Young Goodman Brown

When Goodman Brown returns to the village on the morning after the witches' Sabbath, he is very changed. He used to believe that his friends and loved ones were good people with good morals, but...

In "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne uses the names of the two main characters for symbolic and allegorical purposes. Young Goodman Brown's name, for example, helps to establish him as a typical,...

The theme of “Young Goodman Brown” is the fragility of human spirituality. Nathaniel Hawthorne frames his short story as an allegory, and the names of the two main characters, Goodman and Faith,...

In "Young Goodman Brown," the eponymous protagonist heads off into the forest to participate in a kind of strange Satanic ritual that, in his view, represents everything evil and debased. Living as...

Point of view in "Young Goodman Brown" is not as simple as it might seem. On the surface of things, the story is told using a third person, limited omniscient narrator—that is, the narrator stands...

Speaking within the language of Christian theology, "Young Goodman Brown" is a story about the nature of sin. It also examines and questions the degree to which the capacity for evil overshadows...

The greatest irony in Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown" is that Young Goodman Brown, named after a grandfather who was "an old friend" of the devil who walks the younger man to the black...

Hawthorne was fascinated with issues of evil and guilt because his ancestor presided as a judge during the witch hyteria in Salem. However, central to "Young Goodman Brown" is the...

The events that take place in this short story might have been a dream, but they certainly do not feel that way to young Goodman Brown himself. After Brown begs Faith, his wife, to resist the...

However, an argument could be made that the scene is too contrived to be real. The whole town is out in the forest on the one night that Goodman Brown decides to travel through it? The pink...

"Young Goodman Brown" is a key example of Hawthorne's examination of the conflicts between good and evil that -- he believes -- are always at work in the human psyche. There are several ways that...

Nathaniel Hawthorne came by his knowledge of the attitudes and beliefs of the Puritans naturally; he was a descendant of John Hawthorne, a magistrate during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Puritans...

As Hawthorne’s story opens, the reader sees Goodman Brown departing his home to go into the forest on his errand. The conversation that Goodman Brown and his wife, Faith, have merely expresses her...

In order to have attained full membership, the Puritan church insisted not only that its congregation lead godly lives and display a comprehension of tenets of their Christian faith, but they also...

The ending of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," as your question implies, intrigues almost every reader because Hawthorne leaves it to the reader to decide whether Brown meets Satan in...

Hawthorne criticized the ideas and philosophies of Puritanism. In one hand, the elders and followers claim to be men and women of "goodness", or God. Yet, they also teach in the other hand how men...

I see the pink ribbons symbolizing the ambivalence that Goodman Brown is experiencing in continuing his journey further into the woods. The color pink is created when you mix white (purity,...

The old man that Young Goodman Brown meets on the road is clearly meant to be the Devil. Brown knows from the moment he leaves on his journey that he is doing something that he should not, and as...

The conflict is the problem in a piece of fictional literature. The story of the background and development of the conflict and the struggle to find its resolution is the reason for the writing of...

Since Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is an allegory, the names characterize their owners. Goodman's name suggests that he represents every man while Faith represents goodness. Indeed, it is...

In the forest primeval, Young Goodman Brown suffers a fall from innocence that is not unlike that of Adam. When Brown ventures into the forest in order to test his faith, he loses this faith after...

As he travels with the old man who resembles his grandfather, Goodman Brown is surprised to see the highly esteemed members of the Puritan community. As he walks on a path leading deeper into the...

Goody Cloyse is an important element of the story because her character draws attention to how spiritual hysteria can lead to morbid paranoia. The real Goody (Sarah) Cloyse was accused of...

The devil promises that if Goodman Brown is baptized, he will be able to know the secret evil within each member of the human race - he will see "where crime has been committed, and shall...

The central irony of "Young Goodman Brown" is the same irony that highlights the hypocrisy of the Puritans: the people who appear to be pure and religious by day are actually consorting with the...

The story demonstrates that evil is the nature of mankind in two ways: first, Brown is evil in rejecting his faith (Faith) that people can also be good; and second by the fact all people in the...

The depressing last lines of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" (1835) reveal that the titular character's grave held no "hopeful verse": "they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone,...

An allusion is a reference to a previous work of literature or art. One Biblical allusion in "Young Goodman Brown" occurs in the following line: So saying, he threw it down at her [Goody Cloyse's]...

Mood refers to the general feelings created for the reader by the text. This story's mood is somewhat eerie and melancholic, even foreboding and tense. The story begins as Goodman Brown leaves his...

After witnessing Goody Cloyse consort with the Devil, Brown is left alone and he sees the minister and Deacon Gookin approaching on horses. He then sees his wife, Faith. He would see both of these...

The old traveler who comes for Goodman Brown is a figure of ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne's story "Young Goodman Brown." For, he resembles the grandfather of Goodman Brown, as well as a demonic...

“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals the impact of society on people’s lives. The narration is provided with a third person omniscient point of view. The primary characters include...

This scene, in which the stranger addresses the crowd of townspeople in the forest, is the climax of the story. What Goodman Brown sees before him are those, including his young wife Faith, whom he...

Young Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, has two very good reasons to fear her husband's absence during the night. The couple are, as far as we know, good Puritans, even though Goodman Brown is about to...

The short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” is told from the Third Person Omniscient point-of-view. The Third Person Omniscient narrator has the ability to both describe the outward appearances of the...

Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic story "Young Goodman Brown" is an allegory because the story works on both literal and symbolic levels at the same time. The literal plot involves the title character...

The tone of this story is serious and grim, even ominous. When the devil admits his acquaintance with the Brown family, he talks about helping young Goodman Brown's grandfather "[lash] the Quaker...

When Goodman Brown reached the place of the midnight assembly, he found four pine trees ablaze and other vegetation burning. He saw a rock structure like a pulpit. Gathered around, singing an evil...

Goodman Brown has become thoroughly disillusioned after witnessing the shocking sight of people he always thought were fine, upstanding pillars of the community engaging in a Satanic ritual....

The overarching sin that the people Goodman Brown meets in the woods are guilty of is worshipping Satan. Goodman Brown finds them all attending or en route to attending a Black Mass. Because many...

Goodman Brown’s guilty purpose is forsaking his wife literally, and his religion metaphorically. It should be noted that this story is somewhat open to interpretation, as with many matters of...

In early American Literature, the forest is the home of the strange and threatening (Indians) and is also viewed as the home of the devil (there was probably some relationship to the Indians in...

As an allegory/parable, Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown" makes ironic use of the symbolic figures in the narrative as well as verbal and dramatic irony to depict the Puritan...

It is not completely clear who the second traveler is. Even though he is older, they bear a strong resemblance to each other: As nearly as could be discerned, the second traveler was about fifty...

The ambiguity of Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, "Young Goodman Brown," is the very key to his message. Just as in Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil," and his seminal novel, The Scarlet Letter,...

In a moment that foreshadows the arrival of his future companion, Goodman Brown says to himself as he walks into the forest, "'What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow!'" A moment...

There is an ambiguity within "Young Goodman Brown" as to whether his vision in the forest actually happened to him, or whether it was a dream. The story does not express a clear answer to this...

In "Young Goodman Brown," the congregation includes "grave, reputable, and pious" people as well as sinners because even the people who seem serious and worshipful, with good reputations, are...

Situational irony describes an occurrence that is the opposite of what we expect. In this kind of ironic situation what actually happens is so contrary to our expectations that it mocks our human...

Hawthorne was very interested in guilt and sin, in part because of his great-great-grandfather's participation in the Salem Witch Trials. In fact, he was so embarrassed by his ancestor's guilt...