Evil And Temptation In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Throughout human history, evil, innocence, and temptation have been a part of human existence that dates back before anyone can remember. Every piece of literature ever written revolves around these three themes. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses this in his story “Young Goodman Brown” to prove these points and show true human nature. There is evil everywhere in human nature. Hawthorne uses symbolism to convey that everyone possesses both good and evil and puts on a facade, proving that humans often lose their innocence when faced with evil and temptation.

Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, wears pink ribbons to show how she has not been touched by temptation and evil. Faith's pink ribbons can be seen to reflect her youth and beauty. On a deeper level,

The devil is introduced as an ordinary man, which suggests that every person, including Goodman Brown, has the capacity for evil. When the devil appears to Goodman Brown in the forest, he wears decent clothes and appears to be like any other man in Salem Village. Later in the story, Goodman Brown, flying along with the devil’s staff on his way to the ceremony, appears to be a much more frightening apparition than any devil could be by himself. Although it is never fully clear whether the old man and Goodman Brown’s experiences in the forest were a dream or reality, the consequences of Goodman Brown’s interaction with the old man stay with him for the rest of his life. The Devil tries to tempt Brown to lose faith when he says “Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue was not all a dream! Now are ye undeceived! Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness'’” (Hawthorne 9). The Dark Figure says Brown and Faith's love and belief in one another justified their belief in goodness, but in truth, evil is their true nature and will supersede love as their source of happiness. After Young Goodman Brown believes he loses his wife to the devil he declares ‘‘My Faith is gone!' cried he, after one stupefied moment. 'There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come in the devil; for to thee is this world given’’ (Hawthorne 6). After Faith appears to be taken