What is the significance of the names in "Young Goodman Brown"?

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, everyday sort of person. His surname, for instance, is very common. It does not stand out in any way. In addition,  the word, "Goodman," demonstrates that he is well-respected in the community and that he is a good person. The word, "Young," is also symbolic of his youth and innocence.

Similarly, by calling his wife, Faith, Hawthorne implies that she is also a woman of good standing. She is pure, innocent, and devoted to the Puritan faith.

Together, then, they are a typical, well-respected and well-behaved Puritan couple.

Through a combination of the plot and the use of these names, Hawthorne makes the point that anybody, even the most ordinary and pious of people, can be prone to temptation and to the devil's influence. As a result, it transforms the story from a work of fiction to an allegory, a story with a deeper, moral message.    

What is the significance of the names in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Of Hawthorne's tale, his friend Herman Melville wrote, 

Who in the name of thunder would anticipate any marvel in a piece entitled ‘Young Goodman Brown’? You would of course suppose that it was a simple little tale, intended as a supplement to ‘Goody Two-Shoes.’ Whereas it is as deep as Dante.

Truly, "Young Goodman Brown" is a morality tale as he encounters personifications of various qualities such as Faith and evil as represented by  the primeval forest--Puritans believed there was evil in the forest because the "devilish Indians" came and went through the forest--and the "old traveller" with his twisted walking stick (the Devil). Later, he encounters Goody Cloyse, his catechism teacher (the real Sarah Cloyse was accused of witchcraft in Salem trials), and Deacon Gookin, (the real Gookin participated in the Salem Witchcraft Trials). 

Brown accompanies the old man with the serpentine stick and enters the forest where, to his disheartening surprise, he sees at the black mass his Faith. As her pink ribbons waft to the ground, Goodman Brown watches the ingenuous beliefs that he has thought will lead him to heaven suddenly die. Goodman Brown, like Adam, suffers a great fall from innocence.

What is the significance of the names in "Young Goodman Brown"?

The emphasis of Young Goodman Brown's name should be on the Goodman part of it. He is a "good man." He is a man that has faith. The story shows readers this in a very concrete way. Young Goodman Brown is married to a woman named Faith. As the story progresses, Brown meets the Devil and he begins to have his faith in God and in his community shaken. The Devil shows him that people Brown once thought of as deep men and women of faith are actually followers of Satan. The good man of faith that is Brown determines that he will not be shaken because he has strong faith. His Faith (wife) will never be turned; however, the Devil then plays his trump card and shows that Faith is one of his too. Brown has lost his Faith to the Devil. Consequently, because Brown lost Faith, he also loses his faith in everything else.

"My Faith is gone!"

What is the theme of "Young Goodman Brown"?

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, immediately reinforce the religious undertone. Hawthorne uses seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts as the setting for many of his works, which allows him to critique the Puritans and specifically their teaching of predestination.

After young Goodman Brown encounters the devil and the seemingly dark religious event in the woods, his religious beliefs are clearly shaken. The woods are described as dark and unfamiliar, which ultimately confuses Goodman, as he cannot determine if the events in the woods are reality or a dream state.

This mirrors the relationship between the pious and their beliefs, as deeply religious people must submit to a profound lack of understanding. In the woods, Goodman witnesses the ostensibly religious townsfolk participating in a blasphemous ceremony. This one night in the woods forces Goodman to lose his faith—literally, in the fact that his relationship is forever changed with his wife, and figuratively, in that he cannot submit to the religious doctrine without questioning it.

Goodman lives the rest of his life unable to truly connect and trust those around him due to his night in the woods, which Hawthorne uses at the crux of his critique on the Puritans, which is that any religion so strict in its adherence as to not allow natural questioning is not viable.

What was Hawthorne's purpose for writing "Young Goodman Brown"?

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 ambiguity Hawthorne maintains throughout. The story is ambiguous not only concerning whether or not Brown's experience is a dream but is also ambiguous concerning what it says about evil and human nature, and it is the relationship between these that I see as an important theme, and therefore a purpose of the story--to explore in what ways, or if, human nature is inherently evil--and what, in fact, "evil" looks like in our lives. Yes, Brown might be hypocritical; and yes, his neighbors might might engage (symbolically) with evil in the darkness of their lives; but perhaps more importantly the real evil is despair: lacking faith not so much in God but in humanity--accepting that evil might exist but that its presence does not / should not erase the value and joy of life.  Or, some might argue that the real evil is the concept of "guilt" (real or imagined), which can lead people, such as Brown, into a tangle so that they see evil everywhere in their community.

What was Hawthorne's purpose for writing "Young Goodman Brown"?

Hawthorne uses this allegorical tale to illustrate the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials from the late 1600's. Brown bellieves that everyone around him is attending"black Meetings". He believes the people he loves and respects are consorting with the devil. In the end, it is not clear whether it was a dream or real. It really wouldn't matter, what was once a young, happy man is now bitter and lacking trust or joy.

What was Hawthorne's purpose for writing "Young Goodman Brown"?

It can be hard to tell what an author's intention was in writing a particular text, but Hawthorne often returns to the same subjects again and again: religion, sin, and guilt.  "Young Goodman Brown" doesn't seem to be an exception.  Goodman Brown treats religious faith, symbolized by Faith, his wife, rather casually.  Though Faith "sadly" asks him not to go into the forest that night, he insists that he must, and though she seems "melancholy" when he looks back at her, he continues on his path.  He thinks to himself, "'after this one night, I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven.'"  However, this is not how faith is supposed to work: one cannot simply lay it down and pick it up whenever it is convenient.  Brown takes his faith, and Faith, for granted, assuming that they will be waiting for him, unchanged, whenever he is ready to return to them.  In short, they aren't.  Whether he actually sees Faith in the woods at the witches' Sabbath, or whether it was just a dream, his relationship with God and the world has been changed forever by his own faithless behavior.  Therefore, I believe that Hawthorne may have intended this text to be a sort of meditation on faith, as it conveys the theme that real faith is something a believer always carries with them.

