Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” puts Puritanism on trial for its culture of judgement and deceit. But while his story’s main theme specifically attacks the moral hypocrisy of Puritanism, audiences from all generations and backgrounds would do well to examine their own cases of hypocrisy. In the Puritan culture, much of life was centered around control and shame. Richard Baxter, a 17th century Puritan minister, said in one sermon: “Every pleasing of the flesh, which is capable of being referred to a higher end, and is not so referred and used, is a sin.” (Orme, 100) Breaking the rigid mold of how Puritans were supposed to act in order to be holy was sin. Deviation from the norm was a chief reason why fourteen women and five men were convicted of witchcraft and executed at the Salem Witch Trials. …show more content…
He was the only judge who is not known to have denounced the trials and his actions. He was Nathaniel Hawthorne’s great-great-grandfather, a troubling relation for Hawthorne, who wrote: “I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent…At all events, I, the present writer…take shame upon myself for their sakes.” (Mabie, 13-23) Hawthorne felt turmoil and guilt because of his forefather and added the “w” to his surname to distance himself from him. Hawthorne clearly condemned his ancestor’s actions. In “Young Goodman Brown” he paints an image of the hypocrisy in Puritanism, the religion that made John Hathorne’s actions