"Young Goodman Brown."

One of the most powerful passages, which relates to the entire history of colonial Puritanism, emerges early on within the story, when the devil relates to Brown the following words:

I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip's War.

As the devil says shortly afterwards:

I have a very general acquaintance here in New England. The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me; the selectmen of divers towns make me their chairman; and a majority of the Great and General Court are firm supporters of my interest.

As we see in these passages, the devil is not a newcomer within Puritanical New England, and his dealings with the Puritan community are widespread. Evil is embedded across its entire history (and it is an evil which the Puritans have themselves have propagated).

As the story continues, Goodman Brown will eventually observe for himself the full scale by which evil pervades the Puritan community when he observes the respected and despised join together in service to the devil. This represents a revelation of sorts, revealing the degree to which the pious and impious alike are both susceptible to sin. This revelation would render any declarations of moral superiority problematic.

At the same time, Goodman Brown's reaction to this vision is itself deeply hypocritical. In the end of the story, he stands in judgment over the people around him, ultimately rejecting them as sinful. But with that in mind, do not forget that he himself walked into the forest and treated with the devil, and he is therefore just as susceptible to sin as the people he rejects.

As Young Goodman Brown, the protagonist, makes his way through the forest, he encounters a variety of people and creatures. Their behavior and words make him think that they are insincere, untruthful, and sinful. The author leaves unresolved the question of whether Goodman actually saw and heard what the narrator relates, or if the story is intended to represent what occurred in the young man’s mind. If the latter, then all the hypocrisy can really be attributed to Goodman.

Goodman believes that the devil is his guide through the forest. What the devil presents to him makes Goodman consider his fellow townspeople to be hypocrites. When he gets back to town, his supposed knowledge of their impious deeds makes him think that even the minister is a hypocrite. He dreads divine repercussions that would be level against the minister for the words he speaks from the pulpit, which to Goodman constitute blasphemy: “the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer...”

Ultimately, however, the whole story indicates Goodman’s hypocrisy. If he truly had been a devout Christian, he would have rejected the devil’s company. This contradiction is noted the narrator’s comment that the “fiend… rages in the breast of man.” The devil’s corrupting influence moves Goodman away from his faith, symbolized by his wife, Faith.

Irony, the contrast between what is expected and what actually happens or is said, appears in its different forms throughout Hawthorne's story, "Young Goodman Brown."  In fact, even the title of this story is ironic, representing from the beginning the hypocrisy often found in the Puritan. Here are some examples:

• After telling Faith that he will just go out this one night, "With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown feels himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose."  In his Puritan sanctimony, Brown thinks nothing will happen to him when he attends the black mass in the forest.
• When the old man calls to him, Brown explains that "Faith kept me back a while."  At the end of the story, Brown, who has admitted to abandoning his faith, sees all others as faithless.
• Goodman Brown tells his fellow-traveler that his father never went into the woods

"on such as errand, nor his father before him.  We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs." 

But, the old man, who knows the hypocrisy of the Browns, tells Young Goodman that he had helped his grandfather when he   lashed the Quaker woman, and he was with Brown's father     when he set fire to the Indian village.  Brown's ancestors obviously were hypocrites to have said that they never went into the woods.

• The man with the crooked staff is also acquainted with many a deacon who has had communion with him at the black mass in the forest.  Goodman Brown asks how this can be so.  Nevertheless, he says, he cannot continue, for if the governor should see him, he could not face him.  To this the "elder traveller" replies, having recognizing the hypocrisy of his remark,

"Ha! ha!ha!...Well, go on, Goodman Brown, go on; but prithee, don't kill me with laughing!"

• When Goody Cloyse and Deacon Gookin pass by, Goodman is shocked that they will attend the black mass because Cloyse is his catechism teacher.  In an act of verbal irony, Goody Cloyse tells the elder traveller that Goodman Brown is really a silly fellow--just the opposite of what Brown expects her to say.
• The climax is ironic, of course, as Goodman worries that harm will come to Faith, when it is he who loses his faith in mankind as he becomes " a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man" after that night of what he believes is his dream.  Ironically in the resolution of the story, Goodman Brown also becomes the hypocrite in seeing others as having no faith, gazing sternly at his wife and turning away from her.

