e judgmental society (p.191). At first, the forest is presented as dark and formidable. The Black Man "haunts this forest" trying to persuade Salem's citizens "to write their names with their own blood" in "a big, heavy book, with iron clasps" (p.193). Additionally, little light is able to penetrate the thick branches of the trees, and people and their actions are kept "from the observation of any casual passenger along the forest track" (p.194). Hawthorne similarly presents the forest in Young Goodman Brown as evil because it is where respectable people are led astray by the devil. As a result, the lawless forest comes to represent evil and temptation. On the contrary, the actions which take place in the forest reveal peace and freedom. The forest shields people from the eyes of the judgmental society. In the forest Pearl laughs and catches the sunshine. The shelter that the forest provides also allows for Hester and Dimmesdale to openly express their passion. Reverend Dimmesdale is bound by society's laws of righteousness, and it is in the forest that "Arthur Dimmesdale, false to God and man, might be, for one moment, true" (p.204). Although Hawthorne
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