In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" the religious aspects of the story shapes the theme. Religion is such a driving force in the world that when put in writing it has an innate ability to bring about a plethora of emotions. A person's faith is an undeniable fact in there heart and cannot be taken from them unwillingly. Writer's use religion as a way to drive across a point or put emphasis a certain aspect pertaining to the story in order to grab the reader's attention. For instance, a scary black dog attacked the man; this leads one to believe a domestic dog bit a passer by. However when said, the ferocious black dog from the pits of hell, hell is a challenge to ones religion thus making the message more powerful. In "Young Goodman Brown," the religious emphasis of the story has a powerful underlying meaning making it exceptionally riveting. The contrast of night and day, the setting, and the characters names are wrought with religious symbolism and are purposefully used to entrance the reader.
             The contrast of the day vs. the night exhibits a sense of religious theme. In the Puritan belief system, everything is looked at as white and black, good and evil, or day and night. Young Goodman Brown stays much within his religious limitation. For the most obvious bit of Puritanism, there is Faith whom before sunset, is at her best. Shining in the sunlight with her pink ribbons blowing in the breeze, his Faith is as holy as a nun in the Vatican. While later at night, Faith has lost her ribbons and is a shining example no longer. Now in the dark, Faith is unholy and fallen, awaiting her baptism of evil. Even as Goodman Brown was listening in the night "then came a stronger swell on those familiar tones heard daily in the sunshine at Salem Village, but never until now, from a cloud of the night." This quote was a direct representation of how the Puritans believed, with respect to their black and whi
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