Have you ever watched curiosity get the best of someone, or heard the age old saying curiosity killed the cat? In the story Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates this perfectly by showing just what happens when you start to question those around you. Young Goodman Brown represents an allegory by using religious imagery, character names, and struggles between good and evil. For example, the main characters’ names, Young Goodman Brown and Faith, could symbolize the innocence of youth and how temptations are always lurking. These names might foreshadow that the story is probably based on youth and faith. When the story opens, the first paragraph states, “And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the …show more content…
As Brown is walking through the woods, he realizes that it is his wife’s voice Faith. As he agonizingly calls out her name and he earnestly tries to get her to resist temptation and choose the righteous path. There is mention of “Young Goodman Brown seizing Faiths pink ribbons from the air as they were floating away, he then cries out 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). This seems to be the downfall of Browns youthful happiness and faith in …show more content…
Young Goodman Brown’s faith seems to be centered around his wife Faith, as if she is his moral compass. Once Brown believes that his Faith is lost and no longer innocent and oblivious to the wicked ways of people surrounding him, Brown turns bitter towards the townspeople. Ultimately, Brown turns from Faith and in an essence lost his faith, humanity no longer believing in the good of mankind. Once Brown realizes that even the purest of heart can be tempted to stray from their beliefs, he loses faith in himself and everyone around him. Faith is the ultimate personification of faith and it is ultimately lost, Brown dies a miserable
In Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown" it can be described as a moral allegory that illustrates the puritan doctrine of inherent depravity as the Brown. He tests his faith by entering the forest primeval by joining the man "of grave and decent attire" for an evening in the wilderness. It is apparent the symbols are of a religious nature. Hawthorne wrote in the time period known as the Romantic Period. Hawthorne's rejection of the Puritan belief system is the primary message of this story.
Goodman portrays an image of exactly what it says, a good man. Lastly, Brown is a very common name. A reader often connects easier with a name that they are familiar with as it can create a sense of relatability. Brown 's wife, Faith is given her name for an easily recognizable reason which is to symbolize Brown 's religious faith in God. Faith wears a cap with pretty pink ribbons placed onto it.
Goodman Brown fears the devil and the evils in men, even himself. Rainsford is afraid of the wealthy Zaroff, him being evil by hunting men. The authors write us stories that bring out the deeper fears in us and makes them real. The difference here is that Goodman Brown could have been imagining his encounter with The Old Man or Devil, while Rainsford fell off the boat and landed on an island with a crazy murderer after him. Understanding Young Goodman Brown Young Goodman Brown leaves his home in Salem village, says goodbye to his wife, Faith.
With people basing what they believe as their own individuality on the expectations and opinions, there is no individuality. This is how deceptive society can be to an individual, causing someone to believe that they are different when in reality, they are altering their differences to fit the expectations of others. Similarly in Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character bases his faith on the faith and expectations of others. By basing his faith on others expectations he was conforming to societal expectation. In this instance the character’s faith symbolizes
“On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he would not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain. (pg. 456)” Brown would grow with the idea that all his loved ones are “sinful” and he would be somewhat of a recluse, by setting himself apart from the community, family, and church. The story states that he would die this way, and hardly anyone would come to his grave. We see that with Young Goodman Brown, even though he was sound in his faith, he lost what it is that made him feel free.
Brown died with a lost soul. The narrator stated, “They carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was in gloom” (Hawthorne, 1835, 323). His decision destroyed his faith but also with his wife Faith, which she was the representation of his faith. “My Faith is gone!” Cried he after one stupefied moment” (Hawthorne, 1835, 319).
Brown reflect this when returning home from the forest and see Faith in which his reaction was “ But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without greeting” (70). He displays this further by “Often, awaking 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.” (72) because his wife caused him to his loss of faith which he displays by not praying publicly or privately showing faith in
Once Young Goodman Brown is in the woods, he comes across his innocent Faith’s symbolic ribbon of innocence, it “fluttered down, through the air and caught on a branch of a tree. A young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon. ‘My Faith is gone! There is no good on Earth!’” is Goodman’s last call out to his dear Faith as he realizes that there truly cannot be a person that is so pure on this cruel earth, As for Connie, she yells out at Arnold “Shut up!