What is the conflict in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Many traditional explanations of conflict include things like Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, but these don't seem appropriate for "Young Goodman Brown."   The conflict in this story is between man (Brown) and his unreasonable demands on other people to be what he wants/needs them to be.

You always have to remember that we have no solid evidence that ANYTHING happened in this story; the end seems to suggest that it was all a dream, our "common sense" seems to suggest that it's a dream, but it doesn't make any difference.  Brown comes back to town unable to accept what he perceives to be the "evil" in the people he once admired---but there is no evidence that any of them are evil, just not perfect.

So the best conflict may be Man vs. Illusions.

The Enemy of the Good is the Perfect.

(I guess I should use "Person" in all of these :) )

What are the Biblical allusions in "Young Goodman Brown"?

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] feet, where, perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian Magi.

This alludes to Exodus 7:10-11. In this scene, the Egyptian magicians or Magi throw down their staffs just as Aaron did, and the staffs (rods) become snakes:

When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake. . . . and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. (Exodus, 7-10-11)

It is notable that the rod thrown down is likened to the Egyptian magis's staff. The magi would be practicing dark ("secret") arts and not performing a miracle as Aaron does.

The word communion also occurs several times. While we tend to think of communion as a church ritual, the first communion took place in the Bible when Jesus broke bread and poured wine, giving these to the disciples and saying "this is my body and blood; eat this in remembrance of me". In the Hawthorne story, however, the communion referred to is with the devil.

What are the Biblical allusions in "Young Goodman Brown"?

The first biblical allusion seen in "Young Goodman Brown" is Brown's wife, Faith. In the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25), the members of Christ's church are those who wait for him to follow him to the wedding. The reference to weddings and marriages are plentiful in the Bible; therefore, a connection can be made with the marriage of Brown to his wife Faith is just like the commitment needed to be strong and faithful in membership of a church. Brown struggles with his loyalty to his wife Faith, justifying that he'll be back in the morning, just like those who would go sin a little and promise that they will be back in church later. Hence, the connection that Brown has with his wife is likened to the connection he has with his God.

The next image that makes reference to the Bible is the staff that the old man is holding which looks like "a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent" (Paragraph 13). One might first think of Moses holding his staff in front of the Pharoh and tossing it to the ground where it changed into a snake and ate other snakes.  But more accurately,  the reference is to the devil in the Garden of Eden who is a serpent (Genesis 3).

There are many more references to Biblical thoughts, ideas, and principles throughout Hawthorne's short story of a man whose curiosity of sin destroys his relationship with his religion. The enotes.com link below provides more answers to your question and the second link is to the story itself.

What are the Biblical allusions in "Young Goodman Brown"?

When Goodman Brown meets the Devil in the woods, the Devil has a remarkable staff

which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought, that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.

The Devil actually offers the staff to Brown, since the young man seems already weary. At various times, the staff is described as "twisted" and as appearing to "actually [...] wriggle in sympathy." The Devil touches Goody Cloyse's neck with the end of the staff that "seemed the serpent's tail." He offers the old woman his staff, and then throws it on the ground at her feet. We can likely assume that she picks it up. The narrator says that,

perhaps, it assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian Magi.

This particular line seems to refer to the book of Exodus, which, in chapters 4-8, God tells Moses to throw his staff on the ground, and when Moses does, it turns into a snake. God tells Moses to go to Egypt with his brother Aaron and confront Pharaoh, demanding that he release the Israelites. When Pharaoh demands a miracle, Aaron throws his staff in front of Pharaoh and it changes into a snake (by God's doing), but then Pharaoh calls magicians forth who can do the same thing. The line quoted from Hawthorne's story, above, suggests that the Devil actually loaned those seemingly magic staffs to the Egyptians, supporting the idea that they were on the Devil's side, working against God. In Hawthorne's story, then, anyone who takes possession of the Devil's staff—such as Goody Cloyse and, later, Goodman Brown himself—is putting himself in the same position: refusing God and accepting the Devil in his life instead.

What is the moral or lesson from "Young Goodman Brown"?

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 human condition. Indeed, in the story's very beginning, Hawthorne writes that Brown is departing "on his present evil purpose". As the story continues, Brown joins the company of the Devil, and eventually witnesses a witches's Sabbath. This experience provides him with insight into the more unpleasant side of humanity, simultaneously crippling his faith in the people around him.

One of the more interesting questions that this story raises—and one that Hawthorne gives no answer to—is whether Brown's vision was real or imagined. Certainly, Brown treated the vision as real in his own life, but there's a real question worth asking as to whether this vision was trustworthy in either case. After all, even if Brown's experience in the forest really did happen, it remains the case that he was trusting in the word of the Devil. His trust in the Devil is deeply problematic, from a Christian point of view. The reader might wonder what the Devil's real motivation might have been in this encounter.

That question of the Devil's intention introduces additional layers to the end of the story, which sees Brown essentially standing in judgment over the people of Salem, condemning them for their sins. From that perspective, the real question worth asking might not be whether the vision was real, but whether Brown had taken the wrong lessons from it—or whether he'd taken the lessons the devil wanted him to see.

What is the moral or lesson from "Young Goodman Brown"?

Nathaniel Hawthorne makes it pretty clear what his story "Young Goodman Brown" is intended to illustrate. Everybody has a dark and evil side to his or her nature. Robert Louis Stevenson was doing the same thing in a more restrained way in his famous story "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." In "Young Goodman Brown," the hero is planning to attend a devil-worshipping ceremony out in the forest. He says goodbye to his innocent little wife Faith and admonishes her to remain safe inside their home until he returns.

“Then God bless you!” said Faith, with the pink ribbons; “And may you find all well when you come back.”

“Amen!” cried Goodman Brown. “Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee.”

Goodman Brown is accompanied on his journey by the devil, and when Brown gets to the scene of the ceremony he recognizes many of the most righteous members of his community in attendance. What is especially unnerving is that he sees his own wife Faith in the midst of the devil-worshippers. 

Hawthorne softens his story by suggesting that it might, after all, have only been a dream.

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

Be it so if you will; but, alas! It was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown. A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream. 

