Faith And The Devil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne is a well known author who has written a multitude of short stories; often writing about the negative side of humanity and how people’s emotions affect them. Hawthorne puts heavy emphasis on symbolism to help ease the flow of the story for the reader as well as incorporating that symbolism by interacting with the character while maintaining the theme of faith. Not just faith but evil is also a theme that becomes apparent as the story goes on and even becomes present as it comes to a conclusion. The story “Young Goodman Brown” demonstrates such qualities through relationships, symbols, foreshadowing and similarities to other stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

At the beginning of the story it seemed apparent that the story will focus on the relationship on faith and the devil as Nathaniel Hawthorne is well known for including symbolism in his stories. Two items that stand out are Faith’s pink ribbons and the old man’s serpentine staff. The pink ribbons closely resemble a person’s innocence and purity by pairing it with Faith, whom is portrayed to be a pure girl to never lose their faith. The pink ribbon makes an appearance three times in the story: once in the beginning, middle, and end. A lightly colored ribbon can also be perceived to be

A person may have a tenacious faith and will remain unswayable as long as they are able to maintain their faith even in the midst of chaos. The old man introduced near the start of the story represents evil incarnate and his interactions with Goodman Brown demonstrate the alterations to Brown’s faith. In a way the old man can be perceived to be the story’s antagonist or at least a major influence to Brown’s downfall. What seems to be questionable is the fact that a morally good person turn insane after one