Theme Of Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

The supernatural journey of Young Goodman Brown was purposely constructed to be a questionable event. Hawthorne cleverly breathes elements of uncertainty, to emphasize the importance of the effect and the insignificance of the sole event. Real or not, the Devil managed to sprout gloom inside Goodman’s heart. His loss of innocence was inevitable, this figment shattered his beliefs and turned him cold.

At the time the forests, were seen as the home and witches and devils, aware of this Goodman Brown willingly enters. He witnesses the most upstanding members of his community participate in witchcraft. Brown observes even the most innocent person he knows, his wife Faith, participate. His perspective is altered to a position, he can not amend regardless of the His Faith, actually implies a double meaning, his wife whose innocence he clasps onto and his faith in God which he is determined to keep even after seeing Church members disrespect his God. Brown who once showered her with affection, “looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.”

Goodman’s journey in the woods is symbolic of our journey through life, where each individual loses his innocence gradually, as a result of exposure to the sins of humankind. Young Goodman Brown left home one evening, to take a walk in the devil’s territory, and discovered that sin exists in every human heart. When he woke up from this evil dream, he is changed. He felt “there is no good on earth; and sin is but a name” (392).

These efforts are shown when Hawthorne proclaims,” “Faith!” shouted Goodman Brown in a voice of agony and desperation; and the echoes of the forest mocked him crying– “Faith! Faith!”” (Hawthorne). Using Goodman shouting his wifes name in desperation creates this vocal sentiment that he wants to keep true his beliefs in which he contradicted prior in the story. These tone words help build a dark, self-doubting, and self loathing-tone to show Goodman going against his religious

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!

In “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown is naïve. At first, he is stuck on the idea that everyone is good but still chooses to meet with the devil in the forest out of curiosity. He knows that the devil is evil and a bad person, but feels as long as he clings to Faith once he gets home he will be safe. Goodman Brown encounters several people that he knows while on his walk in the

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.

Here readers are shown that Goodman Brown is trying to stay and stick with Puritanism. Goodman Brown seems to be trying to get over what he witnessed in the forest, and continue on being a good Puritan. Yet when the first holy psalm is being sung, he cannot bring himself to do so and only remembers the sins he has done. Proving that he can not long follow Puritanism and may have joined the religion of Satanism while he was in the forest. In brief, Goodman Brown undergoes a religious revelation while in the forest and must choose between staying a Puritan or becoming a

One of Hawthorne’s most famous short stories “Young Goodman Brown” uses symbols such as pink ribbons, a dark forest, and a serpentine staff to contribute to his overall meaning that life is full of temptations that ultimately lead men into sin and away from God. All throughout the story, Goodman Brown’s wife Faith wears pink ribbons on her cap. The first significance of this description is the color. Pink is typically associated with babies and young girls, which Hawthorne tries to highlight in his description of Faith. Pink is also associated with things like friendship, harmony, and affection, which is the relationship Goodman Brown and Faith have at the beginning of the story.

This talk of devilish acts from people known to Goodman Brown as holier than all causes Goodman Brown great pain and confusion even to the point where he was “ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened” from what he had just witnessed (5). In the short time from when Goodman Brown enters the forest, sees Goody Cloyse, and sees the minister and the deacon, his entire life and upbringing is

This was one of the pink ribbons that his wife Faith had been wearing in her hair. Goodman Brown was furious and believe that his wife was gone. He began yelling, “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given.” (para 51)

When he finds the pink ribbon of his wife in the forest, Goodman Brown’s faith is weakened even further. Again Goodman Brown’s wife is used as a symbol of his own faith: “‘My Faith is gone!’ he cried, after one stupefied moment. ‘There is no good on earth, and sin is but a name. Come devil!

The theme of “Young Goodman Brown”, specifically Brown’s distrust of his own self reveals Hawthorne’s belief that man cannot trust himself. Furthermore, though Hawthorne and Emerson were both

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.

The pink ribbons faith puts in her cap are supposed to represent purity. The color pink relates to innocence and youth. Hawthorne speaks on Faith’s ribbons multiple times at the beginning of the story making her seem full of life and happiness. Hawthorne re-introduces the ribbons when Goodman Brown is in the forest. When Faith’s pink ribbon falls down from the sky, Goodman Brown perceives it as a sign that she has fallen into the realm of the devil.