One of Guy de Maupassant's lesser-known stories is titled "Was It A Dream?" Maupassant was a younger man than Hawthorne. The French writer's story resembles "Young Goodman Brown" so closely that it seems likely he used Hawthorne's as a model. In "Was It A Dream?" the narrator spends the night in a cemetery mourning the death of his mistress who was just buried there that day. In the middle of the night he sees the graves opening and the occupants emerging in order to revise the words on their own tombstones. For example, one of them reads:

"Here lies Jacques Olivant, who died at the age of fifty-one. He loved his family, was kind and honorable, and died in the grace of the Lord."

The ghost of Jacques Olivant takes a stone and scratches out his epitaph. Then he writes in luminous letters with the tip of his forefinger:

"Here reposes Jacques Olivant, who died at the age of fifty-one. He hastened his father's death by his unkindness, as he wished to inherit his fortune, he tortured his wife, tormented his children, deceived his neighbors, robbed everyone he could, and died wretched."

The narrator sees that all the ghosts from all the other open graves are doing the same thing. They are replacing the false epitaphs with the truth. 

"And I saw that all had been tormentors of their neighbors--malicious, dishonest, hypocrites, liars, rogues, calumniators, envious; that they had stolen, deceived, performed every disgraceful, every abdominal action...and they were all writing at the same time, on the threshold of their eternal abode, the truth, the terrible and the holy truth which everybody is ignorant of, or pretends to be ignorant of, while the others are alive."

Finally the narrator recognizes the ghost of his own beloved mistress who has just been buried here. He sees that she has replaced her epitaph which read: 'She loved, was loved, and died.' 

"I now saw: 'Having gone out one day, in order to deceive her lover, she caught cold in the rain and died.'"

Maupassant titles his story "Was It A Dream?" So it is not necessary for him to end it with that question. Like Hawthorne, Maupassant obviously means his story to be taken literally. Both Young Goodman Brown and Maupassant's anonymous narrator have to question whether they only had bad dreams because they find it impossible to believe that what they saw represented the real truth about human nature. We all have wicked sides, and we are all hiding them from the world. Everyone else is hiding his or her wicked side from us! 

Robert Louis Stevenson was dealing with the same basic idea in his famous story "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Hawthorne also deals with it in "The Minister's Black Veil." That black veil reminds everyone in Reverend Hooper's parish that they are hiding their secret sinful selves from the world.

What is the symbolic meaning of Young Goodman Brown's journey?

Young Goodman Brown's journey can be read as an allegory of the Christian's journey toward eventual salvation or damnation. This is one explanation of why his name is such a common one—Brown—as well as accounts for the double meaning of Goodman: this is the Puritan synonym for "Mister" but also refers to Brown's intention to be a good man. 

He begins his journey with Faith (his wife, but also a literal representation of a Christian's faith), but he leaves Faith/faith behind him, assuming that she/it will be there whenever he returns. Brown travels into the woods, a dark place outside of the rules of the town, where he is tempted again and again to join with the devil (the older man he meets who possesses the serpent staff—the serpent being a biblical symbol of Satan from Eden). Just like all Christians, Brown is tempted and has an opportunity to turn away from the devil, but he follows him deeper and deeper into the woods, failing to reject temptation over and over again. The devil tries to convince Brown to join him by showing him all the other people from the town who are his friends and explaining how well he has known all of Brown's family and forebears. This touches on a popular Hawthorne theme: that we are all sinners.

When Brown finally arrives at the Witches' Sabbath and understands what it is, he calls out to his "'Faith'" and implores her to "'Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!'" However, he doesn't know whether she does this or not. Symbolically, it is unclear whether or not Brown can rely on his faith now that he's been willing to abandon it thus far, just as he left his wife, Faith, at home. He ends up dying miserably, never able to trust anyone again, including his wife. He has lost his faith—whether he has seen the true nature of humankind or only what the devil wanted him to see is irrelevant—and he has thus become truly alienated from God.

What is Hawthorne's main purpose in "Young Goodman Brown"?

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 are inherently evil, without destination unless that decided by God, and with little to no ability to make any decisions, as we are always being guided by our own malignant nature.

Young Goodman Brown did the same thing, he basically exposed himself as a regular man with the same penchant to sin and make mistakes like everyone else, but the irony is that Hawthorne makes reference to the epiteth "Good man" as a way to contrast the irony in the main idea: Someone can APPEAR to be a "good man", but deep inside we all have the same pronness to commit sin and break our own rules.

What is Hawthorne's main purpose in "Young Goodman Brown"?

To me, Hawthorne is trying to tell us something that he thinks is important about human nature and about how we deal with it.

In the story, he is trying to show that human nature has an evil side to it.  I think this is what is happening with Brown -- it is why he has to go with the Devil at least once.

But once you realize that humans have an evil side, how do you react?  Brown reacts by becoming completely alienated from people.  He loses all trust and faith in humanity.

I believe Hawthorne is saying that we need to realize people are partly evil, but we can't let that ruin our lives or our view of humanity.

What might be the thesis of "Young Goodman Brown"?

"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 you could state the theme/thesis of this story --

a) Wickedness exists in every human;

b) Even the people who appear to be models of goodness and propriety have secrets to hide;

c) Nobody is exactly as they appear.

The name of the main character, "Young GOODMAN Brown," is a tip-off to the fact that this story is going to be about morality.  "Goodman" is not so much the character's name as it is a common form of address in colonial times.  Nevertheless, it raises the question whether the young man is truly as "good" as he may seem. 

More in question is his wife, who is first introduced as "Faith, as the wife was aptly named."  Right from the start, Hawthorne sets up his two protagonists as model citizens, in what was a very religious community. 

On that night, Goodman Brown leaves his wife to go walking in the woods, meets a mysterious stranger (suggested to be the Devil), and ultimately sees a group of otherwise upstanding women from the town engaged in wild dancing that appears to be driven by witchcraft and devil worship.  Goodman Brown is horrified to see his wife Faith as part of the group. 

In the concluding paragraphs, we see that this incident, which may or may not have just been a dream, has the effect of shaking all of Goodman Brown's beliefs about the people around him.  Just as his beliefs are shaken, Hawthorne intends to raise questions for the reader as well.  Can we trust the trustworthy?  Can we believe what we think we believe?  Are good people as good as they seem, or do they have hidden evils?  Which is the reality, and which is the dream?

