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Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 28, 2022

“Young Goodman Brown,” initially appearing in Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) as both a bleak romance and a moral allegory, has maintained its hold on contemporary readers as a tale of initiation, alienation, and evil. Undoubtedly one of Nathaniel Hawthorne ’s most disturbing stories, it opens as a young man of the town, Goodman Brown, bids farewell to his wife, Faith, and sets off on a path toward the dark forest. Brown’s journey to the forest and his exposure to life-shattering encounters and revelations remain the subject of speculation. Although his meeting with the devil is clear, the results remain ambiguous and perplexing. When viewed as a bildungsroman, it is one of the bleakest in American fiction, long or short. Rather than an initiation into manhood, Brown’s is an initiation into evil.

Much of the power of the story derives from the opening scene of missed chances: Faith, introduced in the second sentence and given the first words of dialogue, leans out the window, her pink ribbons fl uttering, and entreats her husband to stay. Brown, however, although he continues to think of returning, is determined to depart on this dark road. Almost instantly, he—and the reader—become enveloped in the darkness and gloom of the forest. The narrator equates the dreariness with both solitude and evil, and the aura of doom pervades the story. Along the way Brown meets a man who looks curiously like Brown’s father and grandfather; that this traveler is the devil is clear from his snakelike stick and evident power to assume different shapes. The traveler reveals his role in helping Brown’s Puritan ancestors commit crimes against Quakers and Indians. Brown protests that his family has traditionally revered the principles of Christianity, but the traveler provides numerous examples of his converts across all of New England, in both small town and state positions, in the fields of politics, religion, and the law. That Brown himself is from Salem suggests Hawthorne’s fascination with the Puritan guilt of his—and our—own forefathers manifested in other short stories such as “Alice Doane’s Appeal,” a tale about the Puritan obsession with witchcraft.

Nathaniel Hawthorne. Getty Images

Next Brown hides in the forest, demonstrating his hypocrisy, as he sees Goody Cloyse, a pious townswoman, walking along the dark trail. She and the traveler openly discuss her witchcraft, and when Brown leaves his hiding place, he marvels at his memory of Goody Cloyse teaching him his catechism when he was a boy. Again Brown thinks of returning home to Faith, but instead he still hides in the forest, recognizing many of the townspeople passing through and hearing that tonight’s forest meeting will be attended by people from Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as Massachusetts. Just as Brown thinks he can resist the devil and emerge from his hiding place, he hears a scream that sounds like Faith’s, and a pink ribbon fl utters to his feet.

From this point on, Brown himself becomes a grotesque figure, throwing himself with wholehearted if somewhat hysterical and despairing eagerness into the center of the darkness illuminated by the blazing fires of the meeting, clearly an image of hell. He recognizes all the most respected folk of the state unabashedly mingling with common thieves, prostitutes, and even criminals. The dreadful harmony of all these voices joined together in devil worship reaches a crescendo as the converts are brought forth: Among them, dimly recognized, are Brown’s father, mother, and wife. The devil assures the assembly that everyone has secretly committed crimes, from those of illicit sex to those of murdering husbands, fathers, and illegitimate babies. Indeed, says the devil, the whole earth is “one stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot.” Evil, not good, he asserts, is the nature of humankind.

As do Adam and Eve, Brown and Faith stand on the edge of wickedness: Brown screams to Faith to resist the devil, and with these words the nightmare ends, Brown awakening against a rock. The narrator asks, Was his experience really a dream? Whether or not we believe in the reality of Brown’s experience; the narrator affirms that it clearly foreshadows Brown’s altered life: Henceforward he is a dour and disillusioned man who sees no good and trusts in no one. In just such a way did the Salem witch trials effectively bring about the collapse of Puritanism, yet the story resonates long afterward: We as readers understand that we are the mythical descendants of Young Goodman Brown. Why does Brown ignore Faith’s warnings? Do we interpret the tale as one of infidelity? Of Christian hypocrisy? Of colonial history? If Brown, as an American Adam, looked upon Eden and found it wanting, do we inherit his frightful knowledge? Or can we interpret it as a cautionary tale, one whose lessons can benefit us as we live our modern lives? More than a century and a half later, Hawthorne’s story continues to beguile us with its gloomy aura and subtly ambiguous theme.

Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Stories

Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Novels

BIBLIOGRAPHY Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown.” In Tales and Sketches, edited by Roy Harvey Pearce. New York: Library of America, 1982. Newman, Lea B. V. A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Hawthorne. New York: Macmillan, 1979.

The Symbolism of ‘Young Goodman Brown’ Explained

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Young Goodman Brown’ is an 1835 short story by the American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Inspired in part by the Salem witch craze of 1692, the story contains a number of powerful symbols. But how should we analyse the symbolism of the story?

Let’s take a closer look at the most important symbols in ‘Young Goodman Brown’. But first, a brief reminder of the story’s plot:

In the village of Salem, a young man named Goodman Brown leaves home one night to honour his promise to meet with a man, although he experiences misgivings about keeping the appointment. After meeting a number of his fellow villagers as he journeys through the woods, Goodman Brown eventually comes to a clearing where a witches’ sabbath is taking place. Among the sabbath is his own wife, Faith.

The next morning, he sees the same villagers he had witnessed the night before, but now they are carrying on with their ordinary, upstanding lives. Goodman Brown becomes withdrawn from the community, and even starts to doubt whether what he witnessed actually took place, or whether it was all a dream.

Symbolism of Thresholds.

‘Young Goodman Brown’ begins with Goodman Brown setting forth from his home but pausing, ‘after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife.’ This casual reference to the threshold of the Browns’ household ushers in a number of liminal spaces and times in the story: it is ‘sunset’ (the threshold between day and night) when Brown leaves home, and what he experiences in the liminal space of the wood is, in many ways, a troubling of the boundary between dream and reality.

Pink Hair Ribbons.

Faith’s pink hair ribbons suggest her innocence. When we first meet her at home, she is allowing the wind to play with her pink ribbons: a symbol of carefree youth and playfulness, or a sign that she is wayward and prone to being manipulated? Later, when her husband sees one of her pink ribbons in the wood, he exclaims, ‘My Faith is gone!’: a phrase which obviously carries a double meaning here. After this moment, the (lost) pink ribbon symbolises Faith’s lost innocence.

Snake Symbolism.

Early on in the story, when Goodman Brown meets the old man carrying a staff, Hawthorne gives us a clue that all is not all as it seems:

But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light.

Snakes have a longstanding association with deceit, temptation, and evil: it was the serpent in the Garden of Eden which tempted Adam and Eve to eat of the Forbidden Fruit, thus bringing about the Fall of Man. According to a later tradition (the Bible never actually mentions this detail), the serpent was Satan in disguise, and of course, when Goody Cloyse recognises the old man, she identifies him as ‘the Devil’ himself.

This passage also gives us one of the first clues that the story’s details are ambiguous. Is the appearance of the staff as a ‘living serpent’ really just a trick of the eye or ‘ocular deception’? Or is there something truly supernatural going on? Or is this an early sign that Young Goodman Brown’s mind is unsound and he is ‘seeing things’?

The Old Man.

Note that the old man whom Goody Cloyse later claims is ‘the Devil’ is ‘about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in expression than features.’

Is this old man a foreshadowing of what Old Goodman Brown will be like? It is notable that the two men’s faces bear a similar expression: perhaps the mark that evil leaves upon the face.

Symbolism of Salem.

The historic town of Salem in Massachusetts is synonymous with witchcraft, because of the notorious Salem witch trials which took place there in 1692-93. They are called ‘witch trials’ but really the event was a form of mass hysteria which saw neighbour turn upon neighbour, and the authorities of Salem indulge the hearsay of a group of teenagers.

During this short period of hysteria, 141 people were arrested and 19 were hanged; another was crushed to death. Hawthorne’s story taps into the air of superstition but also religious hypocrisy surrounding seventeenth-century Salem. This was a culture Hawthorne knew well, and one of his ancestors, John Hathorne, was even involved in the witch trials at Salem.

One can allow evil to taint one’s soul by purporting to stand against it: many people, including those involved in the Salem trials, have committed terrible acts against other human beings but have considered themselves ‘good’ people because they are convinced they have right on their side.

Symbolism of Character Names.

Many of the names in the story are charged with symbolism, too. ‘Goodman’ was a polite term of address in Puritan New England, and served the same function as ‘Mister’. But of course, in a story which is about the nature of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, Brown’s epithet takes on an added significance. Is he a ‘good man’ for resisting the witches’ sabbath, or has he still allowed himself to become corrupted by evil so that it will destroy the rest of his and his wife’s lives together?

Calling Goodman Brown’s wife ‘Faith’ is an inspired touch, because this was a popular woman’s name among Puritans, but it resonates with obviously symbolic significance in this story about faith and sin. When Goodman Brown exclaims, ‘My Faith is gone!’, the symbolism of Brown’s wife’s name becomes more manifest.

‘Young Goodman Brown’ as Allegory.

For these reasons, Hawthorne’s story is often interpreted as an allegory about religious faith. Brown symbolically as well as literally leaves his ‘Faith’ behind when he ignores his wife’s entreaties and leaves home for the night to go into the dark, mysterious wood.

