Rachel Brands
Dr. Stone
Major American Authors
12 November 2017
Puritanism’s Influences on “Young Goodman Brown”
Nathaniel Hawthorne had Puritan background in his family history and this influenced his
opinion on the religion his entire life. This complicated opinion on Puritanism showed in
Hawthorne’s works, especially “Young Goodman Brown.” Hawthorne used his writing to
alleviate guilt he had over things his family were involved in, like the hypocritical Salem witch
trials. “Young Goodman Brown” reflects this most accurately because it has a sacrifice near the
end not unlike the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne critiques many parts of Puritanism in “Young
Goodman Brown,” starting with Puritan hypocrisy and how it’s reflected in the hypocritical
townspeople. The forest is more than just a setting for a midnight walk because it represents a
dark, forbidding thing that Puritans claim to hate, yet Young Goodman Brown sees them all
there during the devil worshipping. Gender roles are another Puritan thing Hawthorne critiques
and he does so by using Faith as an object to rebel against this patriarchal system. Lastly, he
critiques Puritan Calvinism and uses Young Goodman Brown as the young Calvinist who
represents all that’s wrong with the religion. Nathaniel Hawthorne used his family history to
influence his writing and critiqued Puritan themes like hypocrisy, nature, gender, and Calvinism
in “Young Goodman Brown.”
Many of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works have Puritan themes and “Young Goodman
Brown” is no exception. Hawthorne’s own complicated history with Puritanism influenced his
writing and his short stories served as an outlet for him to work through his guilt over things his
Puritan relatives did in the past. “Alas, Hawthorne’s genealogical research did not lead him to
individuals to be entirely proud of. Being a descendant of Puritan immigrants and moreover of
two of the leading characters in the persecution of Quakers, Indians, and alleged witches, placed
a heavy burden on the author’s mind” (Boonyaprasop 35). Hawthorne changed his last name to
distance himself from his undesirable ancestors, but was never able to distance himself from the
group. Hawthorne wrote about this topic extensively in “The Custom House” where he claimed
the knowledge of his father’s and grandfather’s actions haunted him. “Hawthorne tries to absolve
himself from the repercussions of this malediction by taking the shame of his ancestors upon
himself (TSL 9)” (Boonyaprasop 35).
However, Marina Boonyaprasop also took note in her novel that Hawthorne was aware of
the positives of Puritanism. He was able to give the religion a fair shake, even though he spent
many of his works critiquing it. “Beside all these negative associations, the writer was aware of
the fact that the Puritans were not altogether sinister. Writing about William, he remarks that ‘he
had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil’ (TSL 9, emphasis added). This quote serves as a
proof of Hawthorne’s appreciation of at least some Puritan characteristics” (Boonyaprasop 35).
This is important to keep in mind during the analysis of “Young Goodman Brown” because
while the short story critiques Puritan hypocrisy, the ending shows how difficult it is to
differentiate between good and bad people. Young Goodman Brown serves as a stand-in for
Hawthorne in the end because he cannot tell which of the townspeople are evil, so he distrusts
them all.
Hawthorne’s complicated feelings towards Puritanism are prevalent in “Young Goodman
Brown.” He critiques the hypocrisy in Puritan religion by portraying the well-to-do, church
going townspeople as devil worshippers. Showing the Puritans secretly practicing the very thing
they claimed to hate was Hawthorne’s way of speaking out against the religion. “‘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” (Hawthorne 92).
Puritans were active participators in witch hunts and strongly opposed devil worship, which is
why their portrayal here is particularly damning. Hawthorne is showing the Puritans as
hypocrites because they don’t practice preach one thing at church and practice another in the
forest, when it seems everyone is looking away.
Nearly the entire short story takes place within the forest that Young Goodman Brown
enters at the beginning. Forests often have a sinister reputation and the forest in “Young
Goodman Brown” proves itself sinister when Young Goodman Brown encounters the devil and
devil worshippers on his walk. The forest is significant to the story because it is cut off from the
community, creating a separation between society and nature. The townspeople’s true, sinister
nature is only revealed because they are able to drop their pleasant façade once they’re in the
forest. “Hawthorne succeeds in mingling together the Puritan and transcendental concepts of
nature. Although at first the forest appears to be dark and frightening, being the habitat of
unknown dangers, Native Americans, and Satan himself, this effect changes when looking closer
at the events occurring within. Although Puritans rejected the wilderness due to its capability of
changing a person and alluring him from his faith and religious purity, the forest of “Young
Goodman Brown” does the opposite. The protagonist resists the devil’s temptation, acts
according to Puritan commandments and hence proves his religious faith. Nevertheless, he is
shunned by the villagers. As the community is a central part of Puritanism, the joined hypocrisy
is more acceptable than Brown’s individual proof of devoutness. His otherness is of vital
importance and exceeds the relevance of his personal creed. Thus, it is his non-conformity which
accounts for his segregation from society.”
