Allegory In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown is a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, filled with symbolism, allegory, and contains a strong central theme. In the story, a man, Goodman Brown is leaving on a journey into the night. His wife, Faith, doesn’t want him to, but he must. He goes into the forest and meets a strange man with a staff that resembles a snake. The stranger attempts to persuade Brown to go along with him; he is reluctant. The man then says he knew his father and grandfather and helped them in their wicked ways. Brown realizes he is speaking to the devil and wants to stay true to his faith, referring to his wife and beliefs. They then notice a woman nearby. Brown recognizes her as being Goody Cloyse. She was his religious education teacher; it is shocking

Brown does as the man requests. He hides in some foliage when he hears two men coming by on horses, one of them being a deacon of his church. Brown overhears them discussing a meeting that would take place that night where they planned to induct a young woman. Brown hears a distant voice sounding like Faith’s and spots her pink hair ribbons. Brown cries “my faith is gone," referring to his wife and his religious convictions. He then begins after the man he knows as the devil, planning to join him. Brown comes to a strange congregation with villagers and Indians. At that place are burning trees and an altar. The devil calls Brown to the platform, and Faith is already there. The devil asks him again to join his house; he also invites Faith. Brown begs her to resist, but he does not know if she did. The next day Brown is unsure if it was a dream, and when he walks into town, Faith meets him. She runs to him and attempts to kiss him, but Brown turns away, distrusting. He spends the rest of his life suspicious and

Faith's pink ribbons, the devil's serpent staff, the woods and Brown's wife Faith all represent different things. Faith's pink ribbons represent sureness and innocence. In the forest, Brown loses his faith when he sees the pink ribbon and begins to consider that everyone he knows is a sinner. The decorations then take a new meaning. They symbolize the appearance of innocent faith. When Brown sees his wife the next day, her ribbons are in her hair as if nothing had happened, making him question if the night had been real. The devil's staff, which resembles a black snake, suggests that the man has a supernatural and corrupt nature. It connects Brown to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve and their temptation to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Brown and his wife, like Adam and Eve, are tormented by the temptation to do what the Puritan community forbids and lose their innocence for a chance at knowledge (A. Hagen). The woods symbolize the world outside, such as outside the village, the usual boundaries of right and wrong, and Brown's comfort zone. They signify something else; they are an embodiment of young Goodman Brown's fears and paranoia, a picture of dark emotions he does not acknowledge. All the relevant figures from his past appear in the woods, like Goody Cloyse and the Deacon. Traveling through the woods is like going through the troubled mind of Hawthorne's main character. Faith also serves as a