Young Goodman Brown

             In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," the reader can interpret the events of the story in more than one way. Brown's journey can be seen as either a dream or a reality. I view the story as a dream – an invention of Brown's own imagination to symbolize his loss of faith in religion and God. The dream presented is extremely beneficial to the development of the story, as it gives the reader a new view of the plot itself and the characters within. At the same time, however, it becomes difficult to determine how much of the dream has been affected by the character, and how much is pure fantasy. The dream presented is a clever use of symbolism to get at the deeper meaning of the story.
             Goodman Brown's dream can be analyzed to understand what Hawthorne is portraying in the story. The dream is set in the woods because they are very dark and easy to get lost in, as Goodman Brown is facing his own internal darkness and losing his faith. As he walks further into the woods, he is actually going further into his mind. Each character he encounters is of the utmost religious faith. When he sees them at the witch meeting, he is trying to validate in his mind his own lack of religious faith. As he walked through the forest with the dark stranger, who bore a striking resemblance to his father, Brown had to confront that maybe all in his world was not as it appeared to be. Every person that he had a high regard for was challenged on this walk. Evil was the shape of his father and goodness was his own mother reaching for him. Even if a dream, Brown could not bring himself to soil his mother's image. The high regard for all that was pure and good were centered in his Faith. When Brown asked her to look heavenward and found himself back in the forest alone without knowing whether she obeyed him or not, gave him the final blow. Brown's life was changed in that instant and fo
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Young Goodman Brown. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 04:41, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/73632.html