Young Goodman Brown
"Young Goodman Brown", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with allegory. "Young Goodman Brown" is a moral story which is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In "Young Goodman Brown", Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community after he meets with the devil, and causes him to live the life of an exile in his own community. "Young Goodman Brown" begins when Faith, Brown's wife, asks him not to go on an "errand". Goodman Brown says to his "love and (my) Faith" that "this one night I must tarry away from thee." When he says his "love" and his "Faith", he is talking to his wife, but he is also talking to his "faith" to God. He is venturing into the woods to meet with the Devil, and by doing so, he leaves his unquestionable faith in God with his wife. He resolves that he will "cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven." This is an example of the excessive pride because he feels that he can sin and meet with the Devil because of this promise that he made to himself. There is a tremendous irony to this promise because when Goodman Brown comes back at dawn; he can no longer look at his wife
" His anger towards the community is exemplified when he sees Faith who is overwhelmed with excitement to see him and he looks "sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting. " Young Goodman Brown in this scene is easily manipulated simply by the power of suggestion. This image alludes to that of Adam and Eve being led out of the Garden of Eden as is Goodman Brown being led out of his utopia by the Devil's snakelike staff. The closest Brown comes to showing an emotion is when "a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew. Brown feels he can push his own faults on to others and look down at them rather than look at himself and resolve his own faults with himself. " (Camps 25) The ceremony then begins with a a cry to "Bring forth the converts!" Surprisingly Goodman Brown steps forward. Brown then comes upon the ceremony which is setup like a perverted Puritan temple. The rest of his life is destroyed because of his inability to face this truth and live with it. As Goodman Brown is feeling good about his strength in resisting the Devil, he hears the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin. After his sermon, the leader informs them to look upon each other and Goodman Brown finds himself face to face with Faith. Ironically, Goodman Brown's faith is harmed because the woman on the path is the woman who "taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser. The leader begins up again declaring that "Evil is the nature of mankind" and he welcomes the converts to "communion of your race". The altar was a rock in the middle of the congregation and there were four trees surrounding the congregation with their tops ablaze, like candles. Goodman believes this is Faith and he yells out her name only to be mimicked by the echoes of the forest, as if his calls to Faith were falling on deaf ears.
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Acceptance Essays