Puritan life is centered on religion. Puritans believe that one’s goal is to work hard and pray daily. It is important to live a pure life staying away from sin as much as possible. The biggest enemy is Satan, who lurks everywhere trying to cause people to do evil deeds and sin.

As a Puritan, Goodman Brown is expected to comply with the rules of society. However, he goes into the woods where it is believed the devil resides and waits for people to corrupt. That act in itself is sinful: his walk into the woods, symbolizes his committing a sin. He does not tell his wife Faith where he is going, only that he needs to make this trip overnight. Therefore, even before he walks into the woods, he has sinned because he has lied by omission.

When he meets the traveler who talks of helping his father and grandfather in the woods, Goodman does not believe his story. “We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness.” He refuses to believe that any of his family could be party to sin. Goodman never considers his own presence in the woods means he, too, is sinning.

He is also shocked and horrified to witness his friends and neighbors in the woods consorting with the devil. But his greatest horror comes when he sees Faith in the woods, causing him to cry in desperation because she is sinful. He is terrified to see Faith there and yet still does not admit what his own presence means.

Witnessing the ceremony, Goodman feels “a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart.” He does have the capacity to sin, but he continues to focus on the sins of others.

He coaches Faith to rely on heaven to resist the devil’s power. Yet, he is unable to resist once he returns home: he despises his neighbors and even his wife and lives the rest of his life in misery. Goodman judges others for their interaction with sin and he no longer can tolerate them after his realization that they are not perfect. He does not judge himself so much when he cannot listen to Psalms; instead he focuses on his neighbors’ transgressions. Goodman does not seem to recognize his own part in sin.

Goodman continues to sin throughout his life. The walk in the woods is only the beginning of his sinful life. He wants to believe he is better than the others and that he leads a moral life adhering to religious principles. In truth, he sins daily when he judges others and refuses to participate in any type of self-reflection. His hypocrisy dooms him to a miserable life.

A critic of Puritanism, especially that aspect of its creed that retains remnants of Calvinism, Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a tale of the woe of the Puritan who believes that his faith will take him to heaven.  For in this belief, Brown is greatly disillusioned.

Brown's disillusion with his Puritanic-Calvinistic beliefs begins when the devil, his fellow traveller claims to be very familiar with Goodman Brown's ancestors,

...I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's not trifle to say I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartl through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your a father pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip's war.  They were my good friends, both, and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path....

That Hawthorne is critical of Puritanism is apparent when Goodman Brown espies Goody Cloyse coming along the path and hides so that she will not ask who is his companion.  Brown, of course, is shocked that Goody is so familiar with the devil,  even taking his staff on which to ride to the black mass, soon followed by Deacon Goodkin.  If Goody has taught Brown his catechism, and the narrator has added, "there was a world of meaning in this simple comment," then her teachings teach the way to the devil, not to heaven.

With he learns that Deacon Gookin and the "good old minister" are also in league with the devil, Brown doubts his original conception of his faith.  Surely it must be diabolic, rather than divine.  During his gloom of doubt, Goodman Brown's wife appears.  When Faith's ribbons fall from the clouds above,  Brown cries, "My Faith is gone!"  But, he makes another grand effort  'Faith! Faith!...look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one." But, when Faith comes to him, Brown looks away from her sternly without speaking.  For, he realizes that his Faith will not lead him to heaven.It is this epiphany which causes Brown to look upon the stay at home,

In his essay entitled, "Hathorne's Young Goodman Brown :  An Attack upon Puritanic Calvisism, Thomas E. Connolly writes,

It is this awakening to the full meaning of his faith which causes Young Goodman Brown to look upon his minister as a blasphemer when he teaches "the sacred truths of our religion."  For, there is little else but misery.

Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the dark side of human nature and the struggle between good and evil in Young Goodman Brown by placing his main character against not only the devil, but the evil in the heart of everyone else in the town where he lives.

Anti-transcendentalism focuses on the evil in people. Anti-transcendentalists don't believe that people are innately good. Instead, they believe that all humans are weak to sin and likely to fail when offered temptation. It's a less hopeful style of literature than transcendentalism.

In the story, Goodman Brown witnesses a community member talking to the devil after his own plans to meet the devil. As he makes his way back to town, he finds that everyone is involved in a Black Mass. The people he thought were pious and beyond reproach are instead evil and celebrating the devil. He does eventually yell for his wife to resist. When he does, he wakes up alone.

