Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

CHARACTERS
1. Young Goodman Brown is a religious young man who lives in Salem and is deeply in love with his
wife, Faith. While his parents and grandparents are deceased, his family has lived in Salem for at least
three generations. He has been recently married to Faith, whom he views as having a pure heart and pious
soul.

At the beginning of the story, Goodman Brown is about to venture into the woods to meet the devil—a
journey that deeply troubles his religious side but excites his curiosity. He greatly respects many of the
devout members of his community, and he seems particularly concerned that one of them might see him
in the woods and ruin his reputation. As Brown's journey into the forest progresses, though, he sees all
these community members in the woods, also there to commune with the devil. This troubles him, but he
keeps hope that goodness still exists since he hasn’t seen Faith in the woods, which means that she is still
pure. However, when he arrives at a mysterious stone altar surrounded by devil worshippers and sees
Faith among them, he loses both his religious faith and his faith in the goodness of humanity.

By the end of the story, it is unclear whether or not the events recounted actually occurred—it may have
all been a dream. Nonetheless, Brown's life is never the same again. He becomes distrustful, unhappy, and
unfriendly, even toward his wife, until the day of his death.

2. The devil is the mysterious person that Goodman Brown journeys into the woods to meet. When
Goodman Brown first encounters the devil in the forest, it’s not totally clear who he is, but a few things
are apparent: There’s something supernatural about him, as he has been able to get to Salem from Boston
inhumanly quickly. He carries a noteworthy wooden staff carved in the form of a black snake, and it
appears to be moving. He is dressed like Goodman Brown and vaguely resembles him, although he is
clearly much older. The story says they could be father and son.

The devil is pleasant and cordial, but he unnerves Goodman Brown by his claims to have been well-
acquainted with Goodman Brown’s pious ancestors, as well as many devout people in Salem whom
Goodman Brown admires. As they journey through the forest, Goodman Brown also sees the devil
familiarly greet a few townsfolk, implying that many people in Salem are secretly sinners.

The devil is slick-talking and persuasive. Goodman Brown frequently tries to turn back to Salem, but the
devil manages to always overcome his objections, leading him deeper into the forest and into sin. Near
the end of the story, it is strongly implied that the devil is the figure at the altar who is to baptize
Goodman Brown and Faith into the unholy community. Here, he has the dress and manner of a New
England minister, further blurring the line between upright, holy officials and sinful friends.

3. Faith is Goodman Brown's young wife of only three months. She is pretty, loving, obedient, religious,
and childlike. These qualities are emphasized by the pink ribbons she wears in her cap.

Faith is an allegorical representation of faith itself—Goodman Brown’s religious faith and his faith in
human goodness. When Goodman Brown is initially leaving on his journey, Faith asks him not to go.
Allegorically, this represents his religious faith holding him back from something sinful. Of course,
neither his faith or Faith herself can overcome his curiosity. As Goodman Brown journeys deeper into the
forest and becomes more and more disillusioned with all the supposedly-respectable people of his town,
he keeps heart because he knows that at least Faith is pure.

However, when Goodman Brown sees Faith at the devil’s altar, he loses his faith completely, and it ruins
his life. When he returns to Salem, Faith is there waiting for him like nothing happened. But he can no
longer love her or trust her after what he thought he saw. It’s not clear if Faith really was in the woods or
if Goodman Brown simply dreamed it, but either way, their marriage is cold and unhappy until he dies.

4. Goody Cloyse is an elderly woman, pious and well-respected in Salem. She taught Goodman Brown his
catechism when he was a child. Goodman Brown encounters Goody Cloyse on the path to the devil's
ceremony. She is apparently a witch who created a magical flying ointment out of baby fat and herbs. At
the end of the story, she escorts Faith to the altar-like rock where she will commune with the devil.

Goody Cloyse is an example of a citizen who is not as morally upright as she seems in public. The
unwelcome discovery of her dual nature propels Brown down the forest path, since it makes him believe
that more people are sinful than he previously understood.

5. The minister Goodman Brown’s minister is among the holiest and most respected residents of Salem.
Goodman Brown looks up to him as a spiritual advisor, and near the story's beginning, he mentions that
he values the minister's good opinion. Later, however, Goodman Brown is horrified to see the minister
hurrying to the devil's meeting. When Goodman Brown arrives at the gathering, the minister escorts him
to the rock, showing how deeply the minister is embedded in devil worship.

