Young Goodman Brown
Nathaniel Hawthorne had always believed that he came from a family of respectable, good men. That was until he began to work at the Boston Custom House. During his time there he uncovered information about his 16th Century Puritan ancestors. He learned of the Salem Witch Trials and realized that his great-grandfather had actually been a judge during those trials. Hawthorne was startled by this information; for the first time his family was not as pure as he had believed. He was so moved by this discovery that he began to write more and more literature about the 16th Century Puritans. In fact some (including myself) might even say that Young Goodman Brown is modeled after Hawthorne himself.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown follows the story of a Puritan man's journey through "his forest of Faith." Brown leaves his wife, cleverly named Faith, during the late hours of the night without telling her where he is off to. As he ventures into the forest Brown meets a man who challenges Brown's perceptions about his family of "honest men and good Christians" (Hawthorne 19). Brown is shocked by the appearance of so many respectable men and women in the forest. He even begins to hear the voice of his wife, Faith. The forest appears to be some sort of ceremony and Goodman Brown and Faith are in line to be converted. This scene is too much for Goodman Brown to bear and immediately everything is gone. Brown is unsure of what he's seen, but he has been permanently scared; his own family and respectable members of the community were sinners. Brown is never the same "and when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave...they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom" (Hawthorne 26).
Hawthorne employs foreshadowing early on in his work. When the story begins Faith begs that Brown "put off [his] journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night" (Hawthorne 18). Brown continues anyway, but not without feeling guilty. He says "Poor little Faith! ... What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand ... as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done tonight" (Hawthorne 18). But Hawthorne's guilt doesn't stop there, he tells the man in the forest that the path they are taking is "Too far! Too Far! ... My father never went into the woods on such an errand... shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept?" (Hawthorne 19). All these events foreshadow that some "evil" must lie in the forest, but no one, not even Goodman Brown, seems to be ready for what truly awaits.
Contrasting images of darkness and light are littered through Hawthorne’s piece. Hawthorne describes the road to the forest as "a dreary road, darkened by the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind" (Hawthorne 18). The main sins occur in the forest at night, and the revelations come in the morning. He also incorporate allusions to the garden of Eden and themes of temptation when describing the stranger in the forest as "an elder person... but the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeliness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. This, of course, must have been an ocular deception, assisted by the uncertain light" (Hawthorne 19). Goodman Brown at this moment knows little of the staffs amazing powers. Brown can be related to Eve who was questioned by the serpent about why she did not eat from the tree. Similar to why Brown does not want to venture into the forest.
The names, themselves, are symbolic of the person they represent in this story. Young Goodman Brown is literally a young man who believes he is a good man by the name of Brown. It is only fitting that he is the man who dies from disbelief. The lack of good within his own name and that of his fellow members is disheartening for him, so much that he is never the same. It is also fitting that Goodman Brown chose a wife named Faith. Faith literally does represent Faith. As Goodman Brown ventures farther from his wife Faith, he feels he is losing his faith not only to her, but also to his values. Hawthorne takes full advantage of Faith's name when Brown explains that he is late because "Faith kept me back a while." Faith's appearance is also a symbol. She is first introduced as a beautiful woman "with pink ribbons on her cap" (Hawthorne 18). Hawthorne explicitly mentions the "the head of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy... But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passing on without a greeting" (Hawthorne 26). In the end the ribbons come back to him, but it might be a little too late. He's lost faith in himself, his wife, and all those around him.
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