Ambiguity In Goodman Brown

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American Literature
Hawthorne essay
Tony Rupena
December17, 2013
Signs of Ambiguity
Everyone goes through ambiguity in their life; Goodman Brown is an amazing example of how people go through it. You have to care about this because everyone gets lost, does bad things, and loses faith like Goodman Brown in this story. This passage will make you think about everything you think is the truth. The decisions you make and the things you think are influenced by ambiguity. Goodman Brown thinks he sees his life clearly and thinks his wife is what she is. As the story goes on, he thinks differently of her and everything else. Browns decisions are what cause him to think differently. Ambiguity has caused Goodman Brown to think differently and make the decisions he has chosen.
Goodman is very certain of his wife, what she likes and what she loves. He thinks the world of faith, Goodman Brown says, “What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married!” (Hawthorne 1). He has only been with his faith for 3 months and he thinks highly of her. When Goodman had to leave, his wife was worried, the narrator says, “he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him, with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons” (Hawthorne 1). She didn’t want him to leave and this makes Goodman think she loves and cares about him. Brown loves her and believes she loves him, Goodman Brown says, “Well; she’s a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night, I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven” (Hawthorne 1). Brown will be with his wife forever he thinks, because he thinks he is in love with a faithful woman. His life, his wife, his family – all of these are thought to be seen clearly by Goodman Br...

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...man sees clearly now, he does not trust his wife at all and thinks she’s a “witch”. The decision Goodman made changed his outlook on everything.
The thought of Goodman Brown and his decision were influenced by ambiguity. Goodman went into the forest thinking everything he had was true; he thought his life was all clear to him. He saw nothing clearly, he realized his father’s weren’t who he thought, he realized who his wife really was - as he traveled through the forest his view changed. When Goodman came out he saw everything in a different view, a view of evil. You should care about all of this because we have gone through this. We have all thought highly of something before undergoing a challenge. Once we get through the challenge our view on things are completely different. Goodman Brown is a great example of how ambiguity influences your thinking and decisions.

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