UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA

CENTRO DE COMUNICAÇÃO E EXPRESSÃO

DEPARTAMENTO DE LÍNGUA E LITERATURA ESTRANGEIRAS

CURSO DE LETRAS INGLÊS - LICENCIATURA

DISCIPLINA DE LITERATURAS EM LÍNGUA INGLESA I - LLE8421

PROFESSORA DRA. ANELISE CORSEUIL

THE CONCEPT OF “EVIL” AND “SIN” IN THE WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE

WORLD AND YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

Luiza Manuella de Oliveira

Florianópolis/SC

02 de julho de 2025.
 “With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!”

(Hawthorne, 1835, 6). These were the words Goodman Brown, created by Nathaniel

Hawthorne, declared when trying to resist the temptation of the devil once he had entered the

forest to complete his journey. Hawthorne has one of the most important works when it

comes to the religion movement of Puritanism, and according to Person (17, qtd. in

Boonyaprasop, 2013, 3), it is because of him that in the present days, Puritanism is

commonly associated with “superstition, excessive moralism, intolerance, and patriarchal

oppression". On the other hand, there is the document Cotton Mather wrote regarding the

persecution and the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. These two literary works -

though one is fictional and the other one is a historical account of the witch trials - became

relevant concerning Puritanism. In this paper, the aspect of evil and sin will be analyzed:

while Mather externalizes evil as a force that needs to be fought through faith and order, by

portraying sin is a deliberate act, Hawthorne shows a perspective that evil is symbolic, and he

internalizes evil as part of the human nature, suggesting that everyone is susceptible to sin.

Historically, New England - the region where the city of Salem is located - is the

place where the English Puritans settled themselves in order to escape from religious

oppression. The Puritans aimed to reform the Catholic Church which they saw as deeply

corrupt (Gopnik; Adam; Handlin; Oscar; Lewis et al 2025). Authors such as Nathaniel

Hawthorne and Cotton Mather used these puritans' legacy to define a unique “American

identity” and create symbolic stories about human nature, the concept of sin and the puritan

society, reflecting on supernatural beliefs and moral struggles - the understanding of evil

(Henton, 2014). Cotton Mather was born in 1663, in Boston, in the region of New England,

and was a key figure during the witch trials happening in Salem. In 1692, he was requested

by Judge Samuel Sewall to document the trials, and Sewall “wanted Mather to separate fact

from fiction to show that the judges exercised prudence and good judgment” (Hayes, 2024,

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3). Mather agreed to write - and this is how Wonders of the Invisible World emerged to be an

important literary work which is relevant till the present days -, however was unable to access

the official court transcripts, so he relied on external sources to reconstruct the events by

composing brief summaries of five out of the twenty trials he was instructed to do (Hayes,

2024). This may cause readers to question the reliability of his account.

Hawthorne was born in 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, and he had deep roots in

Puritan New England (Boonyaprasop, 2013). His ancestors, who lived in the 17th century,

were important figures during the Puritan era: William Hathorne (great-great-grandfather),

for example, was a magistrate that truly believed in the Puritan orthodoxy, that they were

pure and considered to be chosen by God; among Hathorne's activities as magistrate,

sentencing a Quaker woman to public whipping was one of the most remarkables (The

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2025). Later, when Nathaniel Hawthorne started to

write, he changed the spelling of his name and it is believed that this happened due to the

desire to distance and make this distinction of himself from his Puritan ancestors

(Boonyaprasop, 2013).

Before delving into the contextualization of the texts, some key concepts were

thought to be important to be explored in order to understand how the evil image and the

concept of sin are portrayed in Mather and Hawthorne's writing. Firstly, to situate Puritanism

and Religion, the Puritans found that religion was “one of the most important aspects because

it was what guided them through their lives” (Horvat, 2021, 5). An important thought rooted

in the Puritan beliefs to be pointed here is the idea of the “Elect”. John Calvin's theory of

predestination is a key theory to understand the concept of Elect: only few people, chosen by

God, will be saved, and “anyone who is not part of the elect, will have to face eternal

damnation and there is no way for them to work towards salvation because the choice has

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already been made” (Horvat, 2021, 6). This may help to understand how Puritan society

conceived sin and evil based on their beliefs.