For an excellent overview, see the enotes.com reference on Young Goodman Brown at the source noted below.

What does the forest symbolize in "Young Goodman Brown"?

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 their minds). It was the perfect setting for the trip that Brown (may) have made that night.

For a good comparison with the use of the forest, read "The Devil and Tom Walker."

What are the allegorical elements in "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

An allegory is a work of fiction in which the symbols, characters, and events come to represent some aspect of its culture. In American literature, allegories have often been used for instructive purposes around Christian themes.  The story has a figurative meaning beneath the literal one: a story with two meanings.  In American literature, the best example of an allegory is “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Written in 1835, the story centers on the loss of innocence.

The story takes place in Salem during the witch crisis and religious disagreements.  The allegory includes Christianity, Satan, and the devil. From the names of the characters to the pink ribbons in Faith’s hair, this is a religious allegory.  The story centers on the journey of Goodman Brown into the woods to meet Satan.  He is an innocent, yet he has made this appointment with the devil for some reason.

The trip itself and the scenes that Goodman Brown encounter are vague and uncertain. Brown leaves his wife to go a meeting with the devil who awaits him.  Brown is late and blames it on his “Faith.”[Faith his wife or faith in his religion

This list of symbols and elements add to the allegorical interpretation of the story:

• The snakelike staff-The devil offers his staff.  Eventually, this symbol becomes the medical profession symbol.
• Faith Brown- The references to her by Brown indicate that Brown’s strength comes from his wife.  
• Faith’s voice- Brown realizes that Faith is in the middle of the witch’s coven.  He speaks: “My Faith is gone!”
• Faith’s pink ribbons-These indicate her innocence and purity.  When Brown sees them in the wind in the woods, Faith is struggling with her own “faith.”   
• The basin of water- The basin of water is reddened by the light in the forest or is it blood to be used in the ceremony of witchery.   
• The list of public figures- Those under the spell of the devil includes Brown’s own family, his teacher, the minister and most of the prominent people in Salem. These were people that Brown thought were righteous in their lives.
• The black cloud-When Brown looks to the heavens to ask God to intercede for him, a black cloud prevents him from being able to look to the skies.

Hawthorne uses colors to represent various qualities of man: the pink of innocence; the black of evil; the red of the witches’ coven, and gray for those who are caught under the suspicious of evil.

When Brown returns to town, the reader nor Brown is not sure if the previous night’s events were dreams or actual events.

…he [Brown] spied the hand of Faith, with the pink ribbons, gazing anxiously forth, and bursting into such joy at sight of him that she almost kissed her husband before the whole village. But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.

Brown turns his back on everything that he had valued and loved the day before.  He changes forever and hardens his heart against everyone.  He looks for corruption behind every bush.  Young Goodman Brown never recognizes that it his soul that has become immoral and blind to God.  

What are the allegorical elements in "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

The pink ribbons Faith wears in her cap at the very beginning of the story are mentioned three times in the first six paragraphs alone, and so this is a good clue that they are symbolic.  Because Young Goodman Brown is going into the forest to meet the Devil, and because he is clearly relying on Faith's goodness to help redeem him, saying "'after this one night, I"ll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven,'" the pink ribbons seem to be symbolic of her innocence and goodness.  Further, when Brown later sees one of these ribbons on a tree branch near the witches' Sabbath, he cries, "'My Faith is gone!'" linking her ribbons to her innocence once again.  If she is attending the witches' Sabbath, then her innocence surely is as lost as her ribbon is.

Moreover, the old man Brown meets with in the forest carries a staff "which bore the likeness of a great black snake" that seemed so real that it appeared to be a "living serpent."  Because the Devil appeared in the shape of a snake or serpent to Eve in the Garden of Eden, snakes are often symbolic of evil.  This symbolism is appropriate here since we later learn that the old man is the Devil.

In addition, the fact that Brown enters the forest in order to meet with the devil, and because it is the setting for the witches' Sabbath they attend, the forest can be read as a symbol as well: a symbol of temptation, since it is here that Brown and Faith are both tempted by the Devil and all of their peers to join them in sinfulness and vice.

What does Faith symbolize in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a complex tale of a young Puritan man's decision to leave his wife and village and walk into the surrounding forest. Although the reason for this dangerous journey is ambiguously described first as "his present evil purpose," we learn later that he is taking a walk on the dark side to test his faith in his Puritan belief system, accompanied by a guide who turns out to be Satan. The journey, of course, may actually be taking place in his troubled mind in the form of a dream vision, but for Goodman Brown, the experience is real.

Young Goodman Brown's wife is Faith, whose name serves both to denote her role as wife and as an emblem of a 17th century Puritan's belief system. When she attempts to dissuade Goodman Brown from his journey, we learn that she, too, is troubled:

"Dearest heart," whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "pr'ythee, put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she's afeard of herself, sometimes. Pray, tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year!"

Faith refers here to the Puritan belief that Satan is able to visit dreamers and tempt them into unrighteous behavior because their will power is weakened during sleep, and Faith is expressing her concern that, if left alone, she might succumb to temptation. Hawthorne is cleverly sowing seeds of doubt about Faith's faith before Brown even begins to test his own faith. Hawthorne also implies, with "all the nights in the year," that the journey is taking place on All Hallow's Eve, a night when Satan might be more active than usual. Goodman Brown, however, believes that Faith's belief system is stronger than his, and he assures himself that "Well; she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night, I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven."

The story culminates at a witches' ceremony in which Goodman Brown believes he encounters Faith, and in an attempt to save her, he cries,

"Faith! Faith!" cried the husband. "Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!"

In Brown's imagination, his faith and his wife Faith are in equal jeopardy during Brown's experience, and Hawthorne creates additional ambiguity when he notes that "whether Faith obeyed he knew not."

Goodman Brown's wife Faith is, despite the dream vision Brown experiences, the embodiment of a conventional Puritan belief system. Brown's challenging of that belief system, however, is so pervasive that he imputes to Faith his own loss of faith, and, as Hawthorne describes Brown's life following this experience, "they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom."