Young Goodman Brown choosing to enter the forest alone is symbolic of his decision to
walk alone in life. He abandons his wife and his faith to pursue personal ambition in the darkness
of the forest. The forest’s dark and eerie persona at night is meant to represent literal darkness
and the metaphorical darkness Young Goodman Brown is pursuing as he actively seeks out the
devil. The Puritans’ public disdain for the forest is because it gives the appearance of being
haunted and, knowing this, Young Goodman Brown enters to meet the devil. “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” (Hawthorne 91). As Young
Goodman Brown stood frightened in the forest, he realized he himself was the scariest thing
there because of the dark nature in him that brought him there. This revelation proves the true
nature of the Puritans because their hatred of the forest was a smokescreen for their hatred of
their own evilness.
Puritans’ concept of gender plays an important part in the short story, particularly to
highlight the differences between Young Goodman Brown and his wife Faith. These differences
and how they impact their marriage are most obvious during their first scene together when Faith
bids Young Goodman Brown goodbye. “Young Goodman Brown came forth, at sunset, into the
street of 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” (Hawthorne 84). This scene shows Faith as the more affectionate of the two because she
calls out to Young Goodman Brown as he walks away from her. This could also be seen as a sign
that she is still innocent as she tries to save Young Goodman Brown from the dark fate that
awaits him in the forest. Young Goodman Brown, on the other hand, seems to care about Faith,
but is not as invested in the marriage as she is. His leaving shows him prioritizing his needs over
hers and this choice haunts their marriage for the rest of his days. Hawthorne is using Young
Goodman Brown and Faith to show a typical Puritan couple and their gender roles.
James C. Keil analyzed this scene in his book “Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown:
Early Nineteenth-Century and Puritan Constructions of Gender.” Keil took particular notice of
how the married couple cross the threshold of the household and what this means for their
characters. “In this scene, we learn that the setting of the story is Salem village, the site of many
mysterious activities in the minds of Hawthorne's contemporaries, and the time is sunset. The
scene takes place in the doorway of the Browns' house, a threshold that both joins and separates
not only private and public but, literally in this case, female and male. It is a threshold that both
characters violate for reasons of intimacy, although she, as we see, is clearly the more intimate of
the two” (Keil 37). Faith is shown as attempting to subvert gender roles by crossing the threshold
from the house in order to save her husband. She fulfills the naïve, innocent role of the wife, but
her bold crossing of the threshold makes her susceptible to losing that innocence by the end of
the story. Puritans believe there are certain ways to act in public versus private and Hawthorne
critiques this belief by showing the Puritans behaving badly in private while appearing to be
upstanding citizens in public. Faith showing affection for Young Goodman Brown beyond the
threshold of their door is a public affair and it paints Faith in a good light because she is willing
to dismiss gender roles to save her husband’s soul.
Hawthorne introduces Young Goodman Brown as a Calvinist because he believes he can
commit any number of bad deeds and still ascend to heaven if he believes in the right religion.
This is how Young Goodman Brown justifies his decision to go into the forest to himself. As he
enters the forest, he says, “…after this one night I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven”
(Hawthorne 85). Young Goodman Brown’s marriage to his wife Faith is symbolic of his own
commitment to his religion, so his declaration that he’ll be a sinner tonight and repent tomorrow
shows his commitment to Calvinism isn’t so strong. Young Goodman Brown is so easily swayed
into believing the townspeople are wicked because he doesn’t have strong religious roots of his
own to combat this belief with. Hawthorne is critiquing Puritan Calvinism by presenting Young
Goodman Brown as a man who thinks it’s fine to do bad things as long as he claimed he was
sorry the next day and clung to his faith. Hawthorne clearly disagrees and Young Goodman
Brown’s fate at the end of the story shows this. Thomas E. Connelly discussed a similar view in
his novel “Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown: An Attack on Puritan Calvinism.” He claims
the scene where Young Goodman Brown recognizes Goody Cloyse in the forest shows that
Brown has behaved badly in the past and his commitment is a new development. “When he
recognized Goody Cloyse, Brown said, ‘That old woman taught me my catechism,’ and the
narrator added, ‘and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment.’ The reader at this
point should be fairly well aware of Hawthorne’s criticism of Calvinism. The only way there can
be a ‘world of meaning’ in Brown’s statement is that her catechism teaches the way to the devil
and not the way to heaven” (Connelly 373). Young Goodman Brown is presented as a man who
has done many bad deeds and so have his ancestors because they’ve all met with the devil, yet
Brown starts the short story sure he is going to heaven. Hawthorne is critiquing the smugness of
Puritan Calvinism by saying it takes more than believing in the right thing to get into heaven.
One also has to live the right way and Young Goodman Brown does not do so at the end.
Nathaniel Hawthorne critiqued Puritanism in many of his works due to his shame over
his family history. He used his writing to critique Puritanism as a way to distance himself from
his grandfather’s involvement in the Salem witch trials. “Young Goodman Brown” is a
Hawthorne story that has the most Puritan influence in the plot, setting, and characters.
Hawthorne critiques Puritan hypocrisy when Young Goodman Brown sees all the respectable
people in his town are devil worshippers. The forest itself is an embodiment of evil and darkness
and the townspeople’s gathering there is symbolic of their wicked nature. Gender in Puritan
society is also critiqued by Hawthorne and he uses the scene where Faith says goodbye to her
husband to show how each of them fit into Puritan gender roles. Hawthorne portrays Young
Goodman Brown as a Calvinist in order to critique the way their religion thinks and operates.