When he renounces his ‘faith’ in this way, he makes himself susceptible to the powerful lure of evil, and even though he may rediscover his ‘Faith’ later on, it has been changed – and tainted – forever.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Young Goodman Brown — Literary Analysis Outline “Young Goodman Brown”

Literary Analysis Outline "Young Goodman Brown"

Categories: Young Goodman Brown

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Words: 594 |

Published: Jan 29, 2024

Words: 594 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Historical and social context, character analysis, symbolism and imagery, themes and morality.

Hawthorne, N. (1835). Young Goodman Brown. Mosses from an Old Manse, 6(3-16).
Miller, E. (2000). Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown': An interpretation. In New Essays on 'Young Goodman Brown' (pp. 15-34). Cambridge University Press.
Reed, K. (2005). The Puritan community and the devil in 'Young Goodman Brown.' Studies in American Fiction, 33(2), 203-220.

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93 Young Goodman Brown Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best young goodman brown topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 most interesting young goodman brown topics to write about, 👍 good research topics about young goodman brown, ❓ young goodman brown essay questions.

Young Goodman Brown Setting Analysis, Symbolism, & Characters The setting in The Young Goodman Brown influences the development of plot and character. It illustrates how Hawthorne’s setting and symbolism of the Young Goodman Brown contribute to the meaning of the entire piece.
Gothic Elements in “Young Goodman Brown” She is also depicted as a “damsel in distress” when Goodman hears in the forest how the townspeople lead her to the devil’s communion.
Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” vs. Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” In the story by Irving, Rip Van Winkle went hunting in the mountains and met a suspicious, oddly dressed stranger there.
Young Goodman Brown. Puritanism and Hawthorne [Analysis] The Puritan values of the 1600s as well as the people’s openness to mystical ideas defined good and evil and influenced some Puritans to question the truth and abandon their faith just like Eve of […]
History in “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Thus, such rituals as witch trials are also presented in the short story and help to understand the attitudes of the main characters.
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Based on “Young Goodman Brown,” What Kind of Belief System Did Goodman Brown Have? Initially, Brown believed in Christianity but after the awful encounter with the wouldevil’, he changes his perception on humanity and religious beliefs isolating all the people around him including his wife. Brown decides to meet […]
Literature Study on “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne The author presents the scenic elements of the forest and the village without ambiguity. The author resonates on the contradictory extremes of misguided attitude and false perception in the belief of ‘a blackness power.’ Besides, […]
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Analysis of the “Young Goodman Brown” Leveraging the formalist, feminist, and postcolonial literary approaches, subjective analysis of the Young Goodman Brown poem highlight the motifs, techniques, and methodical and systematic styles utilized in the reading.
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Key Passage of “Young Goodman Brown” by Hawthorne After witnessing the deviltry of his companion’s conversation with a woman who used to teach Goodman Brown catechism, he is confused and hears a sound that resembles his wife’s voice.
Literary Significance of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” Specifically, in “Young Goodman Brown,” the author explores the dual nature of Puritan New England people’s personalities: “freedom and democracy” value contradicting with “intolerance and persecution” practice.”Young Goodman Brown” reflects the ambiguousness of identity and […]
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Goodman Brown Political Views and Religious Beliefs In addition, the departure of Young Goodman Brown from his wife’s comfortable house into the darkness of the forest symbolizes the birth of Brown’s new life.
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Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories

By nathaniel hawthorne, young goodman brown and other hawthorne short stories summary and analysis of young goodman brown.

Young Goodman Brown, a young and innocent man, bids farewell to his young wife, Faith. Faith asks him to stay, but Goodman Brown says he must leave, just for the evening. He ventures into the gloomy forest of Salem, and is soon approached by a man of about fifty, to whom he bears a strange resemblance. His companion wore simple clothing, but carried a staff that resembled a great black snake and seemed to move like a living serpent. Time and again, Goodman Brown protests the trip, insisting that he must turn around. But, his companion tells him that his father and grandfather had walked along the same path, as well as other important townspeople, such as the governor. Goodman Brown continues to follow. Along the path, they see a woman, Goody Cloyse, who taught Goodman Brown his catechism. His companion begins to resemble the devil, while the woman, a witch. The staff, too, seems to take life.

After a while, Goodman Brown sits down, determined to not go any father. His companions go ahead without him. As he sits, Goodman Brown thinks he hears the minister and Deacon Gookin on horseback discussing the night’s meeting and a young woman who would be taken into communion that night. Goodman Brown begins to hear voices, and among them, the lamentations of Faith. He shouts her name, but hears only a echoes, and then silence. A pink ribbon – Faith’s ribbon – flutters down form above. “Maddened with despair”, Goodman Brown rushes forth into the forest, laughing louder and louder, until he reaches the gathering. There, he sees an altar, surrounded by four blazing trees. Many of the town’s most honorable members were present, as were some of the least welcomed – the sinners and criminals. Goodman Brown is led to the altar, where a cloaked female figure is also led. A dark figure prepares to welcome them into the fold, pointing to the crowd behind them - the crowd Young Goodman Brown had reverenced from youth. The figure revealed them all as sinners, noting that “evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness”. The cloaked woman is revealed to be Faith. Before the figure could lay the mark of baptism on Goodman Brown, he called to Faith to “look up to Heaven, and resist the wicked one.” Immediately, he finds himself alone in the forest.

The next morning, Goodman Brown arrives back in town, bewildered about the events from the previous night. He runs into many people he saw in the forest – the Deacon, Goody Cloyse - all acting as if nothing had happened. He sees Faith, but passes without acknowledging her. Since the “night of that fearful dream” Goodman Brown became a dark and gloomy man, who saw nothing but blasphemy all around him.

Commonly understood themes in Young Goodman Brown have included the pervasiveness and secrecy of sin and evil alive within all people, and the hypocrisy of Puritanism. The most obvious reading is that Brown, an innocent and naive fellow, is ruined after finding hypocrisy in his religious faith (embodied in his wife, Faith). His wife, as was often the case in Puritan New England, was seen as a representation of the domestic sphere and a pure being untainted by the evils of the world, so pure that she might even save her husband. Goodman Brown puts her on a pedestal, as he does his religion, but her appearance in the forest leaves him without hope for redemption and his eventual estrangement from her signals his true estrangement from God.

A similar reading of the story revolves around the similarities between the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the fall of Brown and Faith. The devil bears a staff with a serpent on it, reminiscent of the serpent that told Adam and Eve to taste the fruit from the forbidden tree. Led to sin through curiosity, Adam and Eve lose their innocence after following the devil. Likewise, Goodman Brown watches the devil, along with other notable members of the community, heading toward the gathering. He ventures into the forest despite Faith’s warning, driven by curiosity and the devil’s appeals, just as Eve ignored God’s command to avoid the forbidden fruit. Brown's knowledge that "Evil is the nature of mankind" taints his relationships with his faith and everyone in town.

Another reading is that Brown’s experience is derived from an internalized sin. His journey into the forest was, in itself, a sinful act. He well understood that his mission was evil, and his acts impure, yet was surprised to find others whom he reverenced following the same path. In the end, he breaks from the group, attempting to relieve himself of sin. But, the effects of sin remain, forever after tainting his opinion of good and evil. As one author writes, “This is not a story of the disillusionment that comes to a person when he discovers that many supposedly religious and virtuous people are really sinful: it is, rather, a story of a man whose sin led him to consider all other people sinful. Brown came eventually to judge others by himself: he thought them sinful and hypocritical because he was sinful and hypocritical himself.” (McKeithan, 96) The idea of sin in every person, including Goodman Brown, is supported by the chameleon-like character of the Devil. By taking the shape of Brown's father, the devil demonstrates that evil can live within any person, even Young Goodman Brown himself.

Still others examine the possibility that Brown’s experience was merely a dream, and that all men fear that all men are, at the most basic level, evil. The story may be purposefully ambiguous, balanced perfectly between the good and the evil, as the story’s beginning an end are in direct opposition. (Fogle) Finally, the story has also been considered an examination of nineteenth-century gender roles and the concern that wives would encroach on their husband’s presence in the public sphere. Violation of this separation is present in the story, as Faith leaves her husband with a kiss on the doorstep, but then reemerges at the gathering. (Keil)

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Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

In which page and excerpts of Natherniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown portrays the features of a gothic literature?

Foreboding Setting:

He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this...

Sights from a Steeple

A watchman watches from a steeple what's going on in the world. This would be Victorian era.

To what extent is Hawthorne's use of dreams crucial in "Young Goodman Brown" and in "The Birthmark"? Explain how Hawthorne uses dreams as a means to complicate our view of his characters.

Many of Hawthorne's short stories blur the lines between the supernatural and reality, as the characters often experience dream-like events.

One example of this blurred distinction occurs in "Young Goodman Brown" . It is unclear whether the witch...

Study Guide for Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories

Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories study guide contains a biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of Hawthorne's short stories.

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Essays for Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories

Hawthorne's Short Stories essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Hawthorne's Short Stories.

Twice-Tilled Tracts: Revisions of the Garden of Eden in Hawthorne's Short Stories
The Importance of Whiteness and Race in Hawthorne's The Birth-Mark
Fundamental Themes in Roger Malvin's Burial
Penetrating the Mind of Young Goodman Brown
The "Men of the Crowd"

Lesson Plan for Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories

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E-Text of Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories

Hawthorne's Short Stories e-text contains the full text of Hawthorne's short stories including Young Goodman Brown.

