Young Goodman Brown - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Mysterious Night

In his story “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes the incidents that happened during one night in the life of a young Puritan man in Salem.  Young Goodman Brown goes into the forest at dusk and after spending the night there, returns to his wife, as an entirely changed man. What happened with him in the woods? What did he found out? What secrets could he open after that night? The author doesn’t give us the clear answers to these questions; each reader chooses the answers that he prefers. That’s why the story “Young Goodman Brown” seems allegorical and pushes all readers into deep reflection. Anyway, these journeys turn him into a completely different person without faith and make his life full of gloom and disappointment.

The main hero leaves his home at dusk. Just a dire need can drive a person to leave his house in such a late hour, and it is exactly for this reason that Goodman Brown presents to his upset wife, who, incidentally, has the allegorical name "Faith". “She is a symbolic of love, as in the love between man and woman, and also the love, faith and devotion he has in God” (Renee). In essence, by leaving Faith in the beginning of the story, he is leaving his faith in God and good. Faith feels that something bad can happen during this night and she tries to stop her husband, but he decides to go to the woods; although, from the very beginning Goodman Brown himself understands the unjust nature of his night journey. In other words, it is not just his wife Faith, but also his own faith that warns him against committing a fatal mistake. This is why, when Goodman Brown understands that even those people whom he regarded as saints are terrible sinners, he loses his faith, “My Faith is gone” (1137). Losing his wife Faith, he loses “a blessed angel on earth” (1133), after this he completely loses a confident belief in the truth, value or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing (“Faith”).

“Maddened with despair”, young Goodman Brown finds out that, “there is no good on the earth; and sin is but a name” (1137). Distraught, he rushes forward and soon falls on deaf clearing where were a lot of people. By the light of burning trees Goodman Brown distinguishes famous people of all classes, from the first people in the country to outcasts and criminals, “it was strange to see that the good shrank not from the wicked, nor were the sinners abashed by the saints” (1139). All this shows to Goodman Brown that in the night all sinners and saints find unity in worship evil. That leads young man in horror. Nevertheless, Goodman Brown finds the strength to resist evil and is able to find the faith in his heart.