Faith in Young Goodman Brown
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne introduces Goodman Brown, who doubts himself and reiterates his false confidence to himself repeatedly. His struggle between the evil temptations, the devil, and the proper church abiding life, is a struggle he does not think he can handle. This story is about a man who challenges his faith in himself and in the community in which he resides. Goodman Brown must venture on a journey into the local forest, refuse the temptations of the devil, and return to the village before the sunrise.
The story is set in the forest of Salem, Massachusetts, around the time of the witch trials. Goodman Brown is a Puritan, and Salem is a Puritan village appears to be a good Christian community in the beginning of the story. Hawthorne once again criticizes a Puritan community or the religious community of his time through this short story. In this short story, Hawthorne criticizes the Puritans who take the words of Bible without interpretation, and who believe they are pure but inside the evil resides just as in the people they persecute.
The story begins with Goodman Brown leaving the house at sunset while his wife, Faith, trying to persuade Goodman to depart at sunrise. Brown starts his journey to the darkness that awaits for him in the forest where Puritans believe the devil lives. Hawthorne seems to be using many symbolisms in the story such as Goodman's wife Faith which symbolizes his real faith in God. Goodman leaves his faith behind him and set forth into his journey with his own strength and power. Although he felt guilty leaving his Faith back home in their early stage of marriage, he justifies this guilt by swearing that after this night he will "cling to her skirt and follow her to heaven." However, will there be another day for Goodman Brown to share his life with Faith? Although his faith, described with "pink ribbon," is sincere, pure, and innocent, is his will stong enough to walk though "a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest?" Goodman believes nothing can tempt his faith, not even a devil.
Upon entering the forest he is suspicious of every rock and tree, thinking something evil will jump out at him. A man waits for Goodman in the forest and then walks by Goodman's side. Although the narrator does not say this man is the ...
... middle of paper ...
...en he reaches the final destination where whole community is there to participate in satanic acts, a little faith he has to the community and himself are completely destroyed. The devil has apparently infested all of the Puritan's souls with sin at least to the eyes of Goodman Brown. While he tries to help his wife Faith from the devil, he wakes up from imagination or dream in the forest wondering what has happened in the previous night. Whether the scenes he witnessed were real or his imagination, Goodman believes what he remembers and trusts no one in the village when he returns, not even his wife. Goodman seems to live the rest of his life with misery and distrust.
In the beginning of the story, Goodman is a faithful man who is able to pass any temptation the devil gives him. He is happy with the community and his faith until his trip. Upon his discovery of Satanic acts of the community, he becomes an evil himself. When Goodman comes back he thinks he is better than the rest and judges everyone instantly. Young Goodman Brown fails the test of the devil completely not only because he loses his faith in living life, but also he has no hope after life since he became an evil.
The Devil stealing Goodman Brown’s innocence eventually leads him to a life of despair. All throughout his life, Brown had let the Church dictate his life, and when he finds that it is all a ruse, the foundation that his...
In “Young Goodman Brown” the author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a story about how Young Goodman Brown, who is a recent Christian man and was going to test his faith against the devil, but the devil was not going to make it easy since he test Young Goodman Brown along the way.
When he goes into the forest, he believes he is talking to the devil and looks much like his grandfather. The devil is feeding him bad thoughts about everyone he knows, even his own father and his wife, Faith. Next, I believe that Goodman Brown has had a rough past and in order for him to overcome this within himself, he must search for attention. This attention may not be needed from his wife or community members, I believe it is needed from him. He is feeling overwhelmed with obligations from his wife and peers, and he has no time to decide whether this type of life is right for him.
