[In the following essay, Mathews suggests that Brown's passivity—the result of his antinomianist belief that he is saved regardless of his personal actions—leads him into error and doom.]

Almost everyone commenting on Nathaniel Hawthorne's “Young Goodman Brown” has noted that its general theme is the loss of personal faith. On the specific application of certain symbols, however, there has been a good deal of disagreement. Some time ago Thomas E. Connolly re-asserted the paramount allegorical significance of the character Faith and justifiably concluded that “this story is Hawthorne's criticism of the teachings of Puritanic-Calvinism,”¹ though he limited the object of Hawthorne's criticism to predestination. Giving further scrutiny to Faith can establish a more specific probability of meaning, which converts to theological terms Hawthorne's ubiquitous thesis that the most serious personal evil is retreat from reality and responsibility.

A doctrine of one group of Calvinists during the time depicted in the story was Antinomianism,² which insisted that salvation was of faith, not of works. If good works existed, they came only as a secondary by-product of the mysterious divine grace; personal volition was de-emphasized, if not completely eliminated. Grace itself was contingent on the degree of the individual's faith; and a strong faith, which usually resulted in an emotional experience, was evidence enough of one's predestined salvation. According to Perry Miller, one question inherent in Antinomianism was “since the recipient of grace is assured of salvation without ever doing anything to deserve it, should he not surrender to the intoxication of certainty and give no further thought to his behavior?”³ Extreme Antinomians among the High Calvinists believed that “if a man was elected and predestined to salvation, no power in heaven or on earth could prevent it; and hence, no matter what the moral conduct of a man might be, his salvation was sure if he was one of the elect; the wicked actions of such a man were not sinful, and he had no occasion to confess his sins or break them off by repentance.”⁴

“Young Goodman Brown” depicts a man who is so confident in his recent union with faith that he walks superciliously into the devil's own revival without any fear whatsoever. Hawthorne tells us nothing of Goodman Brown's earlier life and acts. Though Brown seems to enjoy a good reputation, there is no reference to his good works. Unlike Everyman, he does not produce them as a last-minute testimony to his worthiness. Only his faith exists, deluding him into passivity. Faith's admonition to “put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed tonight”⁵ suggests that the influence of Faith over Brown is essentially negative. The insubstantiality of Brown's religious faith manifests itself in the pink ribbons of his wife's cap; their texture is aery and their color the pastel of infancy.

Brown is aware that his secret nocturnal journey is for an “evil purpose.” He does not enter the forest ignorantly or under duress. He is prepared to witness evil and perhaps partake. But as an Antinomian, he would believe that no evil is charged against those with faith: “I’ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven,” he cries. He is quick to exonerate himself and brand the others faithless despite his own deliberate act of keeping the evil rendezvous. He has his Faith, and the devil leads him into false confidence early when he says: “I would not for twenty old women like the one hobbling before us that Faith should come to any harm.” Faith is secure at home and is Brown's supposed mystical shield against whatever may menace him. In explaining to the devil why he is late, he says that “Faith kept me back a while.” Faith, thus, is temporary protection, functioning only in isolation. Her own apprehension over Brown's leaving points to her lack of remote spiritual control over her husband.

Since Brown is confident that the faith of his ancestors has protected them from the devil, he feels that he too will turn back in time or at least avoid permanent harm. As evidence of the righteousness of his people and of his righteousness, he stresses the theoretical side of religion with the practical as secondary: “We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness.” Then amid suggestions that his own ancestors have been prone to evil notwithstanding their faith, Brown indignantly asks whether such is “any reason why I should quit my dear Faith” and join their company. Further, he asserts, “with heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil.” The poignant irony in Brown's show of certainty is that he lost the protection of Faith the very moment he left the confines of their cottage. Soon he hears the “voice of a young woman, uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward.” Faith is now not only a symbol of Brown's tottering assurance; she also reflects the lost hope of all who have suffered the Antinomian delusion of the abstract.

When Brown identifies this voice as that of his wife, he declares that “Faith is gone” and he becomes “maddened with despair.” Now, he thinks, “there is no good on earth”; and in the sudden divestment of his old theology, his negative conclusion is understandable. Faith, who has appeared invulnerable at home removed from any encounter with sin, has become one of the devil's disciples. And as Faith is, Brown is. They stand together: “… the wretched man beheld his Faith, and the wife her husband, trembling before that unhallowed altar.” Brown concurs with the devil's declaration that “evil is the nature of mankind.” To a relativist and not a dogmatist, this recognition would be taken in stride. But the inverted Brown retreats. With one final, desperate attempt to preserve his heretofore comfortable doctrine of assurance, he urges Faith to “look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one.” Here he voices the passive Antinomian means of salvation: the union of faith below and grace from above.

Though he does not see whether Faith follows his advice or not, Brown has evidence enough that passive faith is ineffectual. Hence his silent disdain of his “pious” forebears and contemporaries; in his condemnation of them he circumstantially accuses himself. He thereafter becomes “a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man,” and he dies in “gloom.” After his experience he becomes as passively cynical as he has been passively trusting. He knows that Faith has been false; but what he never fathoms is that her weakness (and the repulsive grossness of all mankind) is the result of his own theological error and is exaggerated by his continuous passivity.

Notes

1. “Hawthorne's ‘Young Goodman Brown’: An Attack on Puritanic Calvinism,” American Literature, XXVIII (November 1956), 375.

2. That Hawthorne was aware of the furor caused by Antinomians in Massachusetts is evident in his highly ironic sketch of Mrs. Hutchinson. See The Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, George Parsons Lathrop, ed. (Boston, 1883), XII, 217-226.

3. The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), p. 369.

4. J. Macbride Sterrett in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, ed. (New York, 1928), I, 582.

5. All quotations from “Young Goodman Brown” are from Works, II, 89-106.