Young Goodman Brown

4 Pages 1069 Words

Young Goodman Brown


Many fiction stories are based on truthful experiences or on the views of the author on a certain topic. “Young Goodman Brown” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts during the early eighteen hundreds. Hawthorne also grew up with all the influences of the Puritan religion and the culture and education that comes along with it. All of these pieces of information are common in the settings and topics of most of Hawthorne’s works. “Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a man who was just married to his wife, Faith. Through his actions, you can see that it must have been very hard to live during this time because of the rigidity New England puritan society. It was hard for Goodman to be able to tell the difference between reality and dreams. Hawthorne shows us the great importance of our faith in God, our family and friends, and at length, ourselves. The plight of Goodman Brown indicates that without our “faith” we are unable to live life to the fullest possible extent. Faith is our key to happiness. The moment he leaves for his encounter with the devil he leaves as a man of faith. When it’s all said and done, he journeys back from that walk through the woods as a changed man. “Much like the ‘journey’ in which Brown placed so much significance, the fact that further doubt was now placed upon new members of the church would cause later problems in Puritan society and Salem itself” (Trimmer 1). When Goodman comes back he can no longer look at his wife, or anyone else for that matter, with the same faith he had before. The devil’s influence eventually leads Goodman Brown to the Devil’s ceremony, which destroys his faith in his fellow man, disrupting the happiness he once had.
In the beginning of his trip into the woods he reassures himself of his love for his wife and his faith in his religion but, throughout the journey, Goodman demon...