Allegory In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

The Allegory of the Next Morning

In most of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” the audience can easily identify literary devices like allegory and ambiguity. Allegory is the “interaction of multiple symbols, which together create a moral, spiritual, or even political meaning” (Wheeler). Throughout the story there are many examples of symbols in which Goodman Brown interacts with. Whether it’s the forest, the old man, Old Deacon Gookin Goody Cloyse, the townspeople, or even Faith his wife. When these symbols are analysis by audience may wonder about the intent of Young Goodman Brown. One may question why Young Goodman Brown, a good Puritan man is going into the forest at such a late hour. After he enters into the forest, Goodman emerges as a different person. He now sees the world and everyone in its as evil; he emerges as a scared man, which contributes to works of evil. In the story, after Goodman Brown’s experience in the forest, he emerges a different man. He has become more paranoid and disoriented. In his particular passage,

He see Goody Cloyse and a little girl giving her milk. In the text Hawthorne describe Goody Cloyse as a good Christian. When Goodman Brown sees the interaction with Goody Cloyse and little girl he quickly snatches her away. In the eyes of Goodman Brown he thought that he was the child from, “grasp of the fiend himself”(629). Why would Goodman Brown describe Goody Cloyse, a good Christian, as a fiend? According to Webster dictionary a fiend is a evil spirit, a demon, or devil. It is clear to the audience that Good Cloyse in the mind of the Goodman Brown that he represents the devil or a demon. Goodman Brown thought that he was saving the innocent from the grasp of the devil. The reader could compare this reaction to when he was in the woods and he was trying to save Faith his wife. Did Goodman Brown have regret that he never knew whether he saved his wife or