​ Another important concept in Puritan's beliefs is Nature. For the puritans, the

wilderness was seen as something sinful, bad and undesirable. Because of their Christian

roots, Puritans often associated the nature figure as something bad, as the wild is commonly

portrayed as a place of trial, exile or temptation in biblical narratives, and that might have

reinforced the idea that one could be easily away from God once they had contact with nature

- for instance, the story of Adam and Eve (Boonyaprasop, 2013). For these new settlers in the

New World, nature was something threatening for their way of life: they needed to grow food

in such an untamed environment. According to Boonyaprasop (2013, 14), “wild nature

threatened the life and viability of a sedentary society”.

​ At last, it was in the 17th century that the concept of witchcraft - more precisely, the

notion of witchcraft as a sin - was found to be present to the Puritan society (Horvat, 2021).

For them, sin was “anything which was going against the Scripture and God in general, and

naturally, witchcraft fell into the category” of it. (Horvat, 2021, 6). In addition, Carr et al (qtd

in. Horvat, 2021, 7) claims that “[...] anyone who would commit sins was considered a

follower of Satan, essentially a witch”.

​ The work of Cotton Mather The Wonders of the Invisible World was written in 1692.

He wrote it as a justification of the Salem witch trials, and it defends the court's actions,

trying to prove that witchcraft was a real and dangerous threat to Puritan society. Mather

presents the evil image as a concrete force. He reinforces the reality of the Devil by using

accounts of witchcraft as evidence of his influence in the world. In page 1, he claims

Wherefore the devil is now making one attempt more upon us;

an attempt more difficult, more surprising [...] He has wanted his

incarnate legions to persecute us, as the people of God have in

the other hemisphere been persecuted [...] We have been advised by

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 some credible Christians yet alive, that a malefactor, accused of

witchcraft as well as murder [...] did notice of an horrible plot

against the country by witchcraft, and a foundation of witchcraft

then laid, which if it were not seasonably discovered, would

probably blow up, and pull down all the churches in the country

(Mather, 1692, 1).

​ Here, Mather is claiming the belief that Evil is something real and concrete. Also, he

paints the Puritans as God's chosen people and depicts his society as a holy one. He points

that their people are being persecuted by witches - living among them (a malefactor) -, and

presents witchcraft as a satanic conspiracy against their religion. Thus, he uses “credible

Christians”, seeking to base his arguments to warn people of what is going to happen if this

sinful environment lasts any longer - the churches would fall because of it, which means that

it is not about literal building collapse, but he uses this metaphor to express the fear that

witchcraft - the evil - could destroy the entire spiritual and moral foundation of Puritan

society, such as their - the Church's - authority over their people.

Mather really sees the witch trials as a spiritual battle by claiming that “an army of

devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is the center [...] and the houses of the good

people there with the doleful shrieks of their children and servants [...] (Mather, 1692, 2). By

stating that an army of devils is coming, he is also characterizing evil as a physical and

present force. He uses this type of language to characterize physically something that

normally would not be done this way - an army of people in contrast to an army of devils: by

using this language, it may cause fear to people, specially the Puritans, and to end this fear,

they need to fight against it by using their faith. Mather also portrays sin as conscious: sinner

people are being sinners because they chose to be so, and they chose to follow the evil forces

because “more than one [and] twenty have confessed, that they have signed unto a book,

which the devil showed them, and engaged in his hellish design of bewitching and ruining

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our land” (Mather, 1692, 2). Mather is now suggesting that people who chose to follow the

Devil (the witches) did this consciously, and that may also suggest a rebellion against God

and against their Puritan (the chosen ones) society - they will pull down the Churches.

Mather also presents Martha Carrier more than a criminal, by using her as an example

of externalizing the evil forces. The author is presenting Carrier as a woman who committed

the sin of witchcraft and made this decision consciously - she even forced her children to

become “witches themselves” (Mather, 1692, 4). Mather yet uses nature with a negative

connotation by mentioning the witch-meetings, which occurred in the wild.

VIII. One Foster, who confessed her own share in the witchcraft for

which the prisoner stood indicted, affirmed that she had seen the

prisoner at some of their witch-meetings, and that it was this

Carrier, who persuaded her to be a witch (Mather, 1692, 6).

​ She is portrayed as someone who is a threat, someone evil that was corrupted by the

evil forces and now represents an evil image who can destroy all their social environment by

simply existing, because she is evil.