THE GRAY CHAMPION
SUNDAY AT HOME
THE WEDDING-KNELL
THE MINISTER'S BLACK VEIL
THE MAYPOLE OF MERRY MOUNT

Wikipedia Entries for Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories

Introduction

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English Composition 2

Student essay on nathaniel hawthorne's "young goodman brown".

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Test of One Man's Faith

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown," {1} the author uses mystery and suspense to hold the attention of the reader. From the beginning to the end of the story, Hawthorne leads the reader into asking the question, "what does all of this witchcraft, mysticism, and the double-sided lifestyles of the characters actually mean?" The reader must not look at "Young Goodman Brown" as just a suspenseful story but also see the many forms of symbolism the author uses. Hawthorne shows that a strong faith is the greatest asset of a man or woman, and when that faith is compromised, the effects of this can cause one to be filled with doubt and cynicism toward the rest of the world. {2}

Goodman Brown does show he has a strong faith before he enters the forest and sometimes during his journey to the black mass. {3} Hawthorne uses the very name of Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, as a symbol of Goodman Brown's own faith throughout the story. Goodman Brown's strong faith can be seen through the initial description of Faith: "And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap" (140). {4} Hawthorne suggests she is pure and innocent, as is Goodman Brown's own faith. Also, the reassuring replies Goodman Brown gives to Faith suggest that his faith cannot be weakened: "'Amen!' Cried Goodman Brown. 'Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee'" (140). Goodman Brown sets off on his journey with a strong will and an "excellent resolve for the future" (141), and he "felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose" (141). Although he knows he is about to partake in a sinful act, Goodman Brown's belief in his faith will bring him home safely and untainted. Goodman Brown also shows he believes in his faith while he ventures through the forest when the dark figure urges Goodman Brown to go with him. Goodman Brown replies, "'having kept my covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to return whence I came. I have scruples, touching the matter thou wot'st of'" (141). Goodman Brown's "purpose" and "scruples" refer to his good faith. After the dark figure tells Goodman Brown about all of the evil acts he has performed, Goodman Brown exclaims, "'there is my wife, Faith. It would break her dear little heart: and I'd rather break my own'" (142). Again Hawthorne uses the name Faith to symbolize Goodman Brown's faith, and he lets the reader know Goodman Brown would rather die than give up his faith. Upon seeing the town minister and Deacon Gookin riding to the black mass, Goodman Brown once again shows his faith is strong when he cries, "'With Heaven above, and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil'" (144). {5}

The characters Goodman Brown sees on his journey through the forest and his experience at the black Sabbath are what cause his faith to wane. {6} When Goodman Brown is initially approached by the dark figure in the forest and is told he is late, Goodman Brown replies, "Faith kept me back awhile" (141). Again the name of his wife symbolizes Goodman Brown's own faith and shows he had to compromise it to even start into the forest. Goodman Brown sees many characters making their way toward the meeting place and is surprised to see that many of them are people of great stature, both in the religious and governmental society. Here, Hawthorne shows that all people are sinners no matter how they may appear outwardly or what position they hold in society. First, Goodman Brown sees Goody Cloyse. She is described by Hawthorne as "a very pious and exemplary dame" (142). Goodman Brown cannot believe Goody Cloyse would be out in the dark forest because she had taught him his catechism. The catechism is the initial schooling of the Bible in the Christian religion. This suggests Goodman Brown's faith is beginning to weaken {7} because seeing Goody Cloyse shows the foundation of his faith is weak. Although Goodman Brown attempts to keep his good faith when he sees the town minister and Deacon Gookin, he shows his faith is weakened when he "caught hold of a tree, for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburthened with the sickness of his heart" (144). When he finds the pink ribbon of his wife in the forest, Goodman Brown's faith is weakened even further. Again Goodman Brown's wife is used as a symbol of his own faith: "'My Faith is gone!' Cried he, after one stupefied moment. 'There is no good on earth, and sin is but a name. Come devil! For to thee is this world given'" (145). At the black mass, Goodman Brown is astonished at the number of people he sees. And even though they are people he once recognized as God-fearing church members and respected members of the town, he sees they are actually sinners, and he describes them as "'A grave and dark-clad company'" (146). He asks himself, "'But where is Faith'" (146). He now believes there is no good in the world but only evil, and his faith is almost completely destroyed. {8}

After Goodman Brown returns from the forest, he has little faith left, and this causes him to see everything in his environment as evil, sinful, and hypocritical. {9} The preacher at the pulpit, Goody Cloyse teaching the catechism, Faith's expressions of love toward him, and everything else that Goodman Brown held with high esteem seem to have become worthless. Goodman Brown shows he has some faith by attending church, but he only feels the wretchedness of the congregation's sinfulness and hypocrisy: "On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen, because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear, and drowned all the blessed strain" (148). When Hawthorne writes, "Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith" (148), again, the name of Goodman Brown's wife is used as a reference to Goodman Brown's faith. This passage suggests Goodman Brown still has some faith remaining but his knowledge of the darkness in the world causes him to once again withdraw from the rest of the world. {10} Even though he lives a long life with Faith and has children and grand-children, it is apparent Goodman Brown never loses his spitefulness toward society and the evil in the world, "for his dying hour was gloom" (148). {11}

Hawthorne only uses the magnitude of the journey through the forest and the black mass as a representation of all the sin and evil which surrounds us in this world. Goodman Brown still seems to have faith in his own moral beliefs, but he has lost his faith in the rest of the world to hold these beliefs. Goodman Brown's own lack of faith in the world has made him unforgiving because he believes only evil can be begotten from evil and there is nothing that can be done to change it. Rather than seeing the good in people and their actions and forgiving their sins, Goodman Brown only frowns upon them and believes people to be hypocrites. In all reality, it is Goodman Brown who is the hypocrite because he believes he can pass judgment on those who sin, yet he does not take his own sins into consideration. "'You have heard though it was said, "you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy" 'but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust'" (Mat. 5. 43-45). {12} The point Hawthorne is making in this story is all people are sinners, and we must not hate people for there sins but hate the sins and love the sinners. Goodman Brown's loss of faith has blinded him from seeing this. {13}

Page copyright Randy Rambo , 2019. Essay copyright of the author.

Young Goodman Brown

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Discussion Questions

Goodman Brown ends up a broken man who lives the remainder of his life in misery and gloom. Should readers feel bad for Brown? Is he a victim of society? Why or why not?

Dreams are a significant motif in fiction written during American Romanticism . How does Hawthorne use the dream motif to reveal the inner-most fears of his central character? How does his use of dreams compare to other authors writing in Hawthorne’s time?

Some readers may argue that despite Brown’s downfall as a Christian, his revelation in the wilderness leads to growth in his character. Despite Brown’s gloomy awakening, do you think he has grown? Why or why not?

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Young Goodman Brown

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The Hypocrisy of Puritanism

Hawthorne sets “Young Goodman Brown” in the New England town of Salem, where the Puritans tried to create a religious society with strict morals and pious norms, but also where the infamous Witch Trials took place. The Puritans believed that some people are predestined by God to go to heaven, and that those people are identifiable by their morality and piousness; people cannot earn their way to heaven by performing good works, but if they…

Losing Faith and Innocence

“Young Goodman Brown” is the story of how a young “good” man named Goodman Brown loses his innocent belief in religious faith. Goodman Brown’s loss of innocence happens during a vivid nightmare in which he ventures into a dark forest and sees all of the people he had considered faithful in his life gathered around a fire at a witches’ conversion ceremony with the devil presiding from on high. By the end of his journey…

Nature and the Supernatural

Hawthorne uses the forest to represent the wild fearful world of nature, which contrasts starkly with the pious orderly town of Salem. The threshold Goodman Brown finds himself perched upon in the opening lines of the story is not just between himself and his wife, Faith , but between the safety of the town and the haunted realm of the forest into which he ventures. Home is a safe harbor of faith, but the forest…

Saints vs. Sinners

The Puritan religion dictated that everyone on earth was either an evil sinner doomed to burn in hell or a pure earthly saint destined for heaven. To avoid being perceived as anything but wholly good, Goodman Brown (who, like his wife, Faith , is also “aptly named”) is obsessed with the idea of veiling his own sinfulness. Goodman Brown’s paranoia as he navigates the forest, dodging behind trees in terror of being outed as a…

Family and Individual Choice

Young Goodman Brown makes reference to many generations of the Brown family, both Goodman Brown’s ancestors and his descendants. Goodman Brown must choose whether to follow his ancestors’ example, for better or for worse, or whether to make his own decisions and break away from family tradition. The tragedy of the story is that he is unable to choose: he loses faith in following family tradition, but he can’t reject his family and start new…

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Young Goodman Brown

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By Nathaniel Hawthorne

YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset into the street at Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown.

“Dearest heart,” whispered she, softly, and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, “prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed tonight. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeard of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year.”

“My love and my Faith,” replied young Goodman Brown, “of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?”

“Then God bless you!” said Faith, with the pink ribbons; “And may you find all well when you come back.”

“Amen!” cried Goodman Brown. “Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee.”

So they parted; and the young man pursued his way until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.

“Poor little Faith!” thought he, for his heart smote him. “What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight. But no, no; 'twould kill her to think it. Well, she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven.”

With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose. He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.

“There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree,” said Goodman Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him as he added, “What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!”

His head being turned back, he passed a crook of the road, and, looking forward again, beheld the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree. He arose at Goodman Brown's approach and walked onward side by side with him.

