Symbolism in Young Goodman Brown
The short story "Young Goodman Brown," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the story of a man, Goodman Brown, who comes to find out that the people he surrounds himself with are not perfect. During a journey testing his faith, a traveler, the devil, is able to use Brown's naivete against him. After the devil has his way with Goodman Brown's mind, Brown is never again able to trust even his wife, who is aptly named Faith, let alone anyone else. Brown's view on humanity thereon is one of deceit. The story is heavy in symbolism; and the major symbols of this story are Goodman Brown himself, his wife Faith and her pink ribbons, the traveler he meets, and the journey he takes.Goodman Brown's name plays as a symbol in the story. His name Goodman means Gentleman during that time period, and he is symbolic to mankind(Korb 2; Robinson 3). In spite of his name, there is no proof that Goodman Brown was ever a good person at all(Mathews 2). Throughout his whole journey into the forest, he never makes the argument that he should stop because it is morally wrong. Hawthorne provides many suggestion
When the pink ribbon falls from the sky, he cries "My Faith is gone"(Hawthorne 38). Reprinted in Short Story Criticism, Vol. "The Bedeviling of Young Goodman Brown," in Modern Language Quarterly XIX. 9 July 2000 Matheson, Terence J. Krupski 4The journey begins at dusk continuing on into an increasingly darker and more shadowy world. "The Reader in 'Young Goodman Brown,'"in The Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal (1975):156-69. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism, Vol. The name Faith is symbolic of Brown's lost hope(Mathews 2).
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