History Of Young Goodman Brown

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Diamond Jeune

Instructor: Martin Brick

Class: English 110

28 February 2013

Analysis Essay: Young Goodman Brown

The theme behind Young Goodman Brown is the battle between good and evil which during that time period it was considered a classic theme. The purpose behind the theme was to bring to light how people can be evil in certain circumstances and how everyone may not be who they portray to be in their everyday life. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story it talks about a man by the name of Goodman Brown who has to deal with similar struggle of deciding of what is good and what is evil. Goodman Brown’s voyage to the woods reveals a hidden meaning of a man’s discovery of evil within himself that results to distrust of his fellow companions.

The text begins with Young Goodman Brown leaving his wife who is ironically named Faith for an overnight errand. In the opening of the story, Faith is made known as a dedicated and concerned wife who advises her husband about the dangerous things she dreamt about the night before. She pleads with him to stay with her, not to leave but he does anyway. Young Goodman Brown’s wife Faith is a representative of love and hope. Love between a man and a woman, as well as love, and devotion between Young Goodman Brown and God as well as the goodness of the world. In essence by leaving faith he is parting his faith in God and in good. He feels without his wife he has nothing, he feels like he is nothing without Faith he has some sort of dependency towards her "She’s a blessed angel on earth; "I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven" (Hawthorne 357). After the errand with the devil Goodman Brown is expecting his wife deliver him from evil. When Goodman Brown finally arrives in the forest he explains the cause to why he was late stood because "Faith kept me back a while" (Hawthorne 358). This statement has a paired meaning behind it, the first meaning is his wife Faith prohibited him from leaving at an earlier time, his second meaning is his faith in God, and good was holding him up.

Meanwhile the conference with a "fellow traveler" Goodman Brown sees the staff the man is holding. It was the "bore the likeness of a great black snake"(Hawthorne 358). The staff is represented as the existence of evil. The staff may possibly represent the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis.( Renee 2006) Similarly, in the bible the staff is the cause behind all of the destruction. The traveler’s staff leads Goodman Brown to the devil’s ceremony. (Renee 2006) It is then he has lost all faith in mankind. His faith is shaken a bit when he spots Goody Cloyse having a talk with the devil.

She is the woman who taught him catechism and she continued to be his moral and spiritual advisor. He blames her for associating with the devil but does not say anything because he is doing the same thing. It was then he decides that he does not want to remain on his errand. He ends up rejecting Goody Cloyse and stated that just because his teacher is not going to heaven why should he "quit his dear Faith and go after her" (Hawthorne 360). At this point the Devil then tosses his staff to Goodman Brown. It was a representation of evil being transferred to Young Goodman Brown.

Goodman Brown’s faith would be completely destroyed with his next encounter. He believes he hears his beloved wife Faith’s voice. He cries out her name and while doing that a singular pink band soars in the air and he grasps it. The ribbon is considered as a symbolic message because in the opening of the text the wind "play with the pink ribbons of her cap" (Hawthorne 357). At this time Goodman loses all his faith in good and in mankind and states "there is no good on earth" (Hawthorne 362). He loses his faith completely due to the assumption that the woman’s voice he hears is his wife’s. With that he then allows the staff to lead him yet again (Renee 2006) "with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil" (Hawthorne 362). Without Faith his wife and faith in God or in good there was nothing keeping Goodman Brown away from evil.

At the service that Goodman Brown witnesses he is reunited with multiple people that he knows. He recognized that he does not see his wife Faith and "hope comes into his heart" (Hawthorne 363). He had possibly restored his faith. Without Faith there at the ceremony it would show to Goodman Brown that he would not have to live alone, and if all else fails he would still have her. By this time now he is not aware that he is a part of the evil that he hates. The ceremony begins, Brown steps forward "He had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought"(Hawthorne 363). He is by all accounts in a trance due to that fact he loses control of his body as he is unknowingly entering the service full of converts of the devil (Renee 2006). Once the address was over, Goodman Brown then comes face to face with his wife Faith.

The leader or commander then states that "Evil is the nature of mankind". "Evil must be your only happiness" (Hawthorne 364). After that, he then salutes the converts. Goodman Brown is then awaken from his trance and shout "Faith, Faith, look up to heaven and resist the wicked one" ( Hawthorne 365). The ritual then ends and Brown finds himself alone (Renee 2006). He is unsure if his wife Faith had kept her faith or he beliefs. But all he knows that he is alone which then leads him to believe he is alone in faith as well.

When awaken from his dream Goodman Brown is completely damaged and devastated. As he is walking the streets of Salem, he cannot depict fact from fiction meaning he is unable to detached his dream from reality. He is not able to deal with the possibility that evil may reside in the residents of Salem. What makes things worse is that everyone whom Goodman Brown truly cared about was in his dream. The dream shows him that the people whom he truly loved and cared for are not who they persuade to be. This event ends up destroying the remainder of his life because of his failure to face the truth and just deal with it. The dream he had ends up planting a seed of doubt in his mind that ends up subsequently cutting him off from those whom he loved and cared about that leaves him alone and quite depressed.

The truth behind the main reason why Young Goodman Brown hates these individuals is because he sees the precise behaviors in himself. Similar to those individuals in his dream he questions his own religion (Renee 2006). But he transmits his own fear onto others especially those around him. The dream that he had was an appearance or display of all of his insecurities about himself and who he was and the choices he made in life. Though he had too much pride to even acknowledge his own faults. During the last years of his life Brown was alone and miserable because he was not capable to look at himself and comprehend that what he thought was each person’s faults were his as well. . Young Goodman Brown’s life changing experience in the woods reveals a hidden meaning of evil in mankind as well as within himself that results to distrust of his fellow companions. With that, He had become completely isolated from his society

Work Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters, Compact 8th ed. Boston Bedford /St. Martin’s, 2011.357-66. Print

<http://voices.yahoo.com/analysis-hawthornes-young-goodman-brown-114194.html?cat=38>

Kimberly Renee Nov 18, 2006