Web. 2 May. 2012. The research of “Young Goodman Brown,” explains the various images found in Young Goodman Brown. Some of them clarifies the author criticisms are the Salem Village, the pink ribbons on Faith’s hat, the fellow traveler, the staff, and using of the term “faith”, and the forest.
Young Goodman Brown has lost all hope and is now an empty vessel waiting to be filled with sin. This shows how Young Goodman Brown’s lost of faith has allowed him to be less than human. He becomes a shadow of himself looking for trouble and specifically the devil. In an essence, Young Goodman Brown’s internal conflict vanishes and the story continues to resolve the external conflict.
The character that we come to know as Faith in Young Goodman Brown is primarily a symbol for primary Christian beliefs. “And what calm sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith!" (P. 6, paragraph 3 Young Goodman Brown) In the story, all of the evil villains were trying to lead Brown away from his Faith, just as the devil’s temptations will attempt to lead one from God. Upon his return at the village, he found that his Faith was not as comforting as it used to
(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.
Hawthorne says, “Something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree” Faith’s pink ribbons symbolize purity. In the beginning of the story was Faith had her ribbons she was pure but at the end of the story when Young Goodman Brown saw Faith’s pink ribbon come down from the sky it represents how she succumed to evil and Hawthorne lost both his faith and his wife Faith. The third example of how Hawthorne uses symbolism to show the theme good versus evil in the story “Young Goodman Brown” is when the devil is telling Brown and Faith that they will have a new perspective of life, a life where everyone sins. In the beginning of the story Young Goodman Brown saw his family as godly and he saw Faith as pure but the devil shows him that his views are naive and the devil gives him the capability to see the dark side of everything and everyone.
The Danger of A Walk With the Devil: The Consequence of Sin and Guilt in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” As Canadian author William Paul Young once said, “sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown’s life and entire being is demolished by his sins, never to return to what it once was. Through a guilt-filled journey of sin, Goodman Brown struggles with his faith, his grasp on reality, but most importantly, life as he knows it. By losing everything, Young Goodman Brown suffers the ultimate punishment of lifelong pain and suffering.
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.
The Twentieth-century philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre had the right idea when he stated that "ownership extends beyond objects to include intangible things as well"; because the foundation of one 's self-identity is also a bridge between the intangible things that one can own and how one perceives those items. When traveling through that journey in life where you are trying to figure out who you are and what that entitles, one must likely thinks and ponders upon their perception of intangible items like faith, love, hope, fear to fully understand themselves. Goodman Brown in the story "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne touched upon the building of ones identity based upon the ideals/morals they believed in when it came to the item of faith. He understood that he was a child of god who had committed sins and so he thought that maybe he deserved to be comrades with the devil and accept the concept of evil into his life. However by the end of the story, Goodman Brown believed in his identity and he knew that he believed in God and had faith so he denied the Devil.
Sin is inevitable. Every person sins, one way or another. Sinning is impossible to avoid even with “practice.” “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne shows readers that. Goodman Brown wants to believe he is a good man, and perhaps he is; but he is tempted by sin all the same.
Goodman Brown loses his faith in his humanity when evil prevails itself in many forms, leaving him to speculate the behavior and beliefs of everyone encircles around him. This story also contains similar Biblical characteristics of the sinful nature in man. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to define that wickedness exist in all humanity and nothing is the way it seems. The story begins with Goodman Brown and his wife named Faith bartering a goodbye kiss.
“Young Goodman Brown” among a dream of a Puritan man and his conflicts with the Christian faith. Hawthorn portrays Goodman as an example of the natural sinful tendencies of man by revealing just how effortlessly a young puritan can be tempted and influenced by a stranger.
In the short story "Young Goodman Brown," the author really grabs the reader's attention with some confusion and hope. The author Nathaniel Hawthorne leads the reader into being confused at first and making them wonder what all he is saying really means. Hawthorne grabs the attention of the reader with the confusion and the hope to find out what will happen next. The short story "Young Goodman Brown" is mainly defined as a suspenseful story yet the story expressed a great amount of symbolism with many lessons for the reader to take in. The author expresses that having faith is very important asset for both men and women and the ones without faith will face problems that can break you as a person.
The Puritan society had many contradictions to their religion. “Young Goodman Brown”, a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is about a young man traveling through a forest to meet a devil-like person and discovers that everyone he knows is on the side of an evil person. This depresses him and he never fully recovers being able to trust his loved ones again. The character of Goodman Brown adjusts the reader’s understanding of Puritan ideals of religion by appealing the hypocrisy of the Puritan religion.
Symbolism is an artistic style that uses images and indirect suggestions to express themes, emotions, or cryptic ideas. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s account of “Young Goodman Brown,” he uses creative symbolism and allegories to get his message across. Brown’s wife, Faith, reveals arcane symbols throughout the tale. Although not present during the majority of the story, her impression and value shapes the whole plot. In the fictional account, “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne uses Brown’s wife to symbolize the tussles Christians fight to remain grounded by their center of faith and the incessant struggles that innocence and purity face against evils.
The story of Young Goodman Brown is the story of a tale about the main character becoming aware of the hypocrisy of his faith as a Puritan. Through his travels in the woods at night, he unveils the truths, or what he believes as truths, about his wife Faith, neighbors, and fellow Christians. By the end, Brown loses all trust in his Faith, both literally and spiritually, and refuses to see any good in the world. The beginning scene where Goodman Brown meets the old man has the most significance in the story’s resolution. This is where his mistrust starts to form and where he experiences his first temptations to sin.
