Faith in “Young Goodman Brown”, Georgiana in “The Birthmark”, and Elizabeth in “The Minister’s Black Veil” are all very important characters throughout each of these stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. They are not only each a large part of their own individual story, but they are used especially to reveal truth about the main male characters to which they are with. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Faith is the person to which Goodman Brown holds on to when he starts to be apprehensive and question the moral goodness of the people around him. Faith reveals that Goodman is testing his spiritual faith.
(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.
In this story, he looks into the witchcraft frenzy and psychology of the Puritan mind. Goodman Brown is fighting in himself good vs evil. Included is the prevalence and secrecy of sin and evil alive within all people, Mr. Brown, his father, grandfather, his friends and neighbors, members of his church and even his wife Faith. Thus, ones loss of faith and self-doubt about all that is
In YGB, the main character, Young Goodman Brown, has an experience that changes his perspective on all of his town’s people. The town of Salem Village, in Young Goodman Brown’s eyes, is a pure town of good people with good intentions and a clear devotion to God, especially his wife Faith. YGB says that Faith is “a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven,” (Hawthorne 7). The one night he speaks of is his journey through the woods with a fellow-traveller; said fellow-traveller is perceived in this story to be the Devil.
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).
They feel dread and fear when they do not see the sky for long time. They make conversation each other as: “Sweetest Eve, where are we? “Exclaims the new Adam, ____ for speech, or some equivalent mode of expression, is born with them, and comes just as natural as breath;___ “Methinks I do not recognize this place. “ “Nor I dear Adam, “replies the new Eve, “And what a strange place too! Let me come closer to thy side and behold thee only; for all other sights trouble and perplex my spirit” (747).
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.
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
Goodman Brown enters the forest knowing of such evil, he states in the story “what if the devil himself should be at my very elbow” (Hawthorne 322). Goodman Brown sees the minister and Deacon Gookin as well as many other townspeople making their way into the dark forest towards the ceremony. At this time, Nathaniel Hawthorne is displaying that many people of all ranks in religious and governmental society are sinners despite their external appearance. He holds on to the thoughts that as long as Faith remains holy, he shall find it in himself to resist the temptations of evil, but when he sees the pink ribbons from Faith’s cap his Christian faith is weakened. Hawthorne is using Goodman Brown’s wife, Faith, as a symbol of his own when he yells out “my faith is gone!”
Nathaniel Hawthorne gives great representation of doubt, faith, and trust in this story “Young Goodman Brown”. In the beginning of the story you can see Brown’s strong trust, in both his marriage and faith in God, as seen in the statement “Well,
Throughout human history, evil, innocence, and temptation have been a part of human existence that dates back before anyone can remember. Every piece of literature ever written revolves around these three themes. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses this in his story “Young Goodman Brown” to prove these points and show true human nature. There is evil everywhere in human nature. Hawthorne uses symbolism to convey that everyone possesses both good and evil and puts on a facade, proving that humans often lose their innocence when faced with evil and temptation.
In the short story, “Young Goodman Brown”, author Nathaniel Hawthorne, wanted to show his audience the stereotypical idea of what displaying faith is. Goodman Brown was an average human who had his faith tested and was tempted by evil deeds. Hawthorne holds the attention of the reader by using suspense throughout the story. As the short story progresses, Hawthorne displays symbols that the conflict of evil and good of each character. The story is not just full of suspense, but also filled with symbolism that can relate to the reality of today’s society and how people view faith.
He believes that his Faith is salvageable, yet due to Hawthorne’s use of deliberate ambiguity, Goodman Brown does not know “whether Faith obeyed” him or not (395). Goodman Brown awakes the next morning unsure if his Faith remains intact, unsure how the hellish communion ended. His uncertainty causes him to distrust those around him, “he shrank from” the minister and “snatched away [a] child,” from Goody Cloyse (395). He even distrusts his own Faith, deciding not to speak to her and only “looked sternly and sadly into her face,” attempting to discern if Faith is without sin (395). As such, he commits the unpardonable sin, looking for sin in others.
1 In Hawthorne 's essay “Young Goodman Brown”, does it matter whether or not the protagonist, Goodman Brown, dreamt the events in the story? The idea and drive behind religious faith and belief is a concept consistently explored in Young Goodman Brown (YGB). The story explores Brown 's journey in a single night which inexplicably ends with a tarnished perspective on religious faith as portrayed by his fellow villagers. Brown himself grows to be disillusioned on faith but the events leading up to this shift however, is ambiguous at best, with the debate mostly centred towards the notion that Brown merely dreamt the events, resulting in an unfair and biased outcome in terms of his sentiment towards the villagers and his own belief.
Conversely, Hawthorne did not trust man at all. He was a Transcendental Pessimist. He believed man was corrupt, and following his intuition would fail him in life. One of Hawthorne’s short stories, “Young Goodman Brown”, portrays the tale of a young Christian man who wanders into the forest and witnesses a witch-meeting that involves some of the people Goodman Brown thought to be some of the holiest people he knew: the church Deacon, the pastor, and even Brown’s own wife, Faith. After the witch-meeting incident in the woods, Brown wonders whether he witnessed the witch meeting, or if it was a creation of his own imagination: “quote”.
