Loss Of Faith And Allocence In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne, an author during the dark romantics, secluded himself in a room for ten years, dedicating his time to literature and his writing. It was in this environment that he wrote several novels and short stories on the nature of the sinful man. In a specific allegory titled, “Young Goodman Brown”, a man loses his faith and innocence throughout his encounter with the devil in a forest. He ultimately can draw the conclusion that everybody in the village is subject sin, including himself. In Hawthorne’s short story, Young Goodman Brown’s journey in the forest is a lesson that, through the use of symbols, portrays the thought that all men are sinners at heart. The idea that faith being both his wife and his actual belief in religion cannot keep temptation away forever is made clear in the beginning of the story. In his colloquy with the devil, the goodman says “‘Faith kept me back a while,’ replied the young man, with tremor in his voice, caused by the sudden appearance of his companion, though not wholly unexpected” (Hawthorne 1). From this quote, it is evident that his wife Faith, being a symbol of his religious faith, did not want him to accompany the devil to the forest,

As the journey continues and Goodman Brown falls deeper into sin, he says “The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon. ‘My Faith is gone!...There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is this world given’” (Hawthorne 5). The pink ribbon symbolizes faith and innocence, which is portrayed in the beginning. Through the development of his journey, he loses his faith and welcomes sin. This encounter reestablishes the moral with the assistance of the climax. Young Goodman Brown, without his Faith, comments that the world is the devil’s. With the loss of Goodman Brown’s faith, the lesson that all men are sinners at heart is applied to