What does Faith symbolize in "Young Goodman Brown"?

An often overlooked theme in "Young Goodman Brown" (and in "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Birthmark," and other works) is the victimization of the female characters. For example, through no fault of her own, Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, who serves as the symbol of pure and uncomplicated Christian faith in the story, suffers not only the loss of her husband when Brown returns from his vision in the forest but also the loss of all future happiness. Brown's inability to reconcile the internal conflict created by a repressive belief system and normal human desires utterly destroys Faith's happiness for the rest of her life. An analysis of the principal women in "The Minister's Black Veil" and "The Birthmark" will uncover a similar fate.

Through the story "Young Goodman Brown," what message does the author give us? (i.e. What is the theme of the story?)

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, the ambiguity of Puritanism is exposed.  And, with this exposure comes the theme of the hypocrisy of Puritanism in which one never is certain whether one is "elect" or "condemned."

The main ambiguity of "Young Goodman Brown" arises from the question posed by Hawthorne as narrator:

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

If the experience of witnessing the black mass is real, Brown loses faith in the Puritan community because they are hypocrites.  However, if he has merely dreamed "a wild dream of a witch-meeting," then his loss of faith is of his own doing; it is because of the depravity of his own soul, his own hypocrisy, and not because of the actions of others.  At any rate, as a Puritan, it is "a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man" that Brown becomes because of the uncertainty of Puritanism in which virtue is only a dream. Blinded by his Puritan-Calvinistic conflict, becomes a hoary hypocrite who in his own secret sins sees sins in others:

...they carved no hopeful verse uon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.

Through the story "Young Goodman Brown," what message does the author give us? (i.e. What is the theme of the story?)

To me, the main themes of this story are that A) all people have the capacity to be evil somewhere within them and B) that we must not lose faith in other people simply because they are capable of doing evil.

In the story, Young Goodman Brown has no choice but to do into the woods.  This (you can argue) shows us that he has this evil part of him that cannot be completely resisted.  All people have this, as is shown by the fact that everyone else is there in the forest as well.

But Brown does not have to react the way he does.  Faith, his wife, does not react in this way.  She has faith -- she knows that he is mostly good and continues to accept and love him.  Sadly for him, Brown cannot do the same.  Instead, he becomes disenchanted and alienated from his community and even his wife.  This shows us that we must accept our flaws and those of others if we are to lead a happy life.

We are flawed beings and we must accept that and live with that reality.

What is the message of "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

“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 a young Puritan and his wife Faith who have been married only three months. 

The story uses three events from history to add to the reality of the story:  1675 Indian and colonists fights; the Salem Witch trials of 1692; and the attempt to make illegal Quakerism.  These historical references are utilized to create an atmosphere making it feasible for the story’s events to happen.  The setting of the story Salem village has a dubious history.  This legacy integrates the historical roots of Goodman Brown’s fascination with the devil and the dark side.

There is no way to judge if the events in the forest really happened. What is apparent is that Brown functions as “every man” for Hawthorne. In many of his stories, Hawthorne emphasized the idea that man is continually tempted and is most likely to succumb to that temptation. Men are suspicious by nature, and curiousity often leads them down the wrong path. Representing society in general, Brown demonstrates that from Biblical time until the present day, man must fight the battle of “good versus evil.” Many times, evils finds the upper hand.

Before the story begins, the reader learns that Goodman Brown has made a decision to meet with the devil in the forest. His young wife begs him not to go. Basically, naïve in his understanding of human nature, Brown bases his religious beliefs on the inscrutability of those around him. He depends too much on other people and their incorruptibility.  Dismayed when he sees that others in his congregation have been perverted by this devil’s coven, Brown is forever changed.  

Hawthorne’s suggests that true religious beliefs come from the individual’s faith and relationship with God; and it should not be influenced by other people’s moral principles.  Goodman Brown’s faith becomes weakened when he suspicions that others around him are in league with the devil. 

Instead of strengthening his resolve and faith, Brown chooses to sever his relationships and loose his faith in his beloved Faith and even God. The themes that Hawthorne often wrote about include the failure of established religion and in particular Puritanism; furthermore, his stories nearly always offer up temptation to the main character who usually succumbs to that compulsion.

Goodman Brown then represents all men who go from the light of righteousness to the gloom of evil and moral decay.  Brown hears two men in the forest and recognizes their voices.  They are the minister of his church and Deacon Gookin who speaks:

Of the two reverend sir, I had rather miss an ordination dinner than to-night’s meeting.  They tell me that some of our community are to be here from beyond…Moreover, there is to be a goodly young woman to be taken into communion. 

This communication astounds Brown that such Godly men would cavort with the devil.  The devil tells Brown and Faith that their eyes will be opened to the evil around them.  Brown returns from the forest to find that all of his joy has been taken away. He becomes suspicious of everyone even the woman he loves.

What is the message of "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?

Young Goodman Brown grows rigid, distrustful, gloomy, and unhappy because he has a sudden realization early in his adulthood that the people he has admired and idolized have a capacity for evil. This revelation comes to him as he either dreams of going or really does go to a satanic ritual in the woods near his home. On his way there, for example, he meets up with Goody Cloyse, who taught him catechism. He has viewed her all his life as a paragon of goodness, so he is shocked to see she has another side. He sees his pastor, too, and other upright Puritan townspeople. His biggest shock comes, however, when he finds his young wife, Faith, at the worship site. He has perceived her as all goodness and purity.

While going to a satanic service might be a dramatic way to come face to face with reality, Young Goodman Brown has had a common experience: as he matures, he realizes that people are rounded and dimensional, a mix of good and evil. The message of the story is that if we don't accept this fact and love the people around us despite their flaws, we will become bitter and unhappy.

What are the allegorical elements in "Young Goodman Brown"?

