Perception Vs. Reality in "young Goodman Brown"

Perception vs. Reality in "Young Goodman Brown"

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Goodman Brown is forever changed when his perception of the townspeople he has known all his life is challenged. Traveling with a mysterious stranger on his way to a devil's mass deep in the forest, he is shocked to see his childhood religious teacher, Goody Cloyse, also going to the same dark communion. After seeing Cloyse and hearing the voices of both his minister and a deacon, Goodman Brown "looked up to the sky, doubting whether there really was a heaven above him." EXPLICATION ? The realization that these people, so beloved to him, may not be who they appear to be shakes the very core of his beliefs. Although he is never completely sure of the authenticity of his experience, his time in the forest leaves him "a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man." For the rest of his life, Brown is unable to reconcile his memories of a pious and virtuous town with what he sees (or dreams) on this one fateful night. As much as we may think ourselves different, Goodman Brown is not alone in his despair. We as humans can never be sure of other people. We build composites of the people we know in our heads, based on time spent with them, conversations, actions, and our preconceived notions of who we believe them to be. However, we can never truly be sure of who they are, because we are not privy to their innermost thoughts, secrets, and desires. Reality may be colored by perception, but we can all know one thing absolutely - ourselves.

Goodman Brown knows himself. He feels guilt at leaving his wife, Faith, alone to carry on his evil mission, but is convinced that after this one night he will "cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven." The first hint that all is not as it seems comes when the stranger talks of both Brown's father and grandfather. They both carried