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What Did Puritans Believe About The Evil Capabilities Of Satan Or Young Goodman Brown?

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Witchcraft and Satanic activity are prevalent in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works, including “The Scarlet Letter” and “Young Goodman Brown”. From Mistress Hibbins in “The Scarlet Letter” and the walk Goodman Brown takes with the devil through the forest in “Young Goodman Brown”, the satanic influence and witchcraft are shown. Some questions arise when delving deeper into the meaning of these influences. What did the Puritans believe about the evil capabilities of Satan and witchcraft? How willing would they have been to believe Hawthorne’s accounts? And were these evil characters and activities meant to be seen as literal or symbolic? To answer these questions, we must first know the Puritan’s beliefs. Regarding the devil and his evil capabilities, “their beliefs caused the Puritans to blame the Devil for the many hardships they endured. If a crop began to whither or a family member grew ill, it was an act of the Devil” (Stuart). Their beliefs did put certain limitations on the devil and his evil works. “They believed that since God was all-powerful, Satan’s challenge was not a serious one” and that …show more content…

The consequences of these capital crimes were the sinner was to be put to death. Worshiping another God was the number one law and being a witch came in at number two. Both of these can be seen in both The Scarlet Letter and Young Goodman Brown. Mistress Hibbins was based on Ann Hibbins who executed for witchcraft in 1656. It also wouldn’t have been unheard of if the real Puritan community would have put someone in Hester’s predicament of adultery to death. If they could prove that Young Goodman Brown or his wife Faith communed with the devil or participated in any witchcraft, they could have been put to death as

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