Young Goodman Brown

4 Pages 939 Words

The Young in "Young Goodman Brown"

When reading Hawthorn’s "Young Goodman Brown", one can note why his main character was ironically nicknamed young good man Brown. " The story is all three: a dream vision, a conventional allegory, and finally an inquiry into the problem of faith that undermines the assumptions upon which the allegory is based."(Bloom, 115) Although Hawthorn tries to confuse the reader with his dreamy allegories, Brown still emerges with one main flaw. Brown’s words, actions, and thoughts are remarkably similar to a child’s. The short story was written in Hawthorn’s early years, which leads one to wonder about his intent. Was he trying to relay a point he had just learned? Struggling to be come a man, Brown learns that there is a darkness in everyone.

Every man battles with change from childhood to manhood. "Faith Brown, the wife of three months, is simply "Faith," and Brown is Everyman." (Bloom 117) Many cultures consider marriage as the last step to become an adult. Unfortunately, Brown has many more things to learn. "Initially, he is a naïve and immature young man who fails to understand the gravity of the step he has taken. Somewhere along his life, Brown has agreed to sell his soul to the devil. Nativity blinds Brown from seeing the severity of his actions. He does not realize that everyone has sin in their lives and there is no reason to sell his soul. Like most children Brown sees his related elders as perfect people.
"Brown’s grandfather, as Daniel Hoffman suspects, has had illicit relations with Goody Cloyse. This is the same grandfather who sadistically enjoyed, as the devil tells Brown, having lashed a half-naked "Quaker woman so smartly through the streets." Brown’s father vented his sexual rage in the violent destruction of an Indian Village during King Philip’s War." (Frank, 223)
From this passage it is easy to see that his relatives were far from sin. Brown’s amazement of the ...