What is theme? Theme is what the author is saying about the subject of the story. In "Young Goodman Brown" the subject of the story is hypocrisy. In "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne writes in detail how hypocrisy can change a person for the worse.
             In the opening pages of the story you can see how hypocrisy is already starting to change Goodman Brown for the worse. As he starts out on his errand that he has to run, Goodman Brown decides to walk as Hawthorne puts it "A dreary road darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind." (141). The forest is an important symbol in this story. The forest symbolizes evil and it symbolizes evil because of the darkness of the forest. As Goodman Brown and his companion continue their journey through the dark forest Goodman Brown starts to realize this "errand" that he is running is no ordinary one. Goodman Brown knows that he is doing something scorned down on by Puritan beliefs as he says the following: "My father ever went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs. And shall I be the first of the name of Brown that has ever took this path and kept." (141). So basically what he is saying in that quote is that he knows what he is doing is wrong, but he doesn't care.
             Goodman Brown is hard to convince that his family and the Puritans in general are not as righteous and pure as he thinks they are. The companion tries endlessly to convince Goodman Brown that his own family is not as "pure" as it seems. The traveler tells Goodman some stories of his own family doing dirty things such as setting fire to an Indian Village and lashing a Quaker woman. However Goodman does still not believe any
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