Theme Of Loss Of Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

A famous English writer once said: “The danger of loss of faith in God is not that one will believe in nothing, but rather that one will believe in anything” (“Gilbert K. Chesterton”). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegory Young Goodman Brown the main character leaves his wife, so he can watch a witch ceremony held in the forest. During the night, while walking through the forest, Goodman Brown experiences an event beyond his imagination, which changes the life of the character. That harrowing event was the benefactor in how Brown perceived not only the people around him, but also life in general. Brown’s experience in the forest, “’demolishes his relationship with his wife Faith, isolates him from his neighbors, and destroys his ability to worship God’” (“Goodman Brown’s Loss of Faith in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown”). Hawthorne wants to show to the readers that

When reading the story the viewer can notice that most of the character names have a symbolic meaning behind them. For instance Goodman’s name represents that the character is a “good man.” Another good example could be seen in the name of Brown’s wife that is also has an important role in the story. Faith was the person that made Brown to question his journey. In the 17th century people still did not have knowledge of psychology, so they believed that having a bad dream is a sign that something bad is going to happen in that person’s life. That could be seen in the beginning of the story when Faith had a dream, which was the symbol that something harmful was about to happen in the story. Her name also represented the faith, purity and goodness in Brown’s life and in the story. When he was confronted by the “devil” in the forest and later in the meeting, his wife was the person he thought could save him from the nightmare and be the light in the