The next morning, when the minister blesses Brown as they pass each other back in Salem, Brown
shrinks away. Later, Brown finds himself growing pale with dread during the minister's sermons, lest the
roof collapse in response to his blasphemy. The minister is an example of Puritan hypocrisy, a prominent
community leader who secretly engages in terrible sin.

6. Deacon Gookin is a respected church elder in Salem. He is one of Goodman Brown's spiritual advisors,
and near the story's beginning, Goodman Brown mentions him as an upright man whose good opinion he
values. Later, however, Goodman Brown is horrified to see him traveling to the devil's meeting. When
Goodman Brown arrives at the gathering, Deacon Gookin escorts him to the rock for his unholy baptism.

The next morning, when Goodman Brown overhears Deacon Gookin praying, he wonders what god he
prays to. Deacon Gookin provides an example of Puritan hypocrisy, seeming to possess moral virtue, but
zealously engaging in secret sin.

SYMBOLS
His wife, Faith symbolizes, the belief in the Puritan religion and she is the one who keeps him going. I
think I can say that she is Goodman Brown’s only incentive to stay righteous raised and godly.

Goodman Brown’s name is a symbol of all the good men in the world that are trying to resist the
temptation of evil. The word “young” means that he is innocent, for instance at the beginning of the story
he comes into the forest motivated by his curiosity. He believes in the goodness of his father, grandfather,
Goody Cloyse, the minister, the deacon Goodking and Faith until the devil shows their true faces.
The pink ribbons. At the beginning of the story, Faith wears pink ribbons. I think a lot about this symbol,
and I conclude that it can symbolize two aspects: it can refer to her innocence and purity, but also if we
think of the color itself, pink is a mixture of red and white. Red is associated with sacrifice and danger
and the white color represents purity. So, it can be her duality between purity and sin. I’m not sure.

The second symbol is the symbol of light and dark. The darkness symbolizes evil and is the realm of the
devil, we know that all the bad things happen at night. At the beginning of the story, Faith says: Pray, tarry
with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year -that’s a symbol that shows us that night was
special. I think Faith knows what will happen that night because we see her insistence on persuading her
husband not to travel in the dark but to wait until sunrise in order to avoid the devil and remain in God’s
light, keeping him safe.

I have here his reply: My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year,
this one night must I tarry away from thee.” He must leave her alone that night and do something without
her. His meeting in the woods with the devil is arranged because when the old man appears and tells
Goodman Brown that he is late, the narrator states that the appearance of this devil character is „not
wholly unexpected.” As soon become deep into the forest, we see that the author uses this journey to test
his faith. After a period of keeping to the path, taking and walking with the devil, Goodman Brown finds
the strength/power to break away from the devil and try to return to his faith. He looked up to the sky and
start to pray but when the light of haven represented by the blue sky and starlight was gone, we see that
Goodman Brown become “maddened with despair”.

The third symbol is the forest. He wandered into the dark forest which represents the loneliness and
confusion of the Godless life. The forest is described as terrifying with trees that look like witches;
normal night noises sound like a creepy demon coming out to fetch him. The forest represents the
unknown, the evil, and the deconstruction of the people, it is a dark place where anything good can occur.

Another symbol that I want to talk about is the symbol of evil’s staff. Devil offers Goodman Brown a staff
that looks like a snake. This staff symbolizes the evil and curiosity which leads him into temptation. I can
make a parallel between the Book of Genesis and this stuff of the devil. The serpent tempts Eve to taste
the fruit from the forbidden tree, defying God’s will. When the devil tells Goodman Brown to use the staff
to travel faster, he accepted and, like Eve, is ultimately condemned for his weakness by losing his
innocence.

THEME
1. Innocence and Knowledge. “Young Goodman Brown” is often read as an allegory for the Biblical fall
of man. Like Adam and Eve, Goodman Brown’s thirst for sinful knowledge leads him to betray God.
Adam and Eve did this by eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of Knowledge. Goodman Brown does
this when he goes into the forest to meet the devil. And just as Adam and Eve are expelled from the
Garden of Eden as punishment for their sin, Goodman Brown’s whole life is ruined by his sinful journey.