“You are late, Goodman Brown,” said he. “The clock of the Old South was striking as I came through Boston, and that is full fifteen minutes agone.”

“Faith kept me back a while,” replied the young man, with a tremor in his voice, caused by the sudden appearance of his companion, though not wholly unexpected.

It was now deep dusk in the forest, and deepest in that part of it where these two were journeying. As nearly as could be discerned, the second traveler was about fifty years old, apparently in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown, and bearing a considerable resemblance to him, though perhaps more in expression than features. Still they might have been taken for father and son. And yet, though the elder person was as simply clad as the younger, and as simple in manner too, he had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and who would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King William's court, were it possible that his affairs should call him thither. But the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light.

“Come, Goodman Brown,” cried his fellow-traveler, “this is a dull pace for the beginning of a journey. Take my staff, if you are so soon weary.”

“Friend,” said the other, exchanging his slow pace for a full stop, “having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to return whence I came. I have scruples touching the matter thou wot'st of.”

“Sayest thou so?” replied he of the serpent, smiling apart. “Let us walk on, nevertheless, reasoning as we go; and if I convince thee not thou shalt turn back. We are but a little way in the forest yet.”

“Too far! too far!” exclaimed the goodman, unconsciously resuming his walk. “My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept—”

“Such company, thou wouldst say,” observed the elder person, interpreting his pause. “Well said, Goodman Brown! I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip's War. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you for their sake.”

“If it be as thou sayest,” replied Goodman Brown, “I marvel they never spoke of these matters; or, verily, I marvel not, seeing that the least rumor of the sort would have driven them from New England. We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness.”

“Wickedness or not,” said the traveler with the twisted staff, “I have a very general acquaintance here in New England. The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me; the selectmen of divers towns make me their chairman; and a majority of the Great and General Court are firm supporters of my interest. The governor and I, too. But these are state secrets.”

“Can this be so?” cried Goodman Brown, with a stare of amazement at his undisturbed companion. “Howbeit, I have nothing to do with the governor and council; they have their own ways, and are no rule for a simple husbandman like me. But, were I to go on with thee, how should I meet the eye of that good old man, our minister, at Salem village? Oh, his voice would make me tremble both Sabbath day and lecture day.”

Thus far the elder traveler had listened with due gravity; but now burst into a fit of irrepressible mirth, shaking himself so violently that his snakelike staff actually seemed to wriggle in sympathy.

“Ha! ha! ha!” shouted he again and again; then composing himself, “Well, go on, Goodman Brown, go on; but, prithee, don't kill me with laughing.”

“Well, then, to end the matter at once,” said Goodman Brown, considerably nettled, “there is my wife, Faith. It would break her dear little heart; and I'd rather break my own.”

“Nay, if that be the case,” answered the other, “e'en go thy ways, Goodman Brown. I would not for twenty old women like the one hobbling before us that Faith should come to any harm.”

As he spoke he pointed his staff at a female figure on the path, in whom Goodman Brown recognized a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser, jointly with the minister and Deacon Gookin.

“A marvel, truly, that Goody Cloyse should be so far in the wilderness at nightfall,” said he. “But with your leave, friend, I shall take a cut through the woods until we have left this Christian woman behind. Being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with and whither I was going.”

“Be it so,” said his fellow-traveler. “Betake you to the woods, and let me keep the path.”

Accordingly the young man turned aside, but took care to watch his companion, who advanced softly along the road until he had come within a staff's length of the old dame. She, meanwhile, was making the best of her way, with singular speed for so aged a woman, and mumbling some indistinct words—a prayer, doubtless—as she went. The traveler put forth his staff and touched her withered neck with what seemed the serpent's tail.

“The devil!” screamed the pious old lady.

“Then Goody Cloyse knows her old friend?” observed the traveler, confronting her and leaning on his writhing stick.

“Ah, forsooth, and is it Your Worship indeed?” cried the good dame. “Yea, truly is it, and in the very image of my old gossip, Goodman Brown, the grandfather of the silly fellow that now is. But—would Your Worship believe it?—my broomstick hath strangely disappeared, stolen, as I suspect, by that unhanged witch, Goody Cory, and that, too, when I was all anointed with the juice of smallage, and cinquefoil, and wolf's bane.”

“Mingled with fine wheat and the fat of a new-born babe,” said the shape of old Goodman Brown.

“Ah, Your Worship knows the recipe,” cried the old lady, cackling aloud. “So, as I was saying, being all ready for the meeting, and no horse to ride on, I made up my mind to foot it; for they tell me there is a nice young man to be taken into communion tonight. But now Your Good Worship will lend me your arm, and we shall be there in a twinkling.”

“That can hardly be,” answered her friend. “I may not spare you my arm, Goody Cloyse; but here is my staff, if you will.”

So saying, he threw it down at her feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi. Of this fact, however, Goodman Brown could not take cognizance. He had cast up his eyes in astonishment, and, looking down again, beheld neither Goody Cloyse nor the serpentine staff, but his fellow-traveler alone, who waited for him as calmly as if nothing had happened.

“That old woman taught me my catechism,” said the young man; and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment.

They continued to walk onward, while the elder traveler exhorted his companion to make good speed and persevere in the path, discoursing so aptly that his arguments seemed rather to spring up in the bosom of his auditor than to be suggested by himself. As they went, he plucked a branch of maple to serve for a walking stick, and began to strip it of the twigs and little boughs, which were wet with evening dew. The moment his fingers touched them they became strangely withered and dried up as with a week's sunshine. Thus the pair proceeded, at a good free pace, until suddenly, in a gloomy hollow of the road, Goodman Brown sat himself down on the stump of a tree and refused to go any farther.

“Friend,” said he, stubbornly, “my mind is made up. Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her?”

“You will think better of this by and by,” said his acquaintance, composedly. “Sit here and rest yourself a while; and when you feel like moving again, there is my staff to help you along.”

Without more words, he threw his companion the maple stick, and was as speedily out of sight as if he had vanished into the deepening gloom. The young man sat a few moments by the roadside, applauding himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a conscience he should meet the minister in his morning walk, nor shrink from the eye of good old Deacon Gookin. And what calm sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith! Amidst these pleasant and praiseworthy meditations, Goodman Brown heard the tramp of horses along the road, and deemed it advisable to conceal himself within the verge of the forest, conscious of the guilty purpose that had brought him thither, though now so happily turned from it.

On came the hoof tramps and the voices of the riders, two grave old voices, conversing soberly as they drew near. These mingled sounds appeared to pass along the road, within a few yards of the young man's hiding-place; but, owing doubtless to the depth of the gloom at that particular spot, neither the travelers nor their steeds were visible. Though their figures brushed the small boughs by the wayside, it could not be seen that they intercepted, even for a moment, the faint gleam from the strip of bright sky athwart which they must have passed. Goodman Brown alternately crouched and stood on tiptoe, pulling aside the branches and thrusting forth his head as far as he durst without discerning so much as a shadow. It vexed him the more, because he could have sworn, were such a thing possible, that he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin, jogging along quietly, as they were wont to do, when bound to some ordination or ecclesiastical council. While yet within hearing, one of the riders stopped to pluck a switch.

“Of the two, Reverend Sir,” said the voice like the deacon's, “I had rather miss an ordination dinner than tonight's meeting. They tell me that some of our community are to be here from Falmouth and beyond, and others from Connecticut and Rhode Island, besides several of the Indian powwows, who, after their fashion, know almost as much deviltry as the best of us. Moreover, there is a goodly young woman to be taken into communion.”

“Mighty well, Deacon Gookin!” replied the solemn old tones of the minister. “Spur up, or we shall be late. Nothing can be done, you know, until I get on the ground.”

The hoofs clattered again; and the voices, talking so strangely in the empty air, passed on through the forest, where no church had ever been gathered or solitary Christian prayed. Whither, then, could these holy men be journeying so deep into the heathen wilderness? Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart. He looked up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a heaven above him. Yet there was the blue arch, and the stars brightening in it.

“With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!” cried Goodman Brown.

While he still gazed upward into the deep arch of the firmament and had lifted his hands to pray, a cloud, though no wind was stirring, hurried across the zenith and hid the brightening stars. The blue sky was still visible, except directly overhead, where this black mass of cloud was sweeping swiftly northward. Aloft in the air, as if from the depths of the cloud, came a confused and doubtful sound of voices. Once the listener fancied that he could distinguish the accents of towns-people of his own, men and women, both pious and ungodly, many of whom he had met at the communion table, and had seen others rioting at the tavern. The next moment, so indistinct were the sounds, he doubted whether he had heard aught but the murmur of the old forest, whispering without a wind. Then came a stronger swell of those familiar tones, heard daily in the sunshine at Salem village, but never until now from a cloud of night There was one voice of a young woman, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.

“Faith!” shouted Goodman Brown, in a voice of agony and desperation; and the echoes of the forest mocked him, crying, “Faith! Faith!” as if bewildered wretches were seeking her all through the wilderness.

The cry of grief, rage, and terror was yet piercing the night, when the unhappy husband held his breath for a response. There was a scream, drowned immediately in a louder murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away, leaving the clear and silent sky above Goodman Brown. But something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon.

“My Faith is gone!” cried he, after one stupefied moment. “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, Devil; for to thee is this world given.”

And, maddened with despair, so that he laughed loud and long, did Goodman Brown grasp his staff and set forth again, at such a rate that he seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk or run. The road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil. The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds—the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveler, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn. But he was himself the chief horror of the scene, and shrank not from its other horrors.

