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Symbolism In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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“Young Goodman Brown” Symbolism by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Introduction
Young Goodman Brown is a classic story written in 1835 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and it was set in the 17th century during the Salem witch trials. The story is a kind of disillusionment that the main character finds that the whole society is hiding a lot of information from him (Hawthorne 227). He questions his religious beliefs his family and even the entire community. All people in Salem are accusing each other of being a witch, and the story is set during the Puritan period mainly regarding the church of England, and the story is questioning the faith of all people even Brown a member of this church. The story has several characters such as Goodman Brown the protagonist, Faith who is Goodman’s wife, the old man also called the devil, Goody Cloyse who is a woman citizen and also a member of the church who guides people to learn the bible, but she reveals herself to be a witch. The minister a member of the church a respected man in the community but he is also a follower of the devil. Last is Deacon Gookin a clergyman in Salem a respected man in church and brown sees him a respectable good, religious man but still he is a devil follower. All these characters and their behaviors are revealed to Goodman Brown in one night when travelling, and through his curiosity, he accepts …show more content…

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I founded interesting that the author noticed that the Salem village is the center of the witchcraft misbelief. By everything the evil noted in Goodman Brown; it makes sense that Hawthorne would use a Salem village for this story. In my reflection about the story, I realize that is a place where the events continuously happened because it has a different incidents or devices that are widely found in the literature and recognized as motifs appear. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "

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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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