The Symbolism Of Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Faith

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” the author conveys a tone of secrecy and mystery to both hold and captivate the reader. Throughout the entire story Hawthorn utilizes symbols and foreshadowing to make the reader question the reality that Hawthorne creates. In order to understand Young Goodman Brown the reader must look deeper into the story than what lies on the surface. Good vs Evil is the overall theme of this story; Hawthorne uses “Faith” as his primary symbol. By the end of the story Hawthorne shows that faith can be the greatest asset to a human being, on the contrary no faith can lead to evil.

Hawthorne uses Faith as the very name for Young Goodman Browns wife. This is a direct correlation to Goodman Browns own faith, initially being pure as shown in Hawthorne’s description of Faith. “And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap” (342). This description conveys a very naïve and pure image of Faith.

Goodman Brown has a ritual in the forest he must

The dark figure urges Goodman Brown to follow, Goodman Brown replies, “‘having kept my covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to return whence I came. I have scruples, touching the matter thou wot’st of’” (343). The purpose here is clearly his faith, he feels it is his duty to turn around and go home to “Faith”. The devil attempts to sway Goodman Brown by stating all the evil acts that he performed. Goodman replies with: “‘there is my wife, Faith. It would break her dear little heart: and I’d rather break my own’” (343). Hawthorne is showing the reader that Goodman truly believes in his faith, even to the point where he would die for it. The term “Faith” is used to identify Goodman’s wife however we can also correlate Goodman’s own Faith to each situation in which it is