“Ha! ha! ha!” roared Goodman Brown when the wind laughed at him.

“Let us hear which will laugh loudest. Think not to frighten me with your deviltry. Come witch, come wizard, come Indian powwow, come devil himself, and here comes Goodman Brown. You may as well fear him as he fear you.”

In truth, all through the haunted forest there could be nothing more frightful than the figure of Goodman Brown. On he flew among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy, and now shouting forth such laughter as set all the echoes of the forest laughing like demons around him. The fiend in his own shape is less hideous than when he rages in the breast of man. Thus sped the demoniac on his course, until, quivering among the trees, he saw a red light before him, as when the felled trunks and branches of a clearing have been set on fire, and throw up their lurid blaze against the sky, at the hour of midnight. He paused, in a lull of the tempest that had driven him onward, and heard the swell of what seemed a hymn, rolling solemnly from a distance with the weight of many voices. He knew the tune; it was a familiar one in the choir of the village meeting-house. The verse died heavily away, and was lengthened by a chorus, not of human voices, but of all the sounds of the benighted wilderness pealing in awful harmony together.

Goodman Brown cried out, and his cry was lost to his own ear by its unison with the cry of the desert.

In the interval of silence he stole forward until the light glared full upon his eyes. At one extremity of an open space, hemmed in by the dark wall of the forest, arose a rock, bearing some rude, natural resemblance either to an altar or a pulpit, and surrounded by four blazing pines, their tops aflame, their stems untouched, like candles at an evening meeting. The mass of foliage that had overgrown the summit of the rock was all on fire, blazing high into the night and fitfully illuminating the whole field. Each pendent twig and leafy festoon was in a blaze. As the red light arose and fell, a numerous congregation alternately shone forth, then disappeared in shadow, and again grew, as it were, out of the darkness, peopling the heart of the solitary woods at once.

“A grave and dark-clad company,” quoth Goodman Brown.

In truth they were such. Among them, quivering to and fro between gloom and splendor, appeared faces that would be seen next day at the council board of the province, and others which, Sabbath after Sabbath, looked devoutly heavenward, and benignantly over the crowded pews, from the holiest pulpits in the land. Some affirm that the lady of the governor was there. At least there were high dames well known to her, and wives of honored husbands, and widows, a great multitude, and ancient maidens, all of excellent repute, and fair young girls, who trembled lest their mothers should espy them. Either the sudden gleams of light flashing over the obscure field bedazzled Goodman Brown, or he recognized a score of the church members of Salem village famous for their especial sanctity. Good old Deacon Gookin had arrived, and waited at the skirts of that venerable saint, his revered pastor. But, irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes. It was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints. Scattered also among their pale-faced enemies were the Indian priests, or powwows, who had often scared their native forest with more hideous incantations than any known to English witchcraft.

“But where is Faith?” thought Goodman Brown; and, as hope came into his heart, he trembled.

Another verse of the hymn arose, a slow and mournful strain, such as the pious love, but joined to words which expressed all that our nature can conceive of sin, and darkly hinted at far more. Unfathomable to mere mortals is the lore of fiends. Verse after verse was sung; and still the chorus of the desert swelled between like the deepest tone of a mighty organ; and with the final peal of that dreadful anthem there came a sound, as if the roaring wind, the rushing streams, the howling beasts, and every other voice of the unconcerted wilderness were mingling and according with the voice of guilty man in homage to the prince of all. The four blazing pines threw up a loftier flame, and obscurely discovered shapes and visages of horror on the smoke wreaths above the impious assembly. At the same moment the fire on the rock shot redly forth and formed a glowing arch above its base, where now appeared a figure. With reverence be it spoken, the figure bore no slight similitude, both in garb and manner, to some grave divine of the New England churches.

“Bring forth the converts!” cried a voice that echoed through the field and rolled into the forest.

At the word, Goodman Brown stepped forth from the shadow of the trees and approached the congregation, with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart. He could have well-nigh sworn that the shape of his own dead father beckoned him to advance, looking downward from a smoke wreath, while a woman, with dim features of despair, threw out her hand to warn him back. Was it his mother? But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in thought, when the minister and good old Deacon Gookin seized his arms and led him to the blazing rock. Thither came also the slender form of a veiled female, led between Goody Cloyse, that pious teacher of the catechism, and Martha Carrier, who had received the devil's promise to be queen of hell. A rampant hag was she. And there stood the proselytes beneath the canopy of fire.

“Welcome, my children,” said the dark figure, “to the communion of your race. Ye have found thus young your nature and your destiny. My children, look behind you!”

They turned; and flashing forth, as it were, in a sheet of flame, the fiend worshippers were seen; the smile of welcome gleamed darkly on every visage.

“There,” resumed the sable form, “are all whom ye have reverenced from youth. Ye deemed them holier than yourselves, and shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward. Yet here are they all in my worshipping assembly. This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds: how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their households; how many a woman, eager for widows' weeds, has given her husband a drink at bedtime and let him sleep his last sleep in her bosom; how beardless youths have made haste to inherit their fathers' wealth; and how fair damsels—blush not, sweet ones—have dug little graves in the garden, and bidden me, the sole guest to an infant's funeral. By the sympathy of your human hearts for sin ye shall scent out all the places—whether in church, bedchamber, street, field, or forest—where crime has been committed, and shall exult to behold the whole earth one stain of guilt, one mighty blood spot. Far more than this. It shall be yours to penetrate, in every bosom, the deep mystery of sin, the fountain of all wicked arts, and which inexhaustibly supplies more evil impulses than human power—than my power at its utmost—can make manifest in deeds. And now, my children, look upon each other.”

They did so; and, by the blaze of the hell-kindled torches, the wretched man beheld his Faith, and the wife her husband, trembling before that unhallowed altar.

“Lo, there ye stand, my children,” said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelic nature could yet mourn for our miserable race. “Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race.”

“Welcome,” repeated the fiend worshippers, in one cry of despair and triumph.

And there they stood, the only pair, as it seemed, who were yet hesitating on the verge of wickedness in this dark world. A basin was hollowed, naturally, in the rock. Did it contain water, reddened by the lurid light? or was it blood? or, perchance, a liquid flame? Herein did the shape of evil dip his hand and prepare to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and thought, than they could now be of their own. The husband cast one look at his pale wife, and Faith at him. What polluted wretches would the next glance show them to each other, shuddering alike at what they disclosed and what they saw!

“Faith! Faith!” cried the husband; “look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one.”

Whether Faith obeyed he knew not. Hardly had he spoken when he found himself amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt it chill and damp; while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew.

The next morning young Goodman Brown came slowly into the street of Salem village, staring around him like a bewildered man. The good old minister was taking a walk along the graveyard to get an appetite for breakfast and meditate his sermon, and bestowed a blessing, as he passed, on Goodman Brown. He shrank from the venerable saint as if to avoid an anathema. Old Deacon Gookin was at domestic worship, and the holy words of his prayer were heard through the open window. “What God doth the wizard pray to?” quoth Goodman Brown. Goody Cloyse, that excellent old Christian, stood in the early sunshine at her own lattice, catechizing a little girl who had brought her a pint of morning's milk. Goodman Brown snatched away the child as from the grasp of the fiend himself. Turning the corner by the meeting-house, he spied the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy at sight of him that she skipped along the street and almost kissed her husband before the whole village. But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.

Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?

Be it so if you will; but, alas! It was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown. A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream. On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy Psalm, he could not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain. When the minister spoke from the pulpit with power and fervid eloquence, and, with his hand on the open Bible, of the sacred truths of our religion, and of saint-like lives and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers. Often, waking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith; and at morning or eventide, when the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly at his wife, and turned away. And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession, besides neighbors not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.

Contrasted against the overall sense of darkness in the woods, the Black Mass is characterized by the blaze of a glaring red light. The imagery of the light bridges the gap between Puritanism and Satanism because it mimics the candles at an evening church service. The red blaze symbolizes the Puritanical image of hell.

Faith’s pink ribbon takes on several meanings throughout the story. Initially, the pink represented a sense of playfulness and joviality. However, now that Goodman Brown has witnessed his wife take part in the devil’s ceremony, it comes to represent a loss in innocence as it flutters into the sky.

Hawthorne casts doubt on the reliability of the dream-like narration of the story through the use of light imagery. In the woods, the light is dim, hazy, and dark. Since the woods are cloaked in shadows, the reader can never be entirely certain if what Goodman Brown sees is real.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” does not end on an uplifting note. Since he never spoke to Faith about his time in the forest, Goodman Brown has failed to recover and learn from his experience. This perpetuates the hypocritical and harmful traditions of Puritanism that led to his fall in the first place. These final words suggest that Goodman Brown’s “goodly” children and grandchildren will all suffer the same fate. This serves as a capstone on the theme of hypocrisy in the tale: those who cannot honestly look at and reflect on their own behaviors or speak realistically about temptation and sin will not be able to find inner peace and happiness.

Readers may have wondered if Goodman Brown’s experience was simply a dream. However, even sinful dreams and thoughts count as sinful behavior in Puritanism. This means that Goodman Brown, in order to maintain appearances, cannot discuss this event with anyone because doing so could result in his being exiled from the community. He is therefore forced to live out his life in hypocrisy, infected by the knowledge that whether he sinned or dreamed he sinned, he suffers the same end—making his story a truly tragic one.

