Hypocrisy Of Puritans In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Many people have their own religion, their own beliefs, and what may be considered a sin. Similar to the Puritans, they are a religious group of people who wanted to purify the churches. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” the audience is being taken on an adventure of the Puritan religion and how the people who were involved were always holy and would never do no wrong. Puritans were pictured as innocent, however, the short story would contradict this notion later on. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s infamous short story he uses an abundance of skepticism as well as unsettling or rather uneasy depictions to portray the masked image and the hypocrisy of the Puritans.

By using pathos, Hawthorne achieves the feel of skepticism

Protagonist Goodman Brown starts to become skeptical of the air around him, hearing voices of what sounded like the Puritans in his town, but with a sound of unholy intent. Goodman in his thoughts would think how “Aloft the air, as if from the depths of the cloud” there was a “confused and doubtful sound of voices” (Hawthorne). Goodman would begin to “distinguish the accent of town’s-people of his own, men and women” and how they were both “pious and ungodly” (Hawthorne). The voices would have even stronger “familiar tones” that were heard “daily in the sunshine, Salem village” (Hawthorne). Hawthorne offers this information in order to make the audience start to question or doubt the Puritans whether or not they are as holy as they let on to be. When he makes Goodman hear these questionable noises that sound confused, doubtful, pious and ungodly that not only give uncertainty, but also him mentioning how these voices sound like the townspeople gives much Intel that the Puritans in the town have a more sinister side to them. Though Goodman would not only hear familiar voices, but he would then start to see the people that he recognized

Goodman would explain how “appeared faces that would be seen, next day, at the council-board of the province” how they were “Sabbath after Sabbath” and looked “devoutly heavenward and benignantly,” he would also describe them as the “holiest pulpits in the land” (Hawthorne). Goodman then recognized a “score of the church-members of Salem village” that were “famous for their especial sanctity” (Hawthorne). Though Goodman would also find it strange to see that the “good shrank not from the wicked” and “nor were the sinners abashed by the saints” (Hawthorne). What Hawthorne is trying to achieve is to show the hypocrisy of the Puritans. They are described as holy righteous people, but notice how Goodman would find it strange to see them there with him in the