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Young Goodman Brown Research Paper

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Within the short story, Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are themes of sin, evil and faith. Nathaniel Hawthorne has not only written this short story. He has written other short stories called, The Minister’s Black Veil, and The Scarlet Letter. In Young Goodman Brown, there are problems of faith that arise. As a reader when following the short story, Young Goodman Brown, Goodman Brown thinks everyone is irreproachable in the beginning. As he adventures out and goes on his excursion through the forest. Goodman Brown starts to apprehend that everyone is not who they appear to be. Goodman Brown then ends up listening to the Devil’s locutions and believes them which lead him to not trust anyone anymore. In the New International Bible verse …show more content…

Goodman Brown did not think people were untrustworthy at first. Once, he listened to what the devil had to say, the devil changed his thoughts making them false accusations about the world and humanity. In the Bible of Genesis, it talks about Eve and the serpent represents her curiosity, which leads her into temptation of the tree of knowledge. Goodman Brown’s decision to come into the forest is also motivated by curiosity.The staff represents that the old man is more demon than human. The evil staff leads Goodman Brown into taking it himself heading into a evil and dark path in the forest. This then leads him away from a path of light with Christ. Which ends up blinding Goodman Brown, along his journey through the forest. He then no longer walks in a path of Chris but walks in a path with the devil. In the scholarly article, Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown: An Interpretation, it mentions, “… the Devil’s deluding him with false imaginings in the forest, or showing him a sample of mankind which is truly representative, Young Goodman Brown’s suspicions about the world are not justified ”(D.M

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These scenes give the reader and Young Goodman Brown the idea that things are not always as they seem. The idea that God is the right way and good will prevail is what seems to be challenged in this reading. The man Goodman meets in the woods is trying to convince Goodman to follow him to the meeting and accept the devil. On page 394 the preacher in the meeting says “Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness.

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(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.

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During his journey of sin, Young Goodman Brown and the devil come upon Goody Cloyse, Young Goodman Brown's catechism teacher, and, still believing that she is a “pious and exemplary dame” Goodman Brown tries to stay away from the woman by pleading with the devil “I shall take a cut through the woods… being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with” (3). Because of Young Goodman Brown’s beliefs of her innocence, it is even more jolting to him when she “knows her old friend,” the devil, and speaks about stolen broomsticks, recipes including “the juice of smallage and cinquefoil and wolf’s-bane,” and even the same devilish meeting that Young Goodman Brown and his accomplice are to attend (3). With signs that all point to sin and witchcraft, Young Goodman Brown’s shock in saying “That old woman taught me my catechism” had “a world of meaning” as he cannot possibly believe that a woman known to be so holy and righteous in the community could be so evil within. As Goodman Brown moves past the shock of Goody Cloyse’s actions, he is exposed to the sins of the holiest members of their Puritan community, the minister and Deacon Gookin. While Goodman Brown shamefully “[conceals] himself within the verge of the forest… he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin” who speak of the same evil “meeting” as Goody Cloyse and even remark that “several of the Indian powwows” will even be present (4,5).

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Through the course of his journey within the forest, we see Goodman Brown's faith being eroded and his descent into evil and corruption. The climax of the story, where Brown witnesses a gathering of members of his community, including some of the most respected members, participating in a demonic rite, further exacerbates his crisis of faith and solidifies his change into a distrustful and pessimistic person. The conflict that he faces throughout this enables his character development, as it challenges his beliefs and values,

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In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown is naïve. At first, he is stuck on the idea that everyone is good but still chooses to meet with the devil in the forest out of curiosity. He knows that the devil is evil and a bad person, but feels as long as he clings to Faith once he gets home he will be safe. Goodman Brown encounters several people that he knows while on his walk in the

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Although he blames his evil and hypocrisy on others he leaves his faith first. He develops this thought in the allegory and in many symbols, particularly the sunset, the walking stick, and the path. When Goodman Brown say, "Of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee," he is saying in other words that he needs to be away from his wife Faith that night. “of all nights in the yea”' means possibly that he is home most other nights and that tonight is significant because he has something important to do away from

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In the short story, “ Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character Goodman Brown changes throughout the story by falling under the influence of evil giving him a different doubtful perception of his life, his core beliefs, and everyone he has ever known. Goodman Brown begins his journey by meeting a man of evil that guides him down his journey of the unknown and evil darkness. Goodman Brown appears to be a religious man with strong beliefs in what he has learned his whole life about being good and making the right choices. He is introduced to this strange shady many early in the story, and as he continually attempts to elude this devil like man he simply cannot resist continuing of this path because of his wise and cunning

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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 story “Young Good Man Brown “ by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Goodman Brown loss his faith in human race. He shows both innocence and corruptibility as he approaches the devil. The story based upon the religious imagery of Hawthorne’s New England in the times of Salem. In the beginning of the story, the author mentions his wife, Faith, the name of the character alone serves as an indication of religious allegory of Goodman Brown and faith soon will be pitted by the nature devil. Goodman Brown believes in the goodness of his father, grandfather, the minister, and Goody Cloyse, until the devil reveals that Goody Cloyse is a witch.

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At the climax of the story, the innocent, pure Faith that we are initially introduced to is exposed, as Faith is taking part in the blasphemous practices Goodman Brown finds himself in the middle of. Goodman Brown’s Faith is gone, symbolized by Faith’s pink ribbons floating down from the sky to be caught in a tree. Goodman Brown, heartbroken, is then depicted to be crying out, “My Faith is gone!”(7) which is truly a further

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The use of symbolism is largely used in the story to further display the theory of good vs evil. This quote in particular, illustrates the first encounter of evil that Goodman Brown meets. He meets this random strange man in the deep dark forest quickly notes the odd staff that he carries using precise detail stating how intricately it is made that it appears to be moving. This serpent staff has biblical symbolism in which it is symbolic of evil and manipulation while the man who carries this staff is used to symbolize the devil who manipulates and lures Goodman Brown deeper into forest which is used to represent hell and plunges Goodman Brown further into sin. Goodman Brown is used to represent the good in people, which is evident in his name, and how easily the evil and darkness can manipulate the good in others.

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By the end of the story, it is surprising how right it feels to be confused. “Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? Be it so if you will;....a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown” (Hawthorne 391). Everything that occurred previously is questioned on whether it was real or a nightmare. YGB learns to see the world in terms of pure good versus pure evil, not even interested if he experiences were real or not, only if what is indicated about human nature yet the narrator uses strange, ambiguous descriptions to suggest moral matters will never be that clean cut.

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At the edge of the forest, just as he is entering the woods, Goodman Brown “. . . beheld the figure of a man, in a grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree” (Hawthorne 78). The old man, who is really the devil, invites Goodman Brown to continue the journey with him down the path. The old man tells Goodman Brown that his father and grandfather, “. . . were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk we have had along this path and returned merrily after midnight” (Hawthorne 79).

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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.

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