Young Goodman Brown Essay

What if the darkest parts of human nature were exposed to all corners of the world? The short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne thrusts readers into a world where good and evil fight for control, where evil wins. The tale follows the protagonist as he delves into a dark foreboding forest and grapples with profound questions about his morality. He encounters the familiar faces of those he dubbed righteous in a sinister web of temptation and lies. As the night unfolds, the protagonist questions the righteous morals he once believed in. The story of “Young Goodman Brown” conveys that every human being has a silent internal battle between good and evil. Goodman Brown’s journey into the forest in “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel

At the start of the short story, Goodman Brown was curious about the rituals being performed in the dark forest. He ventured in without the influence of evil, however, fell to the temptations of evil. “The rest of the story continues to emphasize Goodman Brown's surrender to evil. Rushing through the forest ‘with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil,’ Goodman Brown,’ the man who has lost faith in his fellow men,’ was himself the chief horror of the scene.”( Hurley 2). This quote explains Goodman Brown followed an evil purpose and started paving his descent into chaos. This emphasizes that evil is a choice that most people can follow. Furthermore, Goodman Brown wakes up from his hallucination or dreams of the event. He sees every villager, including his wife, filled with evil. Later on, Goodman Brown became a bitter person, accepting what he saw in the forest and not trusting those around him. (Hurley 9-10). Goodman Brown saw evil in everyone and he accepted it as the truth. He descended into darkness, falling into the clutches of evil and becoming a horrible person. Evil exists all throughout the world, but that does not mean the world is evil; rather, it signals the influence of one’s own moral choices and what it means to overcome