"Why did Goodman Brown leave his wife to fulfill an evil purpose?" "What was his evil purpose?" "Who did he meet in the woods?" "Was it a dream or was it reality?" These are just a few of the questions that ran through my head after reading the short story, Young Goodman Brown. After several nights of reading, rereading, thinking, and debating I've received many revelations of this story; one being the true identity of the "fellow-traveler" mentioned throughout this adventurous tale. You see, he was not just any man, he was the devil himself.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegorical story “Young Goodman Brown” is set in Salem, Massachusetts during the late sixteen hundreds in a time of religious hysteria and only a few generations after the infamous witch trials. Although "Young Goodman Brown" is a fictional tale, it is based on the cynical environment of Salem during this time period. The short story is filled with many literary elements, leading you to question what did exactly happen to the main character at the conclusion. When analyzing a story like "Young Goodman Brown", one must recognize that the story is at whole symbolic. In the text, symbols are used to uncover the truth of the characters. The role of Faith as both a character and a spiritual element are crucial to both the story and the character of Young Goodman Brown.
During Goodman Brown’s journey, he recognized Goody Cloyse, his catechism teacher, the preacher, and Deacon Gookin is going to the devil’s meeting. However, after seeing his church members at the devil’s meeting, Goodman says, “My Faith is gone! and There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil! for to thee is this world given” (Hawthorne 27). “But, where is Faith?”, asked Goodman Brown (Hawthorne 29). As hope came into his heart, he trembled when he found the pink ribbon of his wife, Faith, in the forest. At that moment, Goodman Brown lost his faith in his family and church members. Goodman becomes unforgiving of others and believes only evil can be created from evil and there is nothing that anyone can do to change it. Here, Hawthorne demonstrates that a naive faith in our family, friends, and church member’s righteousness could lead to distrust. While, “Young Goodman Brown” lives a long life with Faith, he never loses his meanness toward humanity and the evil in the world, “for his dying hour was gloom” (Hawthorne
Young Goodman Brown is about a young, newly wedded man who leaves his wife, Faith, and to go on a journey into the forest one night. Young Goodman Brown has an innocent and maybe even naïve soul and was looked upon by townspeople as a “silly fellow” (Hawthorne 83). He is accompanied by a mysterious, older man who is later on revealed to be the devil. As they are walking, Young Goodman Brown tries to turn back several times and at one point succeeds in getting rid of the devil. However, when he sees that even his wife has surrendered to the same evil path that he was on, he stops resisting and continues into the forest. He ends up at a witches’ sabbath where he sees familiar faces of people whom he previously looked up to for spiritual guidance; he also finds Faith there and becomes devastated. In the end, he cries out to resist the devil and then wakes up to find himself alone in the forest.
The story is set in seventeenth-century Salem, a time and place where sin and evil were greatly analyzed and feared. The townspeople, in their Puritan beliefs, were obsessed with the nature of sin and with finding ways to be rid of it altogether through purification of the soul. At times, people were thought to be possessed by the devil and to practice witchcraft. As punishment for these crimes, some were subjected to torturous acts or even horrible deaths. Thus, Hawthorne’s choice of setting is instrumental in the development of theme.
In the beginning of the story Hawthorne uses the name Faith for Young Goodman Browns’ wife. Faith is a symbol of her husband’s strong faith in God. Young Goodman Browns’ own name is a symbol for the innocence of young, good men, and the journey represents the loss of their innocence. Faith urges him to stay and not journey into the forest, but Goodman Brown reassures her by saying “Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee”(cite) Goodman Brown believes his faith will help him overcome what the devil has to offer and while still maintaining his puritan faith. Puritans believe the forest to be inhabited by the devil and the woods in "Young Goodman Brown" are an obvious symbol of his journey into sin and darkness. Even Goodman Brown supports this idea when he says to himself as he is walking along, "There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree... What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!" As Goodman Brown enters the forest he meets a traveler who is waiting there for ...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown struggles with staying pure and not giving in to the devil. Hawthorne utilizes allegory and ambiguity to leave unanswered questions for the reader.