Goodman Brown may have left the devil and the forest, but he has been infected with a cynical, miserly outlook on his peers and his community. Faith’s actions in this passage suggest that either she isn’t bothered by the encounter in the woods, that she didn’t know about it, or that she wasn’t actually there—which raises the question of what Goodman Brown actually experienced and saw. Regardless, Goodman Brown does not speak of his time in the forest to his wife. By not openly discussing these events, he continues the cycle of unspoken Puritanical repression that his family has passed on to him, leaving him alone and without support.

Goodman Brown finally finds the strength to try and resist the devil when he sees Faith standing by the evil figure. However, Hawthorne’s word choice reveals this to be a hollow action. Instead of writing “cried Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne uses “the husband.” This separates Goodman Brown’s individuality from his position, suggesting that by begging Faith to “resist the wicked one,” Brown is merely acting out a perfunctory role as husband. This suggests that Goodman Brown’s time in the forest has upended his faith and cast a dark shadow over how he views his role in society.

Since the Puritan faith provides a binary worldview in which things are either good or evil with no middle ground, the devil uses this to his advantage. He claims that “Evil is the nature of mankind.” Notice though how he also criticizes Puritanism’s focus on appearances and external representations of faith. He states that since the Puritans “depend[ed] upon one another’s hearts,” they were unable to learn how to create a personal relationship with their morality that could give them the strength to understand that someone may commit sinful acts but not be entirely evil.

Having placed so much of his faith in his wife, the climax of the story begins when Goodman Brown confronts his greatest fear: that his Faith (in both senses of the word) is corrupt. Also of note here is the atmosphere: Goodman Brown sees his Faith through the light of “hell-kindled torches.” This suggests that the light is not only evil but also supernatural. What Goodman Brown actually sees, therefore, may not necessarily be accurate. Instead of seeing a nuanced, complicated person capable of a mixture of good and evil, Brown can only see through his binary Puritan lens, which casts everything that is not completely righteous in a hellish light.

Based on context, the expression “widows’ weeds” likely refers to the mourning clothes worn after the death of a woman’s husband. The devil continues to emphasize how many people have performed sinful deeds when not in the public eye.

The devil’s words in this passage serve as a direct statement about the hypocritical nature of the Puritan faith. To paraphrase, he points out that what people claim to be true is not actually the case and that those who appear good and righteous are actually living in sin. The visual display of the congregation gives the devil an opportunity to reveal to Goodman Brown the hypocrisy of his Puritan community. Since Brown’s faith has been modeled on the behavior of others, rather than his own convictions, this provides the devil an easy challenge to Goodman Brown’s worldview.

Martha Ingalls Carrier was one of the first women named as a witch by the Salem Girls during the 1692 Salem witch trials.

Since Goodman Brown’s notions of faith and morality come from external sources, he is paralyzed in this moment of confusion. For him, being moral means preserving the reputation and appearances of his family. However, the images of his father and mother give him conflicting commands regarding his path forward. Even though he no longer believes his family are moral people, he cannot bring himself to disown his family heritage in order to make his own choices. Since he cannot make his own choices, he is doomed to repeat the same mistakes, continuing a tradition of harmful hypocrisy.

The noun “convert” is generally used as a religious term for someone who accepts a new faith. Here, the meaning is twisted as the converts are not accepting Christianity; they are turning to the devil.

Since Hawthorne has revealed the forest to be a place full of sin, the presence of a “congregation” in the “heart of the solitary woods” reveals the pervasiveness of evil. A “congregation” typically refers to a group of people who gather for a church service, giving this word religious and moral connotations. While Puritan congregations try to cleave away their evil tendencies by appearing good to one another, this congregation in the dark woods further supports the idea that evil is an indelible part of human nature that will always find its place.

Although Goodman Brown has just claimed that he should be feared as a sinful being, Hawthorne’s statement here suggests something more about the nature of good and evil: an external and internal nature. Goodman Brown considers evil as a supernatural, external idea found in the work of witches and devils. However, Hawthorne makes a point here that the more terrible “fiend” is the one that rages inside of us—a natural, human capacity for wickedness.

Since Goodman Brown’s Puritan faith conveys a world of good versus evil without room for nuance or error, he decides to embrace evil after he realizes that he is a sinner. He cries out this famous quote to the wind, indicating that sin no longer strikes fear in him as it once did. Because he is a sinner, he figures he ought to be just as feared as other evil things. However, this extreme reaction suggests that he hasn’t learned how to cope with sin. He still functions through a Puritan lens of the world, which says that if he sins at all , then he is condemned to hell.

Hawthorne has used the forest as a symbol for sin throughout “Young Goodman Brown.” Here, by saying that the road has grown “wilder and drearier,” Hawthorne conveys a lack of order, or a promotion of discord. That the road falls into disarray and eventually vanishes completely reflects what has happened to Goodman Brown’s faith. Where once the road could take him safely back to Salem, now he has no clear path forward: Goodman Brown is a sinner.

When Goodman Brown claims that “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name,” this statement supports how extreme his beliefs are. For him, the world consists of black and white, good and evil. Since his Faith (and his faith) are “gone,” he states that the world is inherently evil and that sin is the natural state of things. From a non-Puritan perspective, this logic makes little sense, but given the repressed nature of his society, Goodman Brown has no experience dealing with nuance nor understanding his own personal relationship between good and sinful behavior.

Earlier, Goodman Brown resisted the devil by believing that Faith is still pure and moral. Here, having lost his faith in his wife Faith, he has also lost faith in the world and in his own sense of morality. By claiming that his “Faith is gone,” he emphasizes the relationship between his wife and his Puritan faith. Goodman Brown’s beliefs rely on appearances and the behavior of his peers, creating an extreme ideology that doesn’t allow for nuance.

This is another example of Goodman Brown deciding to “conceal himself” from the eyes of others, a result of the Puritanical drive to appear good and to prevent the spread of rumors and suspicion. He thinks that if he can avoid being seen in the forest, then he can return to Salem and live a virtuous life. However, he fails to consider that walking into the forest and speaking with the devil could harm his soul. Another point here is to recall how Goodman Brown saw the forest when he first entered it:

not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.

Now, readers see the hypocrisy in this statement as Goodman Brown himself lurks among the evils of the forest, ignorant of his own behavior.

The verb “to spur up” means to increase speed. It comes from the practice of using spurs to prick a horse in order to make it go faster.

The noun “powwow” is rooted in North American Indian culture and tradition. It can refer to a religious or magical ceremony. It also can refer to a council or conference of Native Americans. Regardless of the nature of the meeting, the Puritans viewed powwows as a kind of non-Christian, or pagan, behavior.

In a religious context, the noun “ordination” refers to the ceremony in which an individual takes vows to become a preacher or priest.

While the devil has revealed all the hypocrisy of Goodman Brown’s family, community, and his own ideas, Goodman Brown maintains a trust that his wife, Faith, is free of evil. It is this trust that keeps him from falling into sin. However, he still looks to another person rather than to his God or personal convictions. His actions reflect the Puritan tendency to seek external ideas of faith, particularly in the appearance of goodness, rather than pursuing personal, virtuous relationships between the self and a higher power.

This is an allusion to the biblical book of Exodus, in which sorcerers in the Egyptian Pharaoh's court turned their staves into serpents to intimidate Moses. Moses and his brother Aaron also had staves capable of magic, but that power was believed to have come from God rather than the devil.

The noun “twinkling” means the time required for a wink—which is instantaneous for the purposes of this expression. Another similar expression is to say “be there in a flash.” The idea that witches could travel in supernatural ways was a popular superstition among the Puritans.

Since witches and sorcerers were associated with evil behavior, Hawthorne includes this detail. Witches were commonly believed to kill infants and young children for their fat, a prized ingredient. This belief is one of the reasons why many people suspected caregivers of witchcraft. Because the infant mortality rate was high and disease was not well understood, many believed evil forces conspired against their children.

The list of items here are all associated with sorcery and witchcraft: “smallage” and “cinquefoil” are herbs, and wolf's bane is toxic if consumed, making it a kind of poison.

The name “Cory” is a possible reference to Martha Corey, who was one of the women accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. She was a respectable community member who was eventually hanged for witchcraft, despite Hawthorne’s saying that she is “unhanged.” Martha Corey’s story is also told in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible .

Goodman Brown’s statement here shows how much value Puritans placed on appearances. Since he thinks this woman is a good Christian, he wants to avoid her seeing him with a stranger. This avoidance gives us insight into Goodman Brown and the Puritan faith: he’s more scared about being seen with a sinner by a member of his community than he is about actually walking in the forest and talking with the devil, that latter of which could affect the condition of his soul. Goodman Brown sees his own good behavior only through the eyes of others. Notice how this self-deception is also deepened by his immediate assumption that this respectable-looking woman is a good Christian.

The title of “deacon” refers to a minister or officer in the Christian church. Typically deacons perform administrative functions at the church and distribute the elements at communion during the Sabbath.

The name “Goody” is a shortened form for Goodwife and is used as a title before a woman’s last name. In the case of Goodman, it is the masculine form of Goodwife. These titles are archaic forms now often replaced with “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” or “Ms.”

A “catechism” refers to a series of set religious questions and answers based around a book of instruction in the principles of the Christian faith. Puritans like Goodman Brown would have learned a series of questions and answers to confirm their faith and then use during church services.

