ipl-logo

Hidden Evil In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

654 Words3 Pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne was known for his many ways of writing including hidden messages, allegory meanings and symbolism. Nathaniel also brought back Puritan style writing by discussing religion as a main focus in his texts with everyday people good or bad, also known as religious symbolism. In “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne symbolically illustrates the dark and bright sides of characters throughout the story in order to teach the moral lesson of man and the conflict within, the hidden evil among everyone represented in the mysterious man and Goody Cloyse, Goodman's unknown past, and his unknown future with his wife. Young Goodman Brown faces Internal conflict when leaving his wife during the night to meet with the mysterious man in the woods. “My journey as thou callest it forth and back again, musts needs be done twist now and sunrise. What, my sweet pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already.” (pg.1). This scene shows the conflict Brown experiences between his actual faith and his wife Faith caused by the mysterious man. On the way to the woods Goodman Brown questions the …show more content…

Goodman is so embarrassed to see her in the woods because of his profound respect for her that he hides from her and the mysterious man confronts her. “ Goody Cloyse nor the serpentine staff, but his fellow-traveler alone, who waited for him as calmly as if nothing had happened” (pg.4). Readers find out that Goody is in the woods for the communion as well, when talking with the man she admits that her broom is broken and now she is tired, suddenly the man throws her a serpentine staff that makes her disappear before their eyes. Hawthorne is showing us more foreshadowing of the man being the devil and Goody Cloyse being a witch due to her admitting about the broom. Occurring again Goodman tries to return to his faith after this

Show More
Related
790 Words | 4 Pages

“Young Goodman Brown.” : An Annotated Bibliography “Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. Gregory, Leslie. " The Text of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown". " American Literature Research and Analysis.

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

(pg. 453)” Young Goodman Brown is a man living in the puritan era who has a wife and family, and is deep in his Christian faith. Young Goodman Brown lived in a town that is all connected to through the local church. Early in the story Young Goodman brown would set out to meet a person who would later be labeled as the devil by one of the locals. Young Goodman brown would have a vision of everyone in his community that would show him their wicked sins.

Read More
475 Words | 2 Pages

In both of these short stories Hawthorne’s “Young Good Man Brown” and O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the bible is the topic of discussion as a literal expression throughout each story. Both authors write about the existence of Christianity and evilness in their stories. This gives the audience an opportunity to read from two very different mindsets. It’s determined that in both stories the characters have fallen from redemption, but at a certain point return back to Christ.

Read More
903 Words | 4 Pages

In one moment of frenzied despair, he gives himself over to "the instinct that guides mortal man to evil" (51). This reveals his true feeble character, he has been put to the test and failed to stand up against evil. When he finally does take a stand to "resist the Wicked One," it has a disturbing feeling of too little, too late (69). This quote is significant because it’s the introductory feeling of damnation of Brown’s awaiting lifetime full of misery. His conflict with the illusion has created a new man, as he described, “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream” (72).¬¬ His experience in the woods that night influenced both his behavior and his relationships for the rest of his life due to the discovery of the alleged “true nature” of people like Goody Cloyse, his wife Faith and the Minister which have clearly devoured his conscious and ripped apart the high and respected view he once had for them.

Read More
398 Words | 2 Pages

Because Goodman Brown does not trust Faith, the quote implies that Goodman Brown loses hope and sanity. In the end, Goodman Brown becomes corrupted, disillusioned, and questioning of

Read More
467 Words | 2 Pages

Hawthorne says, “Something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree” Faith’s pink ribbons symbolize purity. In the beginning of the story was Faith had her ribbons she was pure but at the end of the story when Young Goodman Brown saw Faith’s pink ribbon come down from the sky it represents how she succumed to evil and Hawthorne lost both his faith and his wife Faith. The third example of how Hawthorne uses symbolism to show the theme good versus evil in the story “Young Goodman Brown” is when the devil is telling Brown and Faith that they will have a new perspective of life, a life where everyone sins. In the beginning of the story Young Goodman Brown saw his family as godly and he saw Faith as pure but the devil shows him that his views are naive and the devil gives him the capability to see the dark side of everything and everyone.