​ In contrast to that, Hawthorne shows the readers a strong critique about Puritan

society by portraying the evil figure and the concept of sin differently from what Mather did

in his accounts. Young Goodman Brown needs to go on a journey into the forest, where he

meets a stranger who seems to be a devilish figure and tells the man how he had helped so

many people before him. The character needs to resist this temptation of being helped by the

Devil, but soon realizes that even his wife, Faith, is about to be initiated into evil:

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; [...] “Faith!” shouted

Goodman Brown, in a voice of agony and desperation; and the

echoes of the forest mocked him, crying, “Faith! Faith!” as if

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 bewildered wretches were seeking her all through the

wilderness (Hawthorne, 1835, 6).

After realizing what happened to his wife, he claims “My Faith is gone! [...] There is

no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given”

(Hawthorne, 1835, 6). This is the moment where the young man loses his Faith: his wife and

his religious faith, and it is also the moment where he gives in to despair. In addition, this also

reflects a moment of disillusionment, where he seems now to believe that “good” does not

exist. Now, there is no meaning in sin because it is a social religious construction - one

cannot help becoming a sinner. This is the moment where it can be also noticed how nature is

portrayed: as in Mather's nature, Hawthorne still conceives the wild scenario as something

bad, since it is where all the journey to evil is happening. The term “bewildered wretches”

reflects how Goodman Brown sees those people - Puritan people - who have already lost their

moral direction, and suggesting that the forest is not only realistically dark but also

symbolically - it is where people began to be corrupted by evil.

Young Goodman Brown meets tons of people from his town in this wild place - even

his catechism teacher -, and once he understands that he is now seeing who people really are,

he realizes that everyone can be a sinner. The next morning, when he has returned to Salem -

or waken up from this dream -, he is unsure about all that happened and now finds himself

skeptical about everyone - his neighbours and even his wife -, and about their religious life

because he is now convinced that everyone is secretly sinful and hypocritical:

The next morning young Goodman Brown came slowly into the

street of Salem village, staring around him like a bewildered

man. [...] 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

(Hawthorne, 1853, 9).

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​ He became sarcastic - “What God doth the wizard pray to?” and could not even stand

the hypocrisis of singing to the Lord: “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 (Hawthorne, 1835, 10). Now, after all the young

man has seen and discovered about the essence of humanity, he finds himself in a position of

doubting everyone and everything. His loss of faith is not just in individuals, but in the very

possibility of goodness itself - marking Hawthorne’s conception that everyone can be a

sinner, and that evil and sin are inherent in human essence.

​ By comparing both Mather and Hawthorne, it is possible to see that both portrays

nature as a dangerous and a bad place where people can be influenced to become sinners -

Mather does it by mentioning the witch-meetings (that used to happen in the forests) and

Hawthorne does it by making his whole narrative occurs into the wild (the place where

Goodman Brown discovers that there is no good on earth and where he has his

disillusionment moments). On the other hand, by contrasting both authors, it can be observed

that they have different conceptions of evil and sin: Mather sees evil as something that is

concrete and real. He portrays Carrier, for example, as a practical instance of what and how

the evil image looks like, and uses tons of adjectives to characterize it - it may show that evil

is dealt as something tangible. He also paints sin as something optional - sin is conscious -,

meaning that one chooses between good and evil - how people signed a book that Devil

himself showed to them, for example. On the contrary, Hawthorne presents evil as something

different: now, evil is symbolic; it is shown inherent to the human race the moment Goodman

Brown realizes that the people he trusted the most to be good people were, in fact, corrupted

by evil and sin. At this moment, evil is not dealt as something real that lives among people,

but as something symbolic that lives inside people, and the notion of good and bad no longer

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exists - “there is no real good” no more. The same happened with the notion of sin, because

now it is unconscious and inevitable because it is part of human nature.

​ In conclusion, this paper has analyzed how different Cotton Mather and Nathaniel

Hawthorne conceive evil and sin in their works The Wonders of The Invisible World and

Young Goodman Brown, respectively. While Mather suggests that evil is an enemy force and

sin is a conscious act for it to corrupt their holy society by externalizing the notion of evil,

Hawthorne brings a perspective that evil is, in fact, a symbolic element of human nature, and

one is not capable of controlling it, nor the capacity of being a sinner - everyone is

susceptible to it. Both authors are rooted in Puritanism, but one is using his position to justify

the persecution against the so-called “witches” by basing their acts in their understanding of

truth - that was based on religion -, whereas the other critiques the Puritan beliefs, such as the

elect concept and the notion of good vs evil, by using elements of nature, witchcraft and the

notion of evil and sin.

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