Young Goodman Brown Corruption Quotes

Gisselle Moreno
AP Lit
Period 2
9/22/14
Pandora’s Box
Imagine the disillusionment of a child who discovers that the Tooth Fairy is really a parent, and now suspects that mom and dad may be hiding even more information. Often as we age, we begin to question the religious beliefs and political worldviews of our families and societies. Most of us live through these kinds of experiences regularly, and even if they're painful, we figure out how to move on. However, this is not the case for Young Goodman Brown, the title character in an 1835 short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This short story that's rich in meaning came about through the historical context of the author’s grandfather, a Puritan, who served as a judge for the Salem Witch Trials.

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. Ironically, although Puritans like Brown believe in God, Brown allows himself to give in to evil persuasions of the devil like so many have done. According to the dream, the minister,

In one moment of frenzied despair, he gives himself over to "the instinct that guides mortal man to evil" (51). This reveals his true feeble character, he has been put to the test and failed to stand up against evil. When he finally does take a stand to "resist the Wicked One," it has a disturbing feeling of too little, too late (69). This quote is significant because it’s the introductory feeling of damnation of Brown’s awaiting lifetime full of misery. His conflict with the illusion has created a new man, as he described, “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night of that fearful dream” (72).¬¬ His experience in the woods that night influenced both his behavior and his relationships for the rest of his life due to the discovery of the alleged “true nature” of people like Goody Cloyse, his wife Faith and the Minister which have clearly devoured his conscious and ripped apart the high and respected view he once had for them. Moreover, it was a choice of his true desire in the land of evil or in his innocent, youthful village. Therefore, one