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Good And Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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In the religion of Christianity, Christians believe that mankind are born sinners and can seek refuge from sin by seeking forgiveness with faith to god. In the founding text of the religion, the Holy Bible, the opening chapter of Genesis tells a story about the first man and woman created by god falling into sin due to their human nature. Although created by god and in his image, a person has the independent choice to disobey god. In Christianity, if a person chooses to live a sinful life and elude from the conformation of their faith, the Bible states they will be bound in chains of sin and evil for eternity after death. The natural sinful nature of mankind is symbolized and through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” among a dream of a Puritan man and his conflicts with the Christian faith. Hawthorn portrays Goodman as an example of the natural sinful tendencies of man by revealing just how effortlessly a young puritan can be tempted and influenced by a stranger. …show more content…

At this point the Devil throws Goodman Brown his snake-like staff. Hawthorne uses the staff as a strong literary device to make the Devil or antagonist of the story of the text become more obvious to the reader. This particular exchange of the staff to Goodman Brown represented the transference of evil from the Devil to him (Magee). The staff ironically "bore the likeness of a great black snake". The staff is symbolic of the presence of evil in the rendezvous between Goodman Brown and the Devil. The staff represents the serpent in the Bible story of Adam and Eve were just as in the bible the appearance of a snake lead to destruction (Magee). One example of the symbolic destruction of the snake like staff was when it led Goodman Brown to the Devil’s ceremony, which ironically destroyed his faith in

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The most understandable emotion Young Goodman Brown goes through is betrayal. In his Puritan community, Young Goodman Brown felt a sense of security and nourishment. When he sees his catechism teacher, he is forced to reevaluate everything that she has told him and he feels that everything she has said has influenced him to partake in this journey. Young Goodman

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(Maus 2005) In the story of “Young Goodman Brown”, the traveler carries a serpentine staff and towards the climax of the story, he makes a new stick by stripping twigs, wet with dew. However the moment his fingers touch them they withered and dried up. The traveler is as destructive as they come; he is feared by Puritans. The whole point of the Puritan’s journey into that forest, although each individual’s is different, is so they can get a glimpse of this traveler and what he is capable of and in turn realize how much they actually need God. The serpent on his staff is a symbolization that he is like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

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Brown loins out that the staff clearly resembled a black serpent. If you paid attention in Sunday school class, you would automatically connect this with evil. In the book of Genesis, we know that the serpent that appeared to Adam and Eve provoked curiosity into their innocent minds and ultimately lead to temptation and the couple to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Like Adam and Eve, Brown let his own curiosity get in the way of his core values when he ventured out into the forest.

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This talk of devilish acts from people known to Goodman Brown as holier than all causes Goodman Brown great pain and confusion even to the point where he was “ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened” from what he had just witnessed (5). In the short time from when Goodman Brown enters the forest, sees Goody Cloyse, and sees the minister and the deacon, his entire life and upbringing is

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As the tale went on the secret sin showed in Young Goodman Brown, how he was affected by the secret sin in the lives of others, and how this change his relationship with people he lived near. Young Goodman Brown was an innocent man in his society, and he always saw that others had this same character as well. That aspect shifted on the night he met the devil. When the secret sin made its appearance into the home of the area where they all lived in.

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In Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown" it can be described as a moral allegory that illustrates the puritan doctrine of inherent depravity as the Brown. He tests his faith by entering the forest primeval by joining the man "of grave and decent attire" for an evening in the wilderness. It is apparent the symbols are of a religious nature. Hawthorne wrote in the time period known as the Romantic Period. Hawthorne's rejection of the Puritan belief system is the primary message of this story.

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In, “Young Goodman Brown's 'evil purpose': Hawthorne and the Jungian shadow” Moore’s critiques Hawthorne’s, “Young Goodman Brown.” Moore compares the writings of Hawthorne and offers as a substitute, a reading from the perception of Jungian theory, which, to his knowledge, can seal in some of the openings left by the Freudians. Jung, describes people as having two faces, the ones they chose to show the world and the natural self we show behind closed doors.

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The use of symbolism is largely used in the story to further display the theory of good vs evil. This quote in particular, illustrates the first encounter of evil that Goodman Brown meets. He meets this random strange man in the deep dark forest quickly notes the odd staff that he carries using precise detail stating how intricately it is made that it appears to be moving. This serpent staff has biblical symbolism in which it is symbolic of evil and manipulation while the man who carries this staff is used to symbolize the devil who manipulates and lures Goodman Brown deeper into forest which is used to represent hell and plunges Goodman Brown further into sin. Goodman Brown is used to represent the good in people, which is evident in his name, and how easily the evil and darkness can manipulate the good in others.

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