Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing reveals the aspects of human nature such as sins, isolation, and quarrels. His writings were inspired by the history of his ancestry, who were involved in burning women accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Many of his stories express allegory in concerning sin and evil, and the ambiguity of dreams versus reality. Stories such as "Young Goodman Brown" display these characteristics of allegorical sin through the forest, and the devil and his staff. Ambiguity is portrayed through Goodman Brown and his wife, Faith.
             In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne uses symbols such as the forest, and the devil and his staff to demonstrate allegorical sin. As Goodman Brown started on his "present evil purpose" he took "a dreary road" which was "darkened by all of the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind"(para. 8). Here, Hawthorne illustrates the forest filled with allegorical evil and sin. Brown begins to feel fearful of what lurks in the unknown atmosphere when he states he is not sure "who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and boughs overhead" and that "lonely footsteps" could be "passing through an unseen multitude"(para. 8). Another way Hawthorne describes the forest's evil atmosphere is through Brown's inner thoughts. He asks himself "what if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!"(para. 9) in this deep dark forest. Brown's own question is ironic since this is the very person he is about to meet.
             When Brown continues through the forest for his meeting, he encounters the devil or a "man" that "had an indescribable air of one who knew the world, and who would not have felt abashed at the governor's dinner table or in King William's court, were it possible that his affairs should call hi...