The devil’s purpose in telling Goodman Brown all of these “state secrets” is to emphasize the depths of his influence in Goodman Brown’s world. Since Goodman Brown considers certain people and places completely free of sin, the devil makes these claims to undermine his faith. However, the devil’s claims serve another purpose. The devil makes it clear that nothing is free of sinful influence or the potential for it. The Puritan worldview cannot accept such things, which forces them to hypocritically believe themselves and their institutions free from this influence. By maintaining a worldview that is cut and dry, there is no room for moral ambiguity and even less for forgiveness and tolerance.

Since the Puritans were Christian, the “Sabbath” refers to Sunday, a day of rest observed by Christians in prayer and service. The “lecture day” here possibly refers to a mid-week church meeting.

This is an early name for the state legislature of Massachusetts. Now known as the Massachusetts General Court, the name Great and General Court was used until 1780 when the state of Massachusetts adopted a new constitution.

At Christian masses or services, one of the acts that believers participate in is called “communion,” a custom which emphasizes the personal sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his relationship to Christians. Wine is the drink often used to symbolize the significance of Christ's death on the cross, although some denominations use grape juice or non-alcoholic substitutes.

Goodman Brown’s surprise that his family “never spoke of these matters” reveals an issue with the repressive nature of his faith. Because the Puritans judged one’s moral character on one’s outward appearance, to talk about morally ambiguous issues or individual failings was taboo. So, Goodman Brown has no experiences with moral nuance to draw on in this situation, forcing him to continue deluding himself by applying his all-too simplistic logic.

New England in the 17th century saw one of the deadliest conflicts between the Native American tribes of the area and the Dutch and English colonists. King Philip was the adopted English name of Metacomb (or Metacomet), a Wampanoag chief, whose father enjoyed friendly relations with the Mayflower Pilgrims. However, the continued influx of colonists and treaties created tensions between the groups, resulting in war. The devil delights in telling Goodman Brown how he helped Brown’s father participate in this conflict.

A “knot” is usually a combining of parts of one or more ropes, strips of cloth, or anything flexible enough to bind. The compound adjective “pitch-pine” refers to the “pitch,” or sap, from a “pine,” a type of evergreen tree. A pitch-pine knot then is likely highly flammable, and such a thing could be thrown into a village and cause a fire—exactly like what the devil says Goodman Brown’s father did.

A Quaker is a member of a religious movement founded by Christian preacher George Fox in the mid 17th century. This group emphasizes a direct relationship between the individual and the divine. Notably, Quakers were not viewed fondly by the Puritans in North America and were subjects of persecution. That the devil delights in the Puritans’ persecution of Quakers is also shown in Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker,” in which the devil says that he amuses himself by watching the persecution of the Quakers and Anabaptists.

Puritans are a branch of English Protestants from the late 16th and 17th centuries who removed themselves from the Anglican Church of England, stating that the reformation under Elizabeth I was incomplete. Some sailed west across the Pacific ocean, including the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock and settled both Boston and Plymouth. Their Christian beliefs were notoriously strict; for example, Puritans believed that thinking about a sinful or evil action had the same effect on the soul as actually committing the action.

Notice how the examples the devil chooses to share with Goodman Brown are particularly human. That is, crime and punishment as well as war are considered pervasive aspects of humanity. In a way, this normalizes the devil for Goodman Brown, as Puritans consider the devil to be a supernatural evil in order to make the difference between goodness and sin as clear as possible. Religion often justified such aspects of humanity as war and religious persecution, but that justification does not make them less evil—something the devil makes clear here by claiming his influence on those events.

This man, identified as the devil, seeks to manipulate Goodman Brown by claiming he knows Brown’s family well. If Goodman Brown believes that his family have always been good Puritans, then the revelation that they have all made deals with the devil undermines what Goodman Brown has thought to be true much of his life. Since Goodman Brown looks to others for spiritual guidance rather than evaluate behavior for himself, this manipulation begins to work, corrupting his prior certainties.

The serpent staff alludes to the biblical story of the Garden of Eden. This tale helps inform readers as to the man’s purpose. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived in a natural paradise. However, the devil, in the form of a serpent, tempted them with knowledge, eventually coaxing them into sin. The man and his staff not only draw a connection between Goodman Brown’s temptation and that of Adam and Eve but also blend evil with nature. The complexity of this association encourages readers to consider how the human capacity for sin and evil take root in the natural world.

Readers ought to pause and consider the nature of this man. He may be plainly dressed, but the presence of a staff that looks like a large, black snake helps reveal his true nature. Snakes are associated with evil in the Christian biblical tradition, as the devil presents himself to Adam and Eve in the form of a serpent in the book of Genesis. The man’s clothes may allow him to pass as a member of a Puritan community, but the staff reveals him for who he really is: the devil.

The noun “covenant” refers to an agreement, in particular one that is solemn and binding. The word has been historically associated with making a covenant with God to be a Christian. Because Goodman Brown had previously vowed to journey into the woods to meet the devil, his covenant is an inversion of his Puritan faith.

This is a reference to William III, also known as William of Orange, who ruled as king of England from 1689–1702, the time in which “Young Goodman Brown” is set.

Goodman Brown’s reply here strongly supports the idea that Hawthorne intended Faith’s name to serve a double meaning. When Goodman Brown says that Faith “kept [him] back awhile,” he means that his wife literally made him late and also that his Puritan faith caused him to doubt his decision to enter and continue journeying into the woods.

Thus far, the woods are depicted as dangerous and scary as Goodman Brown ventures further into a place that he believes to be sinful. However, this man, whose nature will shortly be revealed, claims that he has recently come through Boston. Given his nature, this statement suggests that evil and sin are not limited to the wilderness but can also exist in settled communities, foreshadowing one of the lessons Goodman Brown will learn before the end of the tale.

Goodman Brown’s attitude toward Native Americans represents that of most Puritans at the time, who believed that the Native American tribes, since they weren’t Christian, were the children of Satan, or the devil. At the very least, the Puritans regarded the Native Americans as pagans.

The “peculiarity in such solitude” and the lack of visibility characterize the forest as a dark and unsafe place. This suggests that a traveller may believe himself alone but actually be watched by an “unseen multitude.” This description creates an oppressive and apprehensive tone in the text and foreshadows the multitude to come.

Goodman Brown’s claim that Faith is so incapable of even thinking sinful thoughts that it would kill her reveals his worldview to be black and white, that people are either saints or sinners without any middle ground. However, he fails to look at his own actions. He thinks that he can endure one night of sin and then return to Salem and be good and faithful for the rest of his life. This lack of self-awareness creates conflict within Goodman Brown which will prove disastrous for him later in the story.

Goodman Brown briefly considers the idea that Faith could know about his purpose for journeying into the woods, but he quickly dismisses the notion, stating that she is simply too good and pure to suspect him of any kind of evil intent. However, the repetition in “no, no” shows a small amount of suspicion on Goodman Brown’s part, as if he has to persuade himself that Faith couldn’t think such things. This is the first indication of the suspicion he has for his Puritan community and faith.

Faith’s claim that she is “troubled with such dreams and such thoughts” is significant. For Puritans, one’s thoughts and dreams pose a real danger to one’s spiritual well-being because sin is not limited to physical actions. This claim suggests that Faith herself is not as innocent and pure as Goodman Brown believes her to be.

Hawthorne establishes the moral conflict at the beginning of the story: Goodman Brown can stay with his wife Faith, as she pleads for him to do, or he can journey into the woods. This conflict is especially notable because of his wife’s name: Goodman Brown has a conflict with “Faith,” which literally refers to his wife but can also serve as a symbol of his religious faith. By establishing this conflict early, Hawthorne shows readers that Goodman Brown’s journey has high moral stakes: in leaving Salem, he is potentially leaving his wife and his faith.

This can be read as a possible foreshadowing of what Goodman Brown is walking to right now.

Her description, the fact that she is muttering a "prayer," and the mention of a broom are all allusions to the image of a witch.

The choice of words here, "dream" specifically, suggests that the rest of the story may follow in a dream-like fashion. The look on her face may foreshadow what is to come.

The language used here exaggerates the childlike purity that Faith represents.

Perhaps Hawthorne alludes to the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness, during which time Satan tried to tempt him with earthly power to abandon God.

Brown's belief system, Puritanism, has disappeared along with Faith, his wife. With this cry of desperation, Brown casts aside his doubts and races toward the devil's communion.

Hawthorne skillfully injects some doubt in the reader's mind as to whether Brown is hearing his wife, Faith, protest loudly or protest in form only—as if she is not quite sure if what she is doing is an evil thing.

Hawthorne makes good use of the limited third-person point of view: because he is not omniscient—that is, all seeing, all knowing—he can never be certain about what he sees. The devil's staff may or may not look like a serpent, and when the devil leaves Brown, it looks "as if" he has vanished, leaving the reader in uncertainty as to what, exactly, is going on in this narrative.

In another example of double entendre (double meaning), Goodman Brown refers both to Faith, his wife, and his faith, his Puritan belief system.

This would have been a serious breach of etiquette in Puritan society, but it does indicate that, whatever has happened to Goodman Brown, Faith has not shared the experience.

One of the casualties of Brown's experience (whether a dream or something else) is Faith. After Brown returns home, his gloom becomes hers as well. The ruin of a woman's life by an obsessed man is a theme repeated in several of Hawthorne's short stories and novels including "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Birthmark," and The Scarlet Letter.

