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Ridicule In Young Goodman Brown

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Ridicule of the Salem Witch Trials Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, "Young Goodman Brown,” exhibits his deep repulsion for what occurred during the Salem Witch Trials. He possesses the readers with his emotions so they feel the sorrow he feels for the innocent people who were falsely accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death. Hawthorne was personally connected to the Witch Trials because his great-great-grandfather was a judge. Throughout the reading, we see instances where Hawthorne indirectly and directly addresses the Salem Witch Trials in order to ridicule this horrendous occurrence. As a result, this short story is a satire.
The first instance we see of Hawthorne’s disparagement of the witch trials is when Young Goodman Brown …show more content…

When Goodman Brown's faith forsakes him, he willfully surrenders to sin and accompanies the sinners at the witches' coven where he sees notable people from his community. At the coven, "Some affirm that the lady of the governor was there " (57). This quote is very significant because it is a specific reference to what caused the trials to end. The Salem Witch Trials finally came to a close only when the governor's wife was accused of witchcraft and he stepped in to end the trials regardless of who was guilty and who was innocent. Hawthorne wanted to communicate to his readers how he believed the innocent were punished and the guilty were set free.
Throughout "Young Goodman Brown," the reader can identify the harsh ridicule Hawthorne has for the Salem Witch Trial and for the people involved in condemning the innocent. Hawthorne’s feelings are evident because of the many examples he uses throughout the story, starting with him communicating to his readers how he feels about his great-great-grandfather's association with the trials and ending with his ridicule of the governor. “Young Goodman Brown” is a story about faith, but it is also a

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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!”

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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.

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The desires of humanity often reflect the temptations residing in the heart’s depths. Evil’s lure is a strong pull felt by all, regardless of the appearance put on through the conscious mind. In literature, temptation is explored thoroughly, especially in the short story, “Young Goodman Brown”. “The tale becomes in great part, thus, a record of temptation” (Pualits 578-579). The author of “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804.

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