In allegories, characters are representative of certain traits.  For instance, Goody Cloyse, the Catechist, and Deacon Gookin--names of real people who participated in the Salem Witchcraft Trials--go into the forest and participate in the Black Mass.  Thus, they represent the sanctimonious hypocrites among the Puritans.  Young Goodman Brown's name is, of course, ironic.  He certainly perceives himself as good, but his rejection of his wife and others after he has formed his judgment demonstrates his lack of goodness.  For he is the quintessential Puritan that Hawthorne abhors:  he concludes that all human beings are hopelessly corrupt, totally damned, and must, therefore, be rejected. Brown's wife Faith and her pink ribbons represent the naivete of Brown's own faith in the beginning of the allegory.

How is Goodman Brown's name symbolic in the story?

"Goodman" was a title used at that time to designate the "master" of a household. Beyond this neutral meaning, Hawthorne uses it as symbol of Brown's inherent goodness, at least at the start of the tale. He is a good man seduced by the mysterious stranger into the excursion through the forest that changes Brown's view of other people, and thus everything in his life.

Brown is convinced by the visions he is shown that the whole world is evil. The title of "Goodman" then becomes both ironic and a continuing symbol of Brown's intended perfectionism and of his judgement of others. The whole message of not only this story, but much of Hawthorne's work overall, is arguably that since no one in the world is perfect, no individual has a right to condemn others. In doing just that, including the rejection of his wife Faith (also with an obviously metaphorical name), Goodman Brown takes the wrong path, and in his supposed goodness and purity he now embodies the opposite of those concepts.

What are the issues presented in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown" is ultimately about temptation, the struggle between good and evil, and the loss of faith.

The story centers on young Goodman Brown as he wrestles with trying to rectify what he perceives as the need for public goodness with his own personal record of wickedness. The plot centers around young Goodman Brown leaving his wife, Faith, one evening to meet the Devil in the woods. After his journey he is unsure if he has in fact met the Devil but the rest of his life is consumed with trying to rectify and understand those around him, growing more and more cynical and distrusting of everyone with whom he comes into contact, particularly his wife Faith.

What is a symbol used in "Young Goodman Brown" and how does it relate to today's world?

Another significant symbol in "Young Goodman Brown" is the staff that the old traveler carries made in

...the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.

Hawthorne himself hints at the devilish connection of the "fellow-traveller" who accompanies Brown by describing him as "he of the serpent." That he is preternatural is also suggested by his allusion to Goodman's father and grandfather, the constable who whipped a Quaker woman.

When the old man offers Goody Cloyse his staff and throws it upon the ground, it "assumed life, being one of the rods which its owner had formerly lent to the Egyptian magi" and it and Goody Cloyse disappear.  Then, after Goodman discovers Faith at the black mass in the forest, he cries out in despair, "My Faith is gone!"; the devilish old man offers Goodman his staff, Goodman grasps it, and "seemed to fly along the forest path rather than to walk or run." This act of Goodman signifies his embracing of sin and evil:

But he was himself the chief horror of the scene, and shrank not from its other horrors.

From then on it is a man without any hope for goodness in anyone that a stern and distrustful Brown is as he perceives the Puritan minister as "a gray blasphemer." Like Adam who also obeyed the serpent, Brown suffers a fall from innocence after he embraces the serpent-like staff.

What is a symbol used in "Young Goodman Brown" and how does it relate to today's world?

The symbol of the forest in "Young Goodman Brown" is one where exploration within the individual takes place.  It is a symbol where Goodman Brown enters as one man and leaves as another.  The woods themselves are shown to be a realm where unforeseen and the unknown exist:

He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveler knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.

The initial fears that Brown has of a "devilish Indian" or "the devil himself" are only amplified realities of the description of the forest.  It represents the realm of where the individual is alone, forced to exist only with their own values.  The individual is left to confront almost insurmountable forces.  The further Brown goes into the woods, the more scared he is and the more tentative he is.  The woods claims to have met more of his relatives, reflecting how the woods claims all and is more expansive than the individual can ever know.  The woods is a realm in which Brown is tested and twisted.  What was once believed to be true is open to scrutiny, and totalizing reality is transformed in the face of "the other."  Brown comes to see reality in a much different light because of the woods, a setting where "Evil is the nature of mankind" as a reality displayed to him.  Brown is forever changed as a result of what happens in the woods, forever scarred and never able to quite recover from his experience in it.  The woods makes Brown left "in that saddest of all prisons, his own heart."

I think that an interesting representation of the woods can be the internet.  There are interesting parallels that can emerge.  Like the woods, the internet is widely expansive and its path is far from absolute.  Individuals can literally become lost in the internet just like Brown fears loss in the woods. Given the amount of what is in cyberspace, one can find visions of "the devil" in different forms.  Freedom on the internet can bring an individual directly confronting realities that test one's faith in mankind.  In different settings, the internet can be "all as lonely as could be."  There are many avenues on the information superhighway that embody a sense of loneliness and isolation.  Like Brown himself, the traveller on the internet, "knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead."  So many "hide behind the screen" that the modern individual does not know what threats lurk. The "unseen multitude" who use the internet at any given time enhances its parallel to the forest.  Like Brown's voyage into the woods, one has to be firm and completely resolute in their voyage on the internet. It is so easy to become lost that individuals must be guided by a sense of purpose. While Brown's voyage into the woods is spiritual and his own spiritual understanding is altered as a result, the symbolic function of the internet is much the same. Without a steely resolve, one's beliefs and purpose can become radically transformed.  With the web's potential threats, one can become immersed in a similar "saddest" of prisons.

What quotes in "Young Goodman Brown" show Hawthorne's ambiguous interpretation of the theme?

This is a great topic to explore in this story and to understand the answer to the question directly leads to understanding of the story as a whole.  In several places in the story the narrator relates some detail, but then suggests that it may not have been real, thus creating a mysterious and ambiguous element.  For example, when Goodman Brown first sees the Old Man with the walking stick he comments that the walking stick writhed like a snake, but then he immediately backs away from that statement saying, "it must have been an ocular deception."  With this, he is leaving the idea open-ended.  Was it real or not?  Who knows.  Another example is when he relates the scene of the witch meeting.  He gives lots of great details, but then he continually questions exactly what he sees.  He wonders if that person over there is his father; is that other one his mother?  He never comes to a conclusion, so we are left to wonder who or what he is seeing.  He frequently asks himself questions such as, "Can this be so?"