As part of this allegory, Goodman Brown’s wife Faith represents Goodman Brown’s own religious faith.
Initially, Faith begs Goodman Brown not to go into the woods. She holds him back briefly, which makes
him late to meet the devil. Allegorically, this is Goodman Brown’s religious faith giving him pause—he
feels guilty and uncertain about whether he wants to go on this sinful journey. Goodman Brown
constantly reflects on how Faith would view his journey, and how his sinful actions would cause her pain,
even as he continues along the path. Clearly, his attachment to Faith, and his own faith in God, are not
strong enough to overcome his curiosity about sin. This echoes Adam and Eve whose love of God could
not keep them from defying Him.

The knowledge that Goodman Brown gains by indulging his curiosity about sin proves catastrophic. The
main thing he learns from his foray into the woods is that the people he once respected and loved are
perhaps not as Godly or respectable as he thought. Among the people he believes he sees worshiping the
devil are his minister and the woman who taught him his Catechism. In addition, the devil claims that
Goodman Brown’s own ancestors were acquainted with evil. The most crushing blow of all, though, is
when Goodman Brown thinks he sees Faith in the wilderness. Believing that Faith is evil causes
Goodman Brown to lose his faith in God and humanity and surrender to sin.

Goodman Brown's hard-won knowledge of sin brings him no more joy than it brought Adam and Eve: it
transforms him from a caring husband who enjoyed the company of others to an unhappy and isolated
man. This parallels Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden as punishment for them betraying
God. This is referred to as the “fall of man,” and it doomed mankind: from then on, all of humankind was
doomed to have a sinful nature.

This sinful nature is apparent in Goodman Brown himself, since he finds himself on a catastrophic path to
sin due simply to natural curiosity.In this way, the story suggests that human beings are naturally prone to
sin, since even a "good man" like Goodman Brown is destined to fall.

2. The Fear of the Wilderness. From the moment he steps into the forest, Goodman Brown voices his fear
of the wilderness, seeing the forest as a place where no good is possible. In this he echoes the dominant
point of view of seventeenth-century Puritans, who believed that the wild New World was something to
fear and then dominate. Goodman Brown, like other Puritans, associates the forest with the wild
“Indians” and sees one hiding behind every tree. He believes that the devil could easily be present in such
a place—and he eventually sees the devil himself, just as he had expected. He considers it a matter of
family honor that his forefathers would never have walked in the forest for pleasure, and he is upset when
the devil tells him that this was not the case. He himself is ashamed to be seen walking in the forest and
hides when Goody Cloyse, the minister, and Deacon Gookin pass. The forest is characterized as devilish,
frightening, and dark, and Goodman Brown is comfortable in it only after he has given in to evil.

DARK ROMANTICS
In the 19th century, American writers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, were influenced by the European
Romantic movement which included an interest in the power of the individual; an obsession with extreme
experiences, including fear, love, and horror; an interest in nature and natural landscapes. “Young
Goodman Brown” fits into a subgenre of American Romanticism: the gothic or dark romance.

Hawthorne’s ambiguity in “Young Goodman Brown.” The reader does not know where Goodman Brown
is journeying, nor do they know the reason. The “elder person” (Hawthorne 586) is never given a name or
an explanation as to why he takes the physical form of Goodman Brown’s grandfather. Hawthorne never
explicitly states what the group in the woods is doing or for what reason, and he also never specifies if
Goodman Brown’s nightmarish experience is real or just a dream.

The characters in the novels wander the earth alone, abandoned by God. Goodman Brown mentions
several times that "[His] faith is gone!" He clearly feels abandoned by God and left to figure things out on
his own.

Dark Romantics adapted images of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, and ghosts. One
of the main characters in the story is the devil himself. That is very characteristic of the Dark Romantic
period. Everything is spooky and creepy. Goodman Brown is constantly remarking "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." He is consistently mentioning how dark and
mysterious the forest is.

Dark Romanticism frequently shows individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better.
At the end of the story, Goodman Brown cannot make himself better. He is forever changed by the event
and no matter how hard he tries; he cannot make the change.