The irony in "Young Goodman Brown" is apparent throughout the story. The significant use of Faith, Goodman Brown's wife, illustrates a literal as well as character base that parallels Goodman Brown's own faith with himself. When Goodman Brown ventures off into the woods, he only finds himself regretting something that he is doing, and he can only think of Faith, and regrets leaving her in the first place. Faith is constantly on his mind, and he questions how and why such a perfect entity could be left behind only to follow what he believed was right.
             The forest is personified as evil throughout most of the story, with the act of evil itself as well as the deception of the forest (evil) being what tempts Goodman Brown away from his Faith that he regrets leaving so much. Faith is considered trustworthy no matter what Goodman Brown does, and to learn that Faith, in the end is not trustworthy and innocent is also very ironic because in fact most are taught (especially Puritans) that as long as you have Faith nothing will come bad of you. When in fact Goodman Brown deserted Faith and came back to it, he was only hurt to find that Faith was no longer innocent and had succumbed to 'evil.'
             Hawthorne also relates the idea of guilt into the story very prevalently. Puritan religion, like most Christian religions, relies heavily on guilt to send a point and enforce a way of life, namely, following in the guidelines of each particular religion's ideals. Goodman Brown was constantly trying to battle his guilt for leaving Faith and in the end his guilt ended up to be consequentially damaging, for Faith had left him and therefore he had lost his and Faith's innocence. Perhaps Hawthorne is trying to stress that Faith was never going to be held by feelings of guilt, but to stay with Faith and believe in Faith was the only way to avoiding evil.
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