Use Of Ambivalence In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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In “Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne introduces his clever use of ambivalence to tell the heart-wrenching story of how one man loses faith in all of humanity. Falling into a state of ambivalence, always questioning one’s thoughts and senses, can create a sagacity of uneasiness. Goodman Brown’s ambivalence rises as he embarks on a journey through the dark forest alongside the Devil, discovers the evil within himself, and ultimately, realizes his faith has vanished. Suggesting the presence of evil in ordinary people, Brown’s uncertainty reveals to him the idea that any man can sin causing him to stray away from the faith in mankind. The state in which Brown is always wondering what is real or unreal leads to a life of despair that he

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