Young Goodman Brown Archetypal Analysis

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

“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is meant to hold a larger truth about society. This story is comprised of many different symbols that work together to make that truth all the more clear to the reader. Hawthorne will accentuate the fact that faith is a choice, and each individual faces a struggle whether or not to accept faith as a part of who they are. He uses each character and event in the story as a representation of different influences that people are impacted by in the process of making a decision on faith.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown refuses to travel no longer with the Old Man and he responds, ‘“...when you feel like moving again, there is my staff to help you along” (40). This quotes demonstrates the inevitable loss of innocence. Goodman Brown at first refuses, but does use the staff―which earlier in the story was shaped like a snake―because he was convinced that Faith had turned evil. The Old Man is the devil and he bargains with a counterfeit spiritual power and gives Brown the choice to take the staff and therefore give his life to him. In the choir of the forest ceremony, Brown was going to stand to G-d, but then spots Faith’s ribbon. He feels powerless and gives his innocence

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. Faith represents the conflict as a symbol of Goodman Brown’s faith. He finds Faith’s ribbon in the woods, which symbolizes the fact that she was in the woods as well and losing her purity. The outcome of the novel is hinted at when Faith is seen in the “Devil’s” arms. “[T]he wretched man beheld his Faith” portrays the fact that his faith is now gone and he has nothing left to hope

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. Just by picking a single color, Hawthorne draws readers’ attention to Faith and her external innocence. He makes her seem young and naïve as she “thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons

Nathaniel Hawthorne was known for his many ways of writing including hidden messages, allegory meanings and symbolism. Nathaniel also brought back Puritan style writing by discussing religion as a main focus in his texts with everyday people good or bad, also known as religious symbolism. In “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne symbolically illustrates the dark and bright sides of characters throughout the story in order to teach the moral lesson of man and the conflict within, the hidden evil among everyone represented in the mysterious man and Goody Cloyse, Goodman's unknown past, and his unknown future with his wife.

“The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown” are two short stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that share many similarities. In his writings, Hawthorne displays a fascination with the Puritanical beliefs and ideals associated with sin and wickedness. Such ideals serve as a common thread that weaves the stories together by using a religious base, symbolism, and a dark mood.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel proves how a young, pure and happy soul, hit by disappointment on false ideals of the Puritan society is expressing a sin bitter contempt. If Brown, when he leaves his house in the village, he is perfectly integrated in a society that

American currencies, specifically coins, have two sides: a head and a tail. The head and tail are different, yet they are still part of the same coin. Two American authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, represent two sides of the same coin: Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism swept through America as a new worldview in the 1900’s. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that asserts the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material, that deals with aspects of nature. Men committed their lives to the study of nature. Nature became a religion. Emerson, a transcendental optimist, claimed that each person is inherently good. Hawthorne, a transcendental pessimist, demanded that man was corrupt and inherently evil. Emerson

He believes that his Faith is salvageable, yet due to Hawthorne’s use of deliberate ambiguity, Goodman Brown does not know “whether Faith obeyed” him or not (395). Goodman Brown awakes the next morning unsure if his Faith remains intact, unsure how the hellish communion ended. His uncertainty causes him to distrust those around him, “he shrank from” the minister and “snatched away [a] child,” from Goody Cloyse (395). He even distrusts his own Faith, deciding not to speak to her and only “looked sternly and sadly into her face,” attempting to discern if Faith is without sin (395). As such, he commits the unpardonable sin, looking for sin in others. He fears that he has lost God’s grace, or fears that others may tempt him into sin. Uncertain of his place and of the intentions of others, he attempts to find the sin before it may taint him further. However, sin’s taint had already reached him. Weighted down by his constant search for certainty, Goodman Brown became “a sad” and “desperate man” (395). His sin haunted him until his final breath, “for his dying hour was gloom” (395).

For many years, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing of “Young Goodman Brown” has been used frequently when discussing the topic of a moral allegory. This story is both a literal and metaphorical journey of a man who is walking to a spiritual crisis, with the devil himself. The use of symbolism and imagery help to set the tone for the reader, when going along with Goodman Brown on his “soul-searching” journey. Herman Melville once wrote that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” has only been improving over time. He said “like wine, was only improving in flavor and body.” This story leads to modern thinkers. It teaches the readers and students to find a deeper meaning, and go beyond the literal meaning. Goodman Brown investigates man’s inborn

Hawthorne writing price also includes symbolism, and point of view, which switch from third person limited to objective.One example of symbolism includes Faith's pink ribbons.the pink ribbons represent Faith’s innocence, and once Goodman Brown sees them falling from the sky onto the dark woods, he realizes that her innocence are no longer and she has sinned.

Young Goodman Brown has lost all hope and is now an empty vessel waiting to be filled with sin. This shows how Young Goodman Brown’s lost of faith has allowed him to be less than human. He becomes a shadow of himself looking for trouble and specifically the devil. In an essence, Young Goodman Brown’s internal conflict vanishes and the story continues to resolve the external conflict.

(pg. 453)” Young Goodman Brown is a man living in the puritan era who has a wife and family, and is deep in his Christian faith. Young Goodman Brown lived in a town that is all connected to through the local church. Early in the story Young Goodman brown would set out to meet a person who would later be labeled as the devil by one of the locals. Young Goodman brown would have a vision of everyone in his community that would show him their wicked sins. “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. In a since, if his dream was true, then he lost the point of redemption, and could not handle the truth. In his story, the truth did not set him free, but this caused him to be a slave wasting away in his prison called

The story of Young Goodman Brown is the story of a tale about the main character becoming aware of the hypocrisy of his faith as a Puritan. Through his travels in the woods at night, he unveils the truths, or what he believes as truths, about his wife Faith, neighbors, and fellow Christians. By the end, Brown loses all trust in his Faith, both literally and spiritually, and refuses to see any good in the world. The beginning scene where Goodman Brown meets the old man has the most significance in the story’s resolution. This is where his mistrust starts to form and where he experiences his first temptations to sin. As a Puritan man married to “Faith”, his choice to continue into the unknown leads him to contemplate and create new opinions of his religion. This scene also shows many instances of symbolism that refer to the devil and sinning. Goodman Brown encountering the old man is significant in his transformation because it displays his crucial decision that leads