Authorial Methods in Young Goodman Brown
             In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown," the author uses exceptional amounts of both allegory and symbolism to give the reader a vivid perception of his story. Goodman's wife, the Forest, and many other examples are used in this story.
             The first evidence of these authorial methods in the story is Goodman Brown's wife, Faith. Though Faith is her actual name, there is many times in the story where she is viewed as something based on religion. He says "I will cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven" (68). This is more of a religious statement referring to Faith as an angel. Another example is when the old man asks why he is so late, he replies "Faith kept me back a while" (68). This contains a double meaning. His wife Faith did keep him back, but his religious Faith slowed his progress also. After Goodman Brown realizes that the people of his village have captured his wife, he says, "My Faith is gone. There is no good on earth: and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee the world is given" (73). This means that since they have taken his wife Faith, he has lost all religious Faith in the world and that he is giving himself to the devil.
             The old man in the story also has some forms of allegory. The author leads the reader to believe that the old man in the forest is Satan himself. There are many explanations to back this up. The story says:
             The second traveler was about fifty years old, apparently the same rank of life as Goodman Brown. Still they may have been taken for father and son. But the only thing that about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wiggle itself like a living serpent. (68)
             The devil, in most tales, takes on the resemblance of someone familiar to the person he is trying to persuade to become evil. In this...