indian village during King Philip’s War. By including these references, Hawthorne reminds the reader of the dubious history of Salem Village and the legacy of the Puritans and emphasizes the historical roots of Goodman Brown’s fascination with the devil and the dark side.

When it comes to the topic of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, most of us will readily agree that duplicity is a major theme in the piece, or the idea of different versions of reality. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether Hawthorne is implying that man is inherently evil. Whereas some are convinced that Young Goodman Brown was good until tainted by the Devil, others maintain that he was evil from the beginning and was completely aware of the evil he was indulging in. My personal view, however, is that Young Goodman Brown was inherently evil, but it did not come to light until the Devil began to influence Brown. This can be seen through the use of symbolism, biblical allusions, and the development of the main characters. While the Devil may have revealed that Young Goodman Brown was not as innocent and pious as he appeared, Brown was willingly indulging in sin and was inherently evil.

In the story of Young Goodman Brown, as a reader we see many circumstances where Hawthorne uses irony in straightforward situations. I have learned from reading several of the author’s works that it is up to the reader to decide the meaning behind his stories. In this paper, I will be discussing the significance of the title, Young Goodman Brown and how I believe there is more to the story than what Hawthorne writes. Young Goodman Browns journey within the forest revealed truths not only within him, but within human nature and society. On page, 1103 Goodman Brown states “there may be a devilish Indian behind every tree.”

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.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic tale “Young Goodman Brown” is a good example of a short story embodying both characteristics of realism and characteristics of romanticism.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” he explores the downfall of the spirit of Goodman Brown and destroys the innocence and predestination of the title character by taking him down the metaphorical road to Hell. The road in the story passes into the forest surrounding Salem Village, and Hawthorne expresses the Puritan conclusion of all things evil to be found in the woods with the quote, “Come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow, come devil himself….” (Myers, p. 385) Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith implores him to not go on the journey, but he insists, and thereby sets himself up for his own downfall when he turns his back on the representation of his innocent illusions of the purity of those around him, as represented in his wife.

Granted, Hawthorne takes his readers on a journey through the eyes of one man who was distancing from his faith. The story begins with Goodman Brown feeling guilty about leaving his wife home alone, so that he can “sin.” He knows that his actions are sinful for he says, “What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand...” (Hawthorne 3). This

Another aspect of Hawthorne’s ancestors is that they were Puritans. The Puritan belief is finely interwoven in his story. According to Michael E. McCabe, “Puritan doctrine taught that all men are totally depraved and require constant self – examination to see that they are sinners and unworthy of God’s Grace” (1). Brown’s experience in the forest, is, in a sense, not a dream. Instead, Brown is looking deep into his soul in search of the inner evilness and whether he is worthy of “God’s Grace.” The fact that his wife and the holy men of the community are in the forest is more a projection of his own evilness onto others. When he finds Faith’s pink ribbon in the forest, it was as though his least thread of faith was gone, and he cries out,