The ultimate point of the story is in the final section in the aftermath of the witch meeting.  Even though Goodman Brown has saved himself and not joined the assembly, he is forever changed by the "experience," and at that point the narrator asks the most important question of the story:  "Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?" (or had it all really happened).  That is THE question of the story!  But what is important to realize is that it doesn't really matter whether it happened or not because that night, real or not, changed Brown into a bitter and haunted man who can now only see and assume the worst in people after thinking he saw them all partaking in an evil scene.  The ambiguousness of the story leaves the reader a bit frustrated, but Hawthorne's technique guarded against his audience thinking to themselves, "That could never happen, therefore it is stupid."  Through the ambiguity, he actually makes it very clear that real or not, the experience matters very much, especially to Goodman Brown.

What is the lesson to be learned from "Young Goodman Brown"?

This question is asking for an individual reader's opinion, so you can feel free to answer with what you think and defend it. Personally, I feel that the story is teaching readers about hidden sin. That shouldn't come as a surprise considering that Hawthorne is the author. The hidden sin motif can be found in other literary pieces by him. The Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil" both thematically include hidden sin. "Young Goodman Brown" shows readers and Brown that everybody has sins that they try to cover up. The story does take it to an extreme by showing Brown that people he once thought virtuous are actually in league with the devil; however, the story does show that even the holiest people in a community are not perfect. What is unfortunate is that Brown loses a great deal of his personal faith through learning this lesson.

How is the theme of good and evil presented in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Clearly, the theme of good and evil and the rather porous boarder that lies between these two states is a key theme of this tale. One way of tackling this theme might be to look at how the Devil interprets the past actions of Goodman Brown's family.

Like so many of Hawthorne's short tales, this story is rich in allegorical overtones, in that it is clear that the characters and actions stand for abstract qualities. As Goodman Brown sets off on his journey into the woods, a "fellow-traveller" journeys with him, who it is clear is the Devil. The journey into the forest itself has allegorical significance, as is made clear when Goodman Brown responds to the invitation of the Devil to go deeper into the woods:

"Too far, too far!" exclaimed the goodman, unconsciously resuming his walk. "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-"

It is clear then that Goodman Brown is proud and convinced of his own "goodness", as represented by his name, for he, in his own imaginings, at least, is a "good man." The journey into the woods, therefore, is representative of engaging with evil. However, note how the Devil responds to this protestation of goodness:

"Such company, thou wouldst say," observed the elder person, interpreting his pause. "Well said, Goodman Brown! 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 you 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. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight. I would fain be friends with you for their sake."

Key to this story, and so many of Hawthorne's tales, is the idea of the darkness of humanity, however sinless it pretends to be. Hawthorne makes it clear that sin touches everyone, including the supposedly "Goodman" Brown. You might find it interesting to compare this short tale to another one of Hawthorne's gems: "The Minister's Black Veil", which likewise touches on this theme of the universal sinfulness of humanity. Hope this helps you with your talk. Good luck!

What are the symbols and allegory present in "Young Goodman Brown"?

An allegory is a story with a moral message. The author uses symbols to help reveal the theme. The main message of this story is often said to be Hawthorne's rejection of the Puritan belief system, which was a belief in predestination---a person is saved and goes to heaven not on the basis of what he does, necessarily, but on whether God chooses to save him. However, people that have been chosen by God will act like in Godly ways. Obiviously, his can leave one in doubt about their salvation, as Goodman Brown discovers. The symbols in the story include Brown's name. It is a common name and he is meant to represent the common man. His wife's name, Faith, is also significant. She makes him late for his meeting ("Faith kept me back awhile.") However, her pink ribbons, which represent innocence, are left behind while she attends the forest meeting with the Devil. So, after his forest experience, Brown does not know whether to believe in "Faith" or not. The old man Brown meets is obviously the devil. The first clue is his staff which looks like a serpent. In Western literature, the forest is often a symbol for the unknown or the far corners of the mind. Thus, Brown's walk with the devil is a spiritual journey in which he moves from from innocence to recognizing that evil exists in the hearts of everyone.

What did you like and dislike about "Young Goodman Brown"?

I especially liked the way Hawthorne revealed that all the righteous people of the village had evil desires which they concealed from everybody else. Young Goodman Brown and his wife Faith are both model citizens who have an ideal marriage. Brown's wife does not realize that her eminently respectable husband plans to attend some kind of devil-worshipping orgy in the forest; and, ironically, he discovers that his angelic little wife is attending the same ceremony and taking a leading role in the proceedings. What I didn't like was the way Hawthorne deliberately "painted over" his own story, so to speak, by raising the question of whether what Brown had observed had actually happened or whether it was only a dream.

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

Hawthorne seems to want to be saying that people all have dark sides to their natures. Yet he equivocates. He says it, but he doesn't say it. It is the equivocation I dislike. If the author doesn't know the truth about his own story--who does? Is he afraid to say what he believes?

Guy de Maupassant wrote a similar story. It is titled in English "Was It A Dream." The narrator tells how one night he went to visit the grave of his paramour who had recently died. While he is at the cemetery he sees all the graves open up and the ghosts of the dead emerge in order to change the epitaphs on their tombstones. All of them erase the flattering inscriptions and write the truth in luminous letters. According to the narrator:

And I saw that all had been the tormentors of their neighbors--malicious, dishonest, hypocrites, liars, rogues, calumniators, envious; that they had stolen, deceived, performed every disgraceful, every abominable action, these good fathers, these faithful wives, these devoted sons, these chaste daughters, these honest tradesmen, these men and women who were called irreproachable.

Finally the narrator sees the ghost of the girl he is mourning. She changes the inscription on her tombstone from "She loved, was loved, and died" to the honest truth:

Having gone out in the rain one day, in order to deceive her lover, she caught cold and died.

Maupassant's story is very effective, but, like Hawthorne, he equivocates by raising the possibility that the whole incident may have only been a dream. This is why the story is titled "Was It a Dream?"

