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Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story Young Goodman Brown is about a man who leaves his wife

to go on a journey in the forest, where he meets an old man who accompanies him. On his

journey, Brown recognizes people from his life having a satanic ritual and gives up his faith in

God. At the end of the story, it is unclear whether Brown was literally in the forest or is it a

dream. Hawthorne uses symbolism, ambiguity and irony in Young Goodman Brown to point out

the illustrate the hypocrisy of the Puritans and to advance the theme of good versus evil.

Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown was written in the 17^th century. In the
17^th century, the Puritans that man was naturally evil in nature and that that the Bible was God's law, and that it provided a plan for living. They presented themselves as, holy, honest and moral people when, according to their teachings, they were fueled by sin and evil. Hawthorne wanted to point that no one is perfect and that everyone goes through challenges.
Hawthorne uses symbolism to describe Brown, who leaves his world of innocence and

finds that evil has taken over his life. The two main characters: Young Goodman Brown and his

wife Faith have symbolic names. Young Goodman Brown symbolizes represents every "good

man", born innocent of sin and trusting in his fellow man. His journey into the forest represents

everyman's life journey, where they have to meet evil and temptation, and have to decide their

true moral character. Are they going to do bad things (lie, cheat, hurt others, etc.) or remain

good, moral and innocent? Faith is a symbol of goodness. She represents heaven and the good on

earth. At the beginning of the story, she tries to persuade Brown to stay home with her instead of

going on his journey. Also, she symbolizes Brown's spiritual faith. When Young Goodman sees

Faith in the forest at the satanic ritual. He says “My faith is gone.”(p 611) He realizes that he has

lost his wife and also his faith in God.

Hawthorne uses ambiguity to make certain parts of the story unclear to the readers

so that we do not know what is going on. Ambiguity can be defined as something that has a

double meaning or is unclear. Young Goodman Brown is ambiguous in many ways,

including his uses of the word faith and the uncertainty of why Brown entered the forest.

The word faith has a double meaning. It is used to as his wife’s name and to describe

Brown’s faith in God. When Young Goodman meets the old man, who is believed to be the

devil, in the forest, the old man asks himwhy he is late and he responds by saying “Faith kept

me back awhile”(p 606). This has two meanings. At the beginning of the story,

Brown’s wife, Faith, tries to stop him from his journey. Second, it means thatBrown’s faith in

God kept him from evil and going on his journey with the old man (the devil). After seeing his

wife “Faith”as a devil worshipper, Young Goodmansays “My faith is gone” (p 611)

The second way Hawthorne uses ambiguity is the uncertainty of why his protagonist

goes into the forest. Brown says “having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose

now to return whence I came” (p 607). We are not told the exact reason why he went into the

forest. Does he go into the forest to meet the devil for some type of satanic ritual, or does he go

into the forest to finish the journey that members of his family went on? Hawthorne purposely

does this to create the setting and to leave certain parts of the story a mystery.

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The third way Hawthorne uses ambiguity is in portraying the night’s events as a

dream. The story ends with Young Goodman Brown in the woods asleep. The story suddenly

turns into present tense and says “Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only

dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? Be it so if you will; but, alas! it was a dream of evil

omen for Young Goodman Brown. A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a

desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream” (Hawthorne 614).

We are not told if Brown is dreaming or not. Hawthorne leaves the ending of the story open to

interpretation.

Hawthorne uses several different types of irony in Young Goodman Brown. At the

beginning of the story, he uses dramatic irony: Brown fails to recognize that the old man was the

devil even after Goddy Cloyse cries out “the devil” as the old man touches her. Also, Hawthorne

uses Situational Irony. Situational Irony is when something happens that is opposite of what we

expect. Goodman Brown sees people he suspects least of having an interest with the devil to be

actually witches and involved in meeting with the devil. While in the forest, Brown sees his

pastor and deacon discussing the meeting they are going to worship the devil. Brown also

noticed that his wife Faith is attending the meeting with the devil.