Young Goodman Brown

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Young Goodman Brown

In the story Young Goodman Brown a Puritan man confronts and tries to deal with the fact all of the people he thought were god-faring people infact worshiped satin. His Puritanical background was such that he was unable to deal with the possibility of this and he lost his faith and lived an unhappy life. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, wrote several stories set during this Puritanical time; showing the religion and people of this time to be intolerable and unforgiving. In this short story Hawthorne shows his dislike of Puritanism through Goodman Brown's experience with the Devil.

Hawthorne begins to show his dislike for Puritanism while Goodman Brown is having his conversation with his traveling companion. Goodman's remark that he wishes to go no further in this journey, reasoning that his father and other ancestors had not been down this path before. His companion then remarks that in fact he has been down this path with both his father and grandfather when they needed his assistance. The other traveler tells Goodman Brown of the wicked things his ancestors did and how he helped them accomplish them. Goodman finds this hard to believe but the other traveler says he and Goodman's ancestors were in fact good friends of his. This passage in the story show's Hawthorns dislike for Puritanism by showing how these supposed highly religious people beat and killed people unlike themselves. This shows how truly intolerant the Puritan religion was.

Later on in Goodman's journey he beings to see people heading towards the same satanically meeting that he is heading to. These people include the woman that taught him catechism, his minister, a Deacon, many members of his church, elected officials, and his wife. These were all extremely holy people in his eyes and it was a shock to seem them in ceremony celebrating the Devil. As these highly respectable people pass they talk of their enjoyment of tonight's meeting and some even talk directly to the Devil and speak of wicked things. All these seemly highly religious people seem to be going to worship the most evil thing imaginable to Puritan society. Hawthorne again is showing his dislike for the Puritan religion by showing that many of the most religious people were in fact evil and intolerant and hid behind the mask of religion to do their deeds.

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