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The Symbolism Of Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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In the short story, “Young Goodman Brown”, author Nathaniel Hawthorne, wanted to show his audience the stereotypical idea of what displaying faith is. Goodman Brown was an average human who had his faith tested and was tempted by evil deeds. Hawthorne holds the attention of the reader by using suspense throughout the story. As the short story progresses, Hawthorne displays symbols that the conflict of evil and good of each character. The story is not just full of suspense, but also filled with symbolism that can relate to the reality of today’s society and how people view faith.
First, Hawthorne showed how Goodman Brown had strong faith before entering the forest by himself. In the story it states, Then God bless you! Said faith, with the
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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

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In “Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses diction and imagery to show how revelation often leads to corruption. Initially, Goodman Brown’s character is portrayed as a kind and innocent Puritan by Hawthorne’s use of diction. For example, by saying “my sweet, pretty wife” (1), Brown demonstrates his adoration towards his wife; he even goes as far to compare her to an angel.

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These efforts are shown when Hawthorne proclaims,” “Faith!” shouted Goodman Brown in a voice of agony and desperation; and the echoes of the forest mocked him crying– “Faith! Faith!”” (Hawthorne). Using Goodman shouting his wifes name in desperation creates this vocal sentiment that he wants to keep true his beliefs in which he contradicted prior in the story. These tone words help build a dark, self-doubting, and self loathing-tone to show Goodman going against his religious

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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.

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The analysis you did of "Young Goodman Brown" was similar to what I interpreted. I thought the pagan undertones in the story were significant because the story took place in Salem which is where the witch trials took place. Brown is told by his "fellow traveler" that his grandfather persecuted a Quaker woman and his father set fire to an Indian village. Brown responds to that news by saying, "We are a people of prayer and good works, to boot, and abide no such wickedness" (388). Brown 's attitude towards those who are different can be heard when he tells himself "There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree" (387).

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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.

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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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In the short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the symbolic significance of Young Goodman Brown’s wife Faith epitomizes the struggle and complexity that Young Goodman Brown endures with his own religious faith throughout the story. Faith is the idea of unyielding trust or belief in something or someone and in the case of Young Goodman brown, it’s faith in God. Because faith results in facing temptation, it is not uncommon for people to become unfaithful and leave their belief behind or ignore at life’s crossroads. Young Goodman Brown begins the story by journeying away from his wife Faith, “So they parted; and the young man pursued his way,” (para. 6). Not only is Young Goodman Brown leaving behind Faith, the person, but also what she symbolizes—his faith in God.

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Hawthorne shapes Goodman Brown to be the puritan figure during these times. During the Salem Witch Trials, it was merely a battle to decipher who was purely evil and doing the devil’s work (a witch) and who was innocent. This displaced who people trusted during the 19th century as shown through Young Goodman Brown. Everyone was quick to judge and trust those who did no wrong such as Goody and Faith, but as soon as they were seen in the forest committing sin, it created a sense of awakening for the society that everyone does in fact, has two sides to themselves. Even the main character is not who he seems as soon as he leaves his backbone, wife, and source of “safe haven”, Faith.

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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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1 In Hawthorne 's essay “Young Goodman Brown”, does it matter whether or not the protagonist, Goodman Brown, dreamt the events in the story? The idea and drive behind religious faith and belief is a concept consistently explored in Young Goodman Brown (YGB). The story explores Brown 's journey in a single night which inexplicably ends with a tarnished perspective on religious faith as portrayed by his fellow villagers. Brown himself grows to be disillusioned on faith but the events leading up to this shift however, is ambiguous at best, with the debate mostly centred towards the notion that Brown merely dreamt the events, resulting in an unfair and biased outcome in terms of his sentiment towards the villagers and his own belief.

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Author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, believed that “no man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true” (“Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes”). He expresses this ideology in the short story “Young Goodman Brown.” Here, the main character’s faith is tested by the Devil himself. The Devil shows Goodman that even the most pious members of the community follow him when they are alone. The author alludes to the thematic idea that everyone has his or her own inner evil through the unique setting, the inner conflict expressed by the protagonist, and the irony and symbolism behind the characters’ names and attributes.

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Faith meaning his wife and his belief in God. Hawthorne uses the pink ribbons to represent innocence, but uses the staff and the forest to represent evil. Further along Goodman Brown’s journey into the forest he is joined by a man “in grave and decent attire” (Hawthorne 1). The

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Conversely, Hawthorne did not trust man at all. He was a Transcendental Pessimist. He believed man was corrupt, and following his intuition would fail him in life. One of Hawthorne’s short stories, “Young Goodman Brown”, portrays the tale of a young Christian man who wanders into the forest and witnesses a witch-meeting that involves some of the people Goodman Brown thought to be some of the holiest people he knew: the church Deacon, the pastor, and even Brown’s own wife, Faith. After the witch-meeting incident in the woods, Brown wonders whether he witnessed the witch meeting, or if it was a creation of his own imagination: “quote”.

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His opening phrase in this scene is, “ “Faith kept me back a while” replied a young man, with tremor in his voice” (406). Although Goodman Brown’s conversation with his wife delayed him, he was referring to his faith in Puritan beliefs. In the beginning, he is uneasy with the idea of darkness and the unknown because that is all he has learned is to stay true to God. His faith is all he has known his whole life and deviating away from that ideal lifestyle is a foreign yet tempting idea. This is evident when he says, “ “Too far!

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