Young Goodman Brown

Stacie Loewenstein

Kimberly Hall

ENG 2510

May 7, 2017

Title: Young Goodman Brown

                             Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

When and Where: This story takes place in Puritan New England around the seventh century. How we know this is the story line of the language they use, “this one night must I tarry away from thee.” The majority of this story takes place in the evening. We know this as the story talks about deep dusk in the forest in paragraph thirteen. (586)

There are six major characters in this story.  

1) Young Goodman Brown: Who is young a resident of Salem, a good Christian man recently married to Faith. Brown also appears to be curious and naïve.  

2) Faith: The wife of Goodman is young, beautiful, and has vivid dreams that sometimes scare her. She is as well a Christian of Puritan faith. She wears pink ribbons as it suits her name and the faith that she has in her religion.

3) The Old Man: He is portrayed as the devil who has a walking staff that represents a serpent. He presides over the ceremony. He prides himself on the godly men he has and can turn to evil ways.

4) Goody Cloyse: A Christian women of the Salem Village who helps the children in bible study. Who also is a witch, a follower of the devil?

5) The Minister: A respectable pillar of the community, who also is a follower of the devil.

6) Deacon Gookin: A member of the clergy who appears to be a follower of the devil.  Goodman thinks of him as a very religious man.

The exposition for this story starts in Salem Village on his front porch. Goodman is the protagonist who has a conflict with good vs. evil. He is a standup Christian man. He makes a journey through the woods with “The Old Man”, whom as we find out could possibly be “the devil himself”. The Old Man is the antagonist we see this in the story as he is hostile to the Christian beliefs.

The rising action is where Goodman meets the Old Man in the woods and goes on to the evil journey. Goodman gets tired and is offered the staff by the Old Man and refuses it. Goodman learns through this walk that his father and grandfather worshiped the devil. Cloyse reveals that the Old Man is the devil and she is a witch. Goodman realizes this in the journey, as well as he notices his friends, Gookin and the Minister, whom he thinks highly of them both are as well in the evil ways.  

The Climax in this story is when Goodman sees his wife’s pink ribbons fall from the sky and lands on a tree branch. Goodman cried, “my Faith is gone”. (50)  Goodman then told the devil to come on. Goodman yells for his wife to look up to “Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!” Whether Faith obeyed or not he did not know either way.