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The Personification Of Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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The short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne exposes the reader to the rendition of faith and reason along with heaven and hell. In the story the young “good” man named Goodman Brown loses his faith in when he takes a journey into the forest at night. In the dark forest he thinks he sees all the people he considered faithful gathered around a fire at a witches’ ceremony with the devil. The symbolism of the journey taking place at night is that darkness represents sin and light represents heaven.

Goodman Brown leaves the safety of his home in the town to take a journey through the woods this leads into the faith and reason archetype. Faith is the personification of faith and purity, even in her own name. Goodman Brown’s internal conflict in the story is based on whether to “keep the faith.” In the beginning of the story the struggle is literal, Brown’s wife begs him to stay at home and not venture out into the woods. This decision to leave behind Faith is a metaphor for his thoughts about religion, which he similarly abandons at the end of the story. Faith begs Goodman Brown not to leave causing him to wonder if Faith has lost his faith in him, he asks “dust thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?” (Hawthorne 133) Goodman brown carries on with his journey and meets the man with the serpent who accuses him of being late, which …show more content…

The two stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Artificial Nigger” share common archetypes but different outcomes. Both Young Goodman Brown and Mr. Head go on a journey, although they end differently and exposes the reader to the rendition of faith and reason along with heaven and hell. Young Goodman Brown leaves with faith and returns having lost all faith and trust in his neighbors and God. Mr. Head starts his journey with little faith and a goal to teach his grandson a lesson but as the journey carries on Mr.Head becomes humble and gains a new look at the world with the faith and

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