He describes her as “blessed angel on earth; and after this one night, I 'll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven" (2). Goodman Brown sees Faith as an inspiration and thinks that he could not go to Heaven without following her; Faith is Goodman Brown’s fuel to live. The warm setting shifts once Goodman Brown enters the forest, lonely, distancing further and further away from his Faith until he meets this “figure of a man” (3) who questions goodness and persuades Goodman Brown to see evil. The man convinces Goodman Brown to trust him by deceptively talking of the evil side of people that Goodman Brown believed and trusted including father, grandfather, and church leaders. The young and innocent Goodman Brown is gullible enough to believe and trust in everything the man is telling, and perhaps showing him. Whenever Goodman Brown’s experiences are real or a dream is an unanswered question, but each situation is real enough to modify Goodman Brown’s perspective. Yet, after seeing evil in everyone, the most important person in Goodman Brown’s life remains unaffected by his change, and Goodman Brown cries: “With Heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!” (7). For Goodman Brown, Faith is precious, the angel on earth, and he stands against the evil with Heaven and Faith as his strength. Further, Goodman Brown discovers that even Faith is corruptible and he expresses a profound disappointment when he says: “’My Faith is gone!’ cried he after one stupefied moment. ‘There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil! for to thee is this world given’” (8). Goodman Brown infers that no one can escape the darkness, evil, and sin—not even his
The story is set in Salem, Massachusetts. Hawthorn establishes the story's time frame with the description of the newly wed Goodman Brown as the son of a man who fought in King Philip's War (Hawthorne 200). As this war is fought around 1675, Goodman Brown is entering adulthood and old enough to marry by the early 1690's. The Salem witch trials were in the year 1692 (Scott Atkins). This time period is important because it points out that the village of Salem is in a discriminating and elevated state of religious oppression. The village people of Salem live according to a pleasure-deprived and strict Puritanical moral code, which eventually leads to terror, fanaticism, many claims of witchcraft, and the deaths of innocent people. Any phenomena that can not be explained are accepted as witchcraft and generally questioned by no one. Cotton Mather, a prominent Massachusetts theologian of the time, wrote a manual which was used to prosecute the "witches." This manual spawned an unhealthy preoccupation with witchcraft (Atkins).
...Brown, like all humans, sees that everyone can be corrupt and immoral, that it is possible for people to make mistakes. This is extremely disappointing to brown and ruins him. Brown felt that he made the right decision and did not follow the devil, but everyone else around him did. Even his own wife follows the devil. She is supposed to represent holiness and faith, and she is just as corrupt as everyone else. This portrays how even the church, which is supposed to be holy, can be corrupt. The story symbolizes that everyone in society is flawed and no one is perfect. However this idea drives Goodman brown to become insane. He dwells on this fact and loses his ability to see the good in people as well as the bad. Brown couldn't realize that even if people are evil at times, they can still be good people. This is what caused brown to change so drastically.
Goodman Brown embarks on his journey into the forest with the fervent belief that his potent dedication is indomitably ironclad, and thus will be able to overcome even the most tempting persuasions of the devil. As Goodman and the devil continue sauntering along the serpentine path, they encounter Goodman’s old catechism teacher, Goody Cloyse, and it is eventually revealed that she is heading to the satanic occult meeting at the core of the forest. Goodman is absolutely confounded at the sight of her, as he had always considered Cloyse as a moral and spiritual guide in his life. Goody Cloyse’s appearance is the first moment where Goodman begins to question his faith. Brown's illusions about the purity of his society are finally obliterated when he discovers that many of his fellow townspeople, including religious leaders and his wife (aptly named Faith), are attending a Black Mass or “witch-meeting”. At the end of the story, it is not clear whether Brown's experience was a nightmare or biting reality, but the results are nonetheless the same. Brown is unable to forgive the possibility of evil in his loved ones, and as a result spends the rest of his life in desperate loneliness and gloom.
Late one night he finds himself in the middle of the woods with the Devil, on his way to a meeting of the Devil's followers. After seeing respected townsfolk at the Devil's meeting, including his minister and his wife, Faith, he loses hope in humanity and all that he had known to be true or real. Goodman Brown wakes up in his bed immediately following the Devil's meeting and wonders if what had happened was reality or simply just a dream. Despite his confusion about the events that took place, he was unable to forget what had happened and lost faith in religion and his com... ...