An "ecclesiastical council" refers to a meeting in which church administration or religious matters are discussed.

Hawthorne is cleverly playing with his readers: Did Goodman Brown experience the events or did he have a horrible dream vision? Puritans believe that either alternative is possible, but modern readers generally reject the notion that Brown actually experiences these events. Whether real or a dream, this experience fundamentally changes Brown's life.

Brown's attempt to save Faith is a good sign because it indicates his belief that she can still make the decision to reject Satan. Brown may consider himself lost, but his attempt to save Faith signals that a vestige of faith still exists within him.

One of the strongest beliefs of the Puritan faith is the innate depravity of mankind—in other words, men and women are born with sin and are inclined to be sinners. Only God's grace, not their own efforts, will save them from their sin.

From a Puritan's perspective, there could be no sin quite as bad as blasphemy. Goodman Brown's gestures and speech indicate that his mind has slipped its mooring. Just as he has lost his faith, he has lost his mind, a sure sign of Satan's control.

Here is a terrible irony: Goodman Brown, after finally losing his faith, becomes the scariest thing in the forest and hurries to join his wife in their new life as devil worshippers. His loss of faith is complete at this point because the one he trusts the most, Faith, has betrayed his trust.

Here is the final destruction of Goodman Brown's world: the ribbon provides proof that his faithful wife Faith has joined the devil's ranks.

This foreshadows the presence of Faith at Satan's convocation in the forest.

This is meant to convince Goodman Brown that Satan's followers are not isolated to his village but come from all over New England. That this speech comes from someone he believes is a strong Puritan is enough to convince Brown that Satan's worshippers are at every level of his society.

The scene with Goody Cloyse is very important. By showing Goody Cloyse to be a witch, Satan is turning Goodman Brown's world upside down. If Goody Cloyse, who represents to Brown a strong woman of faith, is indeed allied with Satan, what is Brown to think about all the other people he believes are good Puritans?

Again, Hawthorne is creating ambiguity by not definitely telling the reader what the staff looks like. Ambiguity is one of the primary techniques Hawthorne uses to describe Goodman Brown's journey.

This refers to one of the worst atrocities committed by Puritans against Indians. A group of Puritan men from Massachusetts attacked an Indian village near Mystic, Connecticut, killing men, women, children, and animals by burning them to death. Hawthorne, a descendant of Puritans, was horrified by their behavior.

Throughout this paragraph, Satan explains to Goodman Brown how he assisted Brown's father and grandfather in committing atrocities against Indians and Quakers (a religious sect). Hawthorne's view of Puritans as cruel and self-righteous is very clear in this passage.

A clever use of the limited narrator point of view. Because the narrator is never quite sure of what he observes, the reader is also never sure—perhaps it's a snake, perhaps it's not. The limited point of view creates tension between what is and what might be throughout the story.

This is Hawthorne's way of telling his readers that Goodman Brown and the old man may be related, not just look-a-likes.

An example of what literary critics call double entendre , or "double meaning," because Goodman Brown is referring both to Faith, his wife, and his own Puritan faith.

Goodman Brown should realize immediately that he is meeting a supernatural being. Boston is at least a day's journey from Salem, but the man has just told Brown that he was in Boston fifteen minutes ago.

Goodman Brown's journey into the forest is all the more puzzling because the forest represents true physical danger. No Puritan villager, under normal circumstances, would voluntarily enter the forest alone and at night—too many dangers, including Native Americans, lurked in the forest.

This may indicate that Goodman Brown's journey is taking place on All Hallow's Eve (Halloween), a time when the veil between living and dead is thin. Puritans believe that, of all nights in the year, this is a night during which Satan can be very dangerous.

Puritans believed that Satan could attack them in the form of dreams, so when Faith pleads with Brown to stay with her, she is genuinely afraid of what may happen to her while asleep.

Faith's ribbons are a symbol of purity that becomes crucial to the unfolding of Goodman Brown's journey into the forest.

Located in the state of Massachusetts, the city of Salem gained infamous renown due to its 1692 witchcraft trials during which many people were accused of practicing witchcraft and subsequently executed.

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Analysis of the "Young Goodman Brown" Essay
Analysis of the "Young Goodman Brown" Essay. First published in 1835, "Young Goodman Brown" is a poem by Nathaniel Hawthorne to reveal the corruptibility ensuing from the Puritan society's emphasis on public morality. Leveraging the formalist, feminist, and postcolonial literary approaches, subjective analysis of the Young Goodman ...
Young Goodman Brown Summary & Analysis
Summary. Analysis. At sunset in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, a man named Goodman Brown has just stepped over the threshold of the front door of his house. On his way out, he leans his head back inside to kiss his wife goodbye as she, "aptly" named Faith, leans out toward the street to embrace him.
Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 28, 2022. "Young Goodman Brown," initially appearing in Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) as both a bleak romance and a moral allegory, has maintained its hold on contemporary readers as a tale of initiation, alienation, and evil. Undoubtedly one of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's most disturbing stories, it opens as a ...
A Summary and Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown'
The story ends years in the future, with the narrator telling us that when Goodman Brown died, his neighbours 'carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.'. Analysis. Herman Melville, the author of Moby-Dick, thought 'Young Goodman Brown' was 'deep as Dante' in its exploration of the darker side of ...
The Analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"
Conclusion. Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a story filled with complex imagery, allegory, and deep themes. Through the analysis of the protagonist, allegorical elements, moral ambiguity and sin, and the role of faith and religion in the story, the reader can clearly unravel the central themes and the underlying meaning of Hawthorne's tale.
Gothic Elements in "Young Goodman Brown" Essay
Introduction. "Young Goodman Brown" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1835 and depicting the mid-18th century Salem, a town near Boston sadly known for its "witch hunts" when women were sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft. The writer's great-grandfather was a judge who participated in these processes ...
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Modern critics have interpreted "Young Goodman Brown" in many ways. The story as a critique of society stands out to some. To psychologically inclined readers, Brown journeys into the psyche ...
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The best study guide to Young Goodman Brown on the planet, from the creators of SparkNotes. Get the summaries, analysis, and quotes you need. ... An Essay on the Golden Street of the Holy City describes the Puritan's dreams for a holy land in America.
Young Goodman Brown
"Young Goodman Brown" is a short story published in 1835 by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story takes place in 17th-century Puritan New England, a common setting for Hawthorne's works, and addresses the Calvinist/Puritan belief that all of humanity exists in a state of depravity, but that God has destined some to unconditional election through unmerited grace.
The Symbolism of 'Young Goodman Brown' Explained
Calling Goodman Brown's wife 'Faith' is an inspired touch, because this was a popular woman's name among Puritans, but it resonates with obviously symbolic significance in this story about faith and sin. When Goodman Brown exclaims, 'My Faith is gone!', the symbolism of Brown's wife's name becomes more manifest. 'Young Goodman ...
Literary Analysis Outline "Young Goodman Brown"
Young Goodman Brown is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1835. The story is set in 17th century Puritan New England and follows the journey of the young protagonist, Goodman Brown, as he ventures into the forest to meet the devil. The story explores themes of temptation, moral ambiguity, and the hypocrisy of the ...
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Literature Study on "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The author presents the scenic elements of the forest and the village without ambiguity. The author resonates on the contradictory extremes of misguided attitude and false perception in the belief of 'a blackness power.'.
Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories
Study Guide for Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories. Young Goodman Brown and Other Hawthorne Short Stories study guide contains a biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of Hawthorne's short stories.
Young Goodman Brown Analysis
A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn. The Wedding Guest is stunned, forlorn, and sad, like Goodman Brown, but he is at least wiser. The truly subversive element in Hawthorne, which is ...
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It is true that one element of "Young Goodman Brown" is a criticism of Puritan self-righteousness; the devil points out to Brown that he has "a very general acquaintance here in New England'' and ...
ENG 1002: Sample Student Essay
Below is an excellent essay written by a student in an ENG 1002 course. Everything about the essay is strong: the thesis, the organization, the support and development of ideas, the insight into the subject, the style, and the mechanics. ... In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown," the author uses mystery and suspense to hold ...
Young Goodman Brown Essay Topics
Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Young Goodman Brown Themes
The Hypocrisy of Puritanism. Hawthorne sets "Young Goodman Brown" in the New England town of Salem, where the Puritans tried to create a religious society with strict morals and pious norms, but also where the infamous Witch Trials took place. The Puritans believed that some people are predestined by God to go to heaven, and that those ...
Thesis and Essay Topics for Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown
Potential thesis and essay topics for Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" include exploring the theme of good versus evil, the impact of Puritanism on individuals, the use of symbolism ...
Young Goodman Brown Full Text
Young Goodman Brown. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN came forth at sunset into the street at Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ...
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Young Goodman Brown Persuasive Essay. Decent Essays. 701 Words. 3 Pages. Open Document. In the story Young Goodman Brown, there is a debate to whether Goodman Brown is redeemed or saved at the end of the story. To say he is saved or not is a question that no one can really answer. The story never says if Goodman brown is just dreaming about all ...
Young Goodman Brown Essays (Examples)
Young Goodman Brown: Faith -- the Wife. In the Young Goodman Brown, the two important characters are the protagonist, Brown and his wife Faith. While Faith, the wife, has a small role to play yet her significance increases as we closely study her symbolic use in the story. The story revolves around a man's journey into the heart of darkness to ...

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