However, this doesn't change him for the better. If anything, the vision he had makes his life worse in the long run. Hawthorne says that Brown spends the rest of his life suspicious and bitter. This is a very anti-transcendental outcome because the main character is unhappy, bitter, and suspicious.

Transcendentalism was a philosophical tradition that was, at its core, rooted in optimism, particularly as it concerns the capacity of the human beings to achieve moral goodness. It was fiercely individualistic in its viewpoint (as opposed to more collectivist approaches, such as those championed by the Utilitarians) and was largely focused around the subjects of self-cultivation and self-actualization.

With that in mind, in a question relating to what anti-transcendentalist qualities are present in "Young Goodman Brown", it's worth noting just how cynical this story is when it comes to questions surrounding basic human nature. If transcendentalists looked for a path of moral betterment and championed the individual's capacity to achieve it, this story largely follows the opposite path, presenting a much bleaker picture in which all of humanity seems to wallow in corruption. At least, that is the lesson Brown takes from his experience in the forest: all people are wretched, and no one is to be trusted.

Hawthorne belonged to a group of authors, including Melville and Poe, who were known as anti-Transcendentalists, or Dark romantics. This is because their views of the world were at variance with the views of the Transcendentalists - of Emerson and Thoreau, for example. These writers placed an emphasis on Original Sin and the inherent wickedness of human beings. Thus Dark Romantic literature always features at least some of the following ingredients: the conflict between good and evil, the psychological effects of guilt and sin, madness in the human psyche. The attempt of Dark Romantics can be summarised as to strip away the acceptable and respectable veneer of human nature and reveal the blankness, hypocrisy and evil that lurks not too far beneath.

Considering this sketch of anti-Transcendentalist ideas, it becomes clear that a number of these aspects fit in to "Young Goodman Brown." This is a story that seeks to show the evil inherent in all of us through establishing the hypocrisy of the Puritan elect in Goodman Brown's locale. Likewise the fact that everyone needs to make the visit to the woods at least once indicates that evil is an inherent part of the human condition. We could also say that the impact of this experience on Goodman Brown and his inability to accept the fact of evil in all humans illustrates how other forms of evil can operate in Puritan society, for he ruins his own life and that of his wife through his depression.

During the course of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” the title character makes a number of assumptions which are later challenged or contradicted by ensuing events.  Among those assumptions are the following:

• Brown seems to assume that he can deliberately flirt with evil and easily return unchanged; it doesn’t seem to occur to him, at first, that his journey into the forest might have fundamental and life-altering cionsequences. He thinks that after one night of deliberate contact with Satan, he can cling to his wife’s skirts (symbolic of religious faith) and follow her to heaven.
• Brown seems to assume that he needs to fear forces outside himself (such as hidden Indians or concealed devils), whereas by the end of the story it is clear that Brown most needs to fear his own darkest impulses.
• Brown seems to assume that his father and other members of his family were free from sin, when of course no human (according to standard Christian teachings) is free from sin:

"My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept'' . . .

• Brown assumes that the people of his community are also free from sin (“We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness") – an assumption that is wrong for the same reason just mentioned.
• Brown seems to assume that evil deeds, once committed, cannot be repented and forgiven. He forgets the power of God’s grace and mercy. He assumes that any deviation from perfection is cause for despair, when nothing, in fact, should be cause for despair. Despair, after all, assumes limits to God’s powers of forgiveness and redemption:

"My Faith is gone!'' cried he, after one stupefied moment. "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given.''

Brown's faith may indeed be gone, but none of the other statements he makes here is true. Moreover, his faith can be recovered if he is willing to seek forgiveness.

• Brown assumes that his experiences in the forest may actually, literally have occurred, when in fact the narrator explicitly raises the possibility that Brown’s experiences were merely the products of a bad dream:

Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?

• Finally, after his return to the village, Brown assumes that he has the right to judge his wife and the other members of the community. He assumes that he is morally and spiritually their superior -- yet one more assumption contradicted by his subsequent behavior and final fate.