Read More
1728 Words | 7 Pages

During his journey of sin, Young Goodman Brown and the devil come upon Goody Cloyse, Young Goodman Brown's catechism teacher, and, still believing that she is a “pious and exemplary dame” Goodman Brown tries to stay away from the woman by pleading with the devil “I shall take a cut through the woods… being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with” (3). Because of Young Goodman Brown’s beliefs of her innocence, it is even more jolting to him when she “knows her old friend,” the devil, and speaks about stolen broomsticks, recipes including “the juice of smallage and cinquefoil and wolf’s-bane,” and even the same devilish meeting that Young Goodman Brown and his accomplice are to attend (3). With signs that all point to sin and witchcraft, Young Goodman Brown’s shock in saying “That old woman taught me my catechism” had “a world of meaning” as he cannot possibly believe that a woman known to be so holy and righteous in the community could be so evil within. As Goodman Brown moves past the shock of Goody Cloyse’s actions, he is exposed to the sins of the holiest members of their Puritan community, the minister and Deacon Gookin. While Goodman Brown shamefully “[conceals] himself within the verge of the forest… he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin” who speak of the same evil “meeting” as Goody Cloyse and even remark that “several of the Indian powwows” will even be present (4,5).

Read More
1344 Words | 6 Pages

In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown is naïve. At first, he is stuck on the idea that everyone is good but still chooses to meet with the devil in the forest out of curiosity. He knows that the devil is evil and a bad person, but feels as long as he clings to Faith once he gets home he will be safe. Goodman Brown encounters several people that he knows while on his walk in the

Read More
1703 Words | 7 Pages

Goodman decides to turn around after meeting up with his guide, but he guide convinces him to reason with him as they continue on their journey. The devil tells Goodman that the best men are secretly evil, and that if he joins the devil in the devil’s baptism that he will have knowledge of everyone’s hidden secrets. The devil continues to try to convince him, and Goodman starts to believe his lies. The devil has the power to deceive and he alludes Goodman to believe that he is seeing a woman he knows very well. And again, he is sure that someone he knows is walking by-

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

My broomstick hath strangely disappeared, stolen, as I suspect, by that unhanged witch, Goody Cory, and that, too, when I was all anointed with the juice of smallage and cinque-foil and wolf's bane–”” (3) She started speaking of a recipe as if the man had been her friend for years. Goodman Brown could not believe that a woman of the church would follow the devil. This was the same woman who taught him his catechism. This point was when Brown did not want to continue, wishing to go back to his

Read More
605 Words | 3 Pages

Hawthorne uses symbolism throughout the story to explore moral and spiritual issues taking the character young Goodman Brown on a journey from innocence and faith to the dark side of distrust and evil. The elder (the devil) who carries the staff could be considered the leader in the story as he takes Brown into the woods in an attempt to lead him astray or away from faith and innocence. Young Goodman Brown makes the personal choice to go into the woods, which is an individual decision with consequences. This action led to his fall even if it was helped by the devil. In the beginning of the story, Young Goodman Brown describes his father and grandfather as being religious and having high moral character which indicates how his society values the traits.

Read More
1127 Words | 5 Pages

These, as well as other minor characters are used as a key part in expressing its allegorical nature. Hawthorne uses some of the characters as metaphors and gives them symbolic roles in order to easily portray his message to his audience. Goodman Brown, the main character, is made to appear as a common man through many different details, beginning with his name. Young was most likely added to the front of Goodman Brown to represent a common inexperienced man who is early in his age and still figuring things out. After all, he is newly married and just beginning his life.

Read More
566 Words | 3 Pages

Brown reflect this when returning home from the forest and see Faith in which his reaction was “ But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without greeting” (70). He displays this further by “Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith, and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away.” (72) because his wife caused him to his loss of faith which he displays by not praying publicly or privately showing faith in

Read More
813 Words | 4 Pages

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a very controversial story. The story can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. This story is about a young man, Goodman Brown, who goes off one night into the woods, leaving his innocent wife, Faith, behind. To the reader, he does not identify a specific reason behind why he has to go this night and what exactly he is expecting to achieve by leaving into the woods. Although, it is easy to conclude that most likely the trip will take a dark toll, this is because Young Goodman Brown says, “Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee”, pg. 1346, para.5.

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

The story of Young Goodman Brown is the story of a tale about the main character becoming aware of the hypocrisy of his faith as a Puritan. Through his travels in the woods at night, he unveils the truths, or what he believes as truths, about his wife Faith, neighbors, and fellow Christians. By the end, Brown loses all trust in his Faith, both literally and spiritually, and refuses to see any good in the world. The beginning scene where Goodman Brown meets the old man has the most significance in the story’s resolution. This is where his mistrust starts to form and where he experiences his first temptations to sin.

Read More

More about Hidden Evil In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Related Topics

Open Document