The main character’s name, Goodman Brown, represents how good he is and how faithful he is. His wife, Faith, fully represents Goodman Brown’s faith and purity. At first, his wife, Faith, was at home which symbolizes his faith was still intact and safe: "Then God bless you!" said Faith, with the pink ribbons, "and may you find all well, when you come back." However, Goodman Brown would not be coming home well as he ventures into the woods and finds Faith’s pink ribbon, which symbolizes that his faith has been taken from him.
Young Goodman Brown tries to resist villainous temptations, thus the reader can conclude that Brown is not morally strong. Rather than confronting the story's corrupt characters, Goodman Brown just watches from a distance and break down internally. He's constantly standing in the background. In other words, he "deemed it advisable to conceal himself within the verge of the forest" (41). This quote demonstrates that Goodman Brown is not a man of action and thus is a weak and targetable character.
“Young Goodman Brown.” : An Annotated Bibliography “Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. Gregory, Leslie. " The Text of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's "Young Goodman Brown". " American Literature Research and Analysis.
During his journey of sin, Young Goodman Brown and the devil come upon Goody Cloyse, Young Goodman Brown's catechism teacher, and, still believing that she is a “pious and exemplary dame” Goodman Brown tries to stay away from the woman by pleading with the devil “I shall take a cut through the woods… being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with” (3). Because of Young Goodman Brown’s beliefs of her innocence, it is even more jolting to him when she “knows her old friend,” the devil, and speaks about stolen broomsticks, recipes including “the juice of smallage and cinquefoil and wolf’s-bane,” and even the same devilish meeting that Young Goodman Brown and his accomplice are to attend (3). With signs that all point to sin and witchcraft, Young Goodman Brown’s shock in saying “That old woman taught me my catechism” had “a world of meaning” as he cannot possibly believe that a woman known to be so holy and righteous in the community could be so evil within. As Goodman Brown moves past the shock of Goody Cloyse’s actions, he is exposed to the sins of the holiest members of their Puritan community, the minister and Deacon Gookin. While Goodman Brown shamefully “[conceals] himself within the verge of the forest… he recognized the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin” who speak of the same evil “meeting” as Goody Cloyse and even remark that “several of the Indian powwows” will even be present (4,5).
Hawthorne says, “Something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree” Faith’s pink ribbons symbolize purity. In the beginning of the story was Faith had her ribbons she was pure but at the end of the story when Young Goodman Brown saw Faith’s pink ribbon come down from the sky it represents how she succumed to evil and Hawthorne lost both his faith and his wife Faith. The third example of how Hawthorne uses symbolism to show the theme good versus evil in the story “Young Goodman Brown” is when the devil is telling Brown and Faith that they will have a new perspective of life, a life where everyone sins. In the beginning of the story Young Goodman Brown saw his family as godly and he saw Faith as pure but the devil shows him that his views are naive and the devil gives him the capability to see the dark side of everything and everyone.
Young Goodman Brown is being thrown for a loop. Even the minister and deacon Gookin are going to this sinister communion being held by the devil. Young Goodman Brown must now come to terms with the fact that the people who has known his whole life, and taught him how to be a devoted Christian, were nothing more than lying and deceitful worshipers of the devil. During this journey Young Goodman Brown must deal not only his spiritual conflicts, but also the shocking revelations about his family. Brown disputes with himself about making this journey because he thinks that his
His opening phrase in this scene is, “ “Faith kept me back a while” replied a young man, with tremor in his voice” (406). Although Goodman Brown’s conversation with his wife delayed him, he was referring to his faith in Puritan beliefs. In the beginning, he is uneasy with the idea of darkness and the unknown because that is all he has learned is to stay true to God. His faith is all he has known his whole life and deviating away from that ideal lifestyle is a foreign yet tempting idea. This is evident when he says, “ “Too far!