How The Theme Of Truth Depicted In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown Gone Bad

Young Goodman Brown Gone Bad

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story Young Goodman Brown, is filled with symbols and recurring words and phrases. Hawthorne effectively uses the format of storytelling to convey his message. The symbols are so prevalent that unless one has a good understanding of their interconnectedness, the meaning and intent is lost. Some of the recurring keywords and images connecting the themes are: faith, the forest, the serpent, communion, and the dream. They are used to demonstrate themes of good vs. evil, straying from the known, deception, and how experiences can affect one's outlook on life, whether it is a physical occurence or it happens in our mind. A closer look at the passage from the end of the story that begins, "Lo! There ye stand, my children..." exemplifies many of these themes (Norton 584).

The story opens with young goodman Brown entering Salem village and he is depicted as a good-intentioned and faithful husband kissing his wife, appropriately named Faith. Hawthorne uses the generic name "young goodman Brown" for the main character as a representation of anyone who is facing temptations to experience something

When the figure says on page 584, "ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream," it is a bit ironic in relation to the story's lack of distinction between what physically took place and what was Brown's dream. Brown is told that virtuous nature is not a reality and can only exist in your dreams, but if he is so profoundly affected by this experience (which is also a dream) that his outlook on life is reversed, than it stands to reason that if he chooses to perceive humans to be virtuous, that would indeed be reality for