“Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne” Written in 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” was first published in the April issue of ‘New England Magazine” and it was later included in Hawthorne’s collection of short stories ‘Mosses from an Old Manse’ in 1846. Brown is a young pious man with strong religious convictions who embarks on a journey through the deep, foreboding forest in Salem, Massachusetts amidst seventeenth century Puritan society; which forever alters his self-perception and his view of all mankind in an adverse manner. Hawthorne uses descriptive imagery and symbols to create an environment of foreboding and eeriness which helps to show Brown’s emotional and spiritual struggle on his journey. …show more content…
When young Goodman Brown parts from his wife, Faith at sunset on that fateful night, Hawthorne is using sunset to represent the descent of light (day) into darkness (night). Faith represents not only his wife, but also his spiritual faith. She asks him to stay “Prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is feared with such dreams and such thoughts that she’s afeared of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year.” (p 452) He responds to her “My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done ‘twixt now and sunrise.” (p 452) Hawthorne was subtly implying that there was trouble ahead as no good can come from a man leaving his newlywed wife behind and planning to stay out all night. Brown fully intends to embark on an excursion through the forest at night and intentionally leave his ‘Faith’ behind, which means that he is aware that this is a not a casual jaunt through the wilderness, but a rite of passage that he feels he must