I think the central preoccupation is what we do when we discover that people are not perfect, that they may not live up to our expectations of them.  We actually do not know what happened in the woods, and are left to suspect that nothing may have happened and that it might have been a dream.  The fact that we do know is that the Brown who leaves the woods can no longer look at his townsfolks with the same acceptance as he once did; in fact, he becomes isolated from his wife, Faith, and his faith in the goodness of the townfolk, and this leads him to live a miserable life and die an unhappy man.

Stated briefly, Hawthorne's central preoccupation is with accepting the ambiguity that is part of life; there is good and bad in everyone and everything and we have to accept it or be as miserable as Brown.

There seem to be a number of central oppositions that are explored by Hawthorne in this short story. Good vs evil is an obvious central theme. Some aspects of this story can be viewed as allegorical, and certainly the trip into the forest seems to assume a greater significance than just a trip. The fact that Brown only has to do it once suggests that this might be viewed as a spiritual quest that all humans have to undergo at somepoint in their lives: an exposure to evil. However, Brown is unable to live with the truth of humanity's fallen nature. Faith, his wife, on the other hand, is able to welcome Brown back with open arms. There is a contrast then between his reaction and her reaction: Brown's absolutism and the absolutism within Puritanism at large is shown to be a moral cancer that saps the joy out of life and leaves nothing but suspicion and distrust.

This is an interesting question. You could probably answer sufficiently by choosing a theme from the story and providing an analysis and support of the theme. The answer is undoubtedly subjective. Consequently, different readers could think that Hawthorne has a different main point. Personally, I think that a main point of this story is about hidden sin. This should make sense because Hawthorne has written other pieces that focus on hidden sin. The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil" both have a strong emphasis on hidden sin. "Young Goodman Brown" shows readers the hidden sins and secrets of a town through Brown's encounter with Satan, when he sees that the people he thought were most faithful were actually in league with the Devil. While I don't think that Hawthorne is trying to tell readers that everybody is in league with Satan, I do think he is making a point of telling readers that even the most pious are incapable of being 100% good.

If you are referring to the main idea or the lesson to be taught from Young Goodman Brown you can conclude that Hawthorne wanted to send a message to those who call themselves "holier than thou".

Evil is a capacity that everyone has. Everybody has the potential of committing sin, to be led into temptation, and to turn into something they never thought they would.

In Young Goodman Brown, a man who always followed the right path is diverted by a strange man in a dark forest in which he encounters those very people whom he once considered "good" turned into creatures of evil.  This, Hawthorne would argue, is what happens when you deviate from your faith (Faith is also the name of Goodman Brown's wife, whom he left to go into the forest).

Therefore, the morale of the story is that our souls can be corrupted no matter what, and that no matter how much you want to claim your kindness and purity. We are nevertheless human, and human only.

It is never made clear whether or not Goodman Brown's experiences that night were a dream or actual events.  At the end, no one ever brings up those events, including Brown, so even Brown himself is unsure.  This is one way in which Hawthorne brings into play the concept of perceived reality.

Furthermore, Brown's perceived reality up until that night were that he was surrounded by people who lived a Puritan life, free of sin and malice.  The events that transpire on that night make him question what he has deemed as his reality in life up until that point.  Brown is now questioning everyone aruond him, including hsi wife Faith, and is also unsure now of his own faith in his religion and his society. His perceived reality was negated by the events that night and, ever after, whether true events or figments of his imagination, they have affected him for a lifetime.

An essay with five paragraphs usually consists of an introduction, three “body” paragraphs that include arguments and evidence, and a conclusion. The thesis is generally presented in the introduction, which also includes indications of the kind of evidence that the author will present and how they will use the evidence to support the distinct arguments that are connected to the thesis.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story can be analyzed in terms of the protagonist’s intentions in entering the forest, in relationship to his experiences there. One can examine Goodman Brown’s character to see if he undergoes any significant changes as a result of these experiences. A relevant thesis might propose that the story is a coming-of-age story, in which Goodman changes from an innocent youth to an experienced man.

Another way to approach the story is by investigating the way that the author presents the concepts of good and evil through the secondary characters. This type of approach would contrast the “good man” in the central role with each of the people he meets of observes. A thesis based on this approach would look at the story as a morality tale, emphasizing that Hawthorne makes Goodman Brown the moral center of his story in order to convey his beliefs about positive and negative behavior.