Maupassant's story is so similar to Hawthorne's--especially in the way each protagonist makes a shocking discovery about his loved one--that we might wonder whether Maupassant borrowed his idea from "Young Goodman Brown." Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 and died in 1864. Guy de Maupassant was born in 1850 and died in 1893. He would have been about fourteen when Hawthorne died.

What were some the morals or lessons being taught in the story, "Young Goodman Brown"?

In "Young Goodman Brown," several lessons are taught, and, at least as important, an overarching metaphor is presented through which readers can learn their own lessons. One lesson is humility. Brown is sure that he knows what he is doing, sure that he should be the one to decide his path. As a result, he ignores the requests of his wife, symbolically named "Faith," to stay with her. Another lesson is to that there is danger to one's soul everywhere. Brown thinks he knows the paths upon which he walks, but the devil himself appears to lure him astray. That lead to the educating metaphor: the path Brown walks through the woods is like the path we all walk through life. It is dark, twisted, and filled with threats and temptations.

How is "Young Goodman Brown" an allegory?

“Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory of the temptation to do wrong instead of right in life.

“Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory of man’s journey through life.  As the title character walks through the woods, he begins relatively innocuously but not a clean slate. 

From the very beginning, Goodman makes a choice. Instead of staying with his wife, he chooses his journey.  He is steadfast, but he does feel guilty for leaving her alone when she begs him to stay.  This represents the ties that bind us in our quest for independence.  Sometimes we break free of them anyway.  Hawthorne would seem to indicate that this is not the best choice, given what happens to Brown.  His purpose is described as “evil.”

As Brown is traveling through the forest he comes upon an old man who has a devilish air (literally), but also looks kind of like Brown.  The reader would do good to remember that Brown chose this journey.  He is described as looking to meet up with someone.  He seems to know that he is going to make a deal with the Devil.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is when Brown says that his father would have never gone on this kind of an errand, and the old man sets him straight.

"Such company, thou wouldst say," observed the elder person, interpreting his pause. "Well said, Goodman Brown! I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that's no trifle to say…”

It turns out that the Brown family fortune was made with similar deals with the Devil, and this Brown is just following in their footsteps.  It brings to mind the old nature versus nurture debate.  Do we really make our own choices in life, or are they made for us?  Did Brown set out in the woods to make a deal with the Devil, or was the choice made for him long ago, by his father and his father before him?

The choices we make in life are our own, whatever influences them.  Brown made his own, there in those woods.  Hawthorne ends his tale with Goodman Brown losing everything.  He lives a life of bitterness, seeing the Devil in everything.  He can get no pleasure from life any longer, and sees in everyone around him the capacity for evil.  

How is "Young Goodman Brown" an allegory?

"Young Goodman Brown" is an example of allegory in that everything in the story is symbolic or representative of something else. In this case, Young Goodman Brown's name is the first allegorical symbol to a man who does good deeds. When he leaves his wife, Faith, to go into the forest, we also see the connection between his wife's name and his detour from his usual goodness and good faith. As he walks in the forest, he meets the devil  himself, witnesses acts of witchcraft and satanism, and sees his elders, his wife and a myriad of others in the path of hell. This journey through the forest is also representative of a mind about to go in his own personal hell, and who will abandon his good ways. The insanity in the end of the story can be interpreted as Young Goodman Brown's fall from grace, and as a lesson on the emptiness and loneliness that surges after one has abandoned the ways of God.  In its entirety the story is quite allegorical.

What is the overall meaning of "Young Goodman Brown"?

This story of young Goodman Brown is actually an allegory about an "Everyman" character who believes that he can put down and pick up his faith whenever it suits him; in the end, he does not learn from his mistake, but we have the opportunity to benefit from realizing what he does not: that faith requires real devotion, and it isn't something that we put on and take off like clothing.

When Goodman Brown walks away from his wife, Faith, he also walks away from his Christian faith, which she represents.  He even says that "'after this one night, [he'll] cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven.'"  He has put down his faith because he wants to have one more night of sinfulness, but this is not how faith works; he is taking it for granted, abusing it even.  He meets up with the devil, who looks very much like his father, and he walks with him through the forest.  The devil explains that he knew Goodman Brown's father and grandfather well, and he meets up with various others in the forest as they walk.  In terms of the allegory, then, Brown realizes that everyone knows the devil on some level; everyone is sinful.

The devil leads Brown to a witches' Sabbath, and Brown hears his wife's voice and sees her pink ribbon drop from the sky.  He chose to leave his Faith/faith behind, and now she/it is in danger, made vulnerable to the devil, to temptation.  Brown and Faith are led before the unholy congregation, full of all the people they know from the village -- good and bad alike.  The devil preaches, and Brown implores Faith to look to heaven and resist the devil, and he never knows if she does.  He suddenly finds himself alone in the forest, and he makes his way back to town.  He finds Faith at home, but he no longer takes comfort in her.  He shrinks from her and becomes a miserable man, suspicious of everyone around him.  In thinking that he could put his faith down to give himself a break from righteous behavior, then resume faith when it suited him, Goodman Brown reveals himself as a Christian not truly devoted to maintaining his relationship with God and, consequently, he lost it, along with happiness and hope.

What is the moral allegory and moral lesson in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Multiple readings of "Young Goodman Brown" provide the reader with increased allegory, but here are a few that I find most striking.  Goodman Brown has already failed his conscious by taking the trip into the forest that night.  He knew with whom he was dealing and he knew he did not need to be doing it.  His Faith held him back awhile (His wife on one hand- his literal faith on the other.

Goodman Brown tries to do the bare minimum of his requirements only to find that the allure of the devil has trapped him. Early in the story, Brown says he has kept his covenant and will leave, but he stays on.

What is the theme of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown"?

Hawthorne discusses several topics in his short story/allegory "Young Goodman Brown"--alienation from society; destructive effects of guilt; women whose lives are ruined by the folly of men--I would argue that the over-arching theme of the story is the destructive effect of Puritanism on the individual, especially the concept that all men (and women, of course) are inherently sinful from birth.

Goodman Brown, an average Puritan young married man in Salem, Massachusetts, has a dream in which he decides to visit the "dark side," a probably unconscious desire to rebel against the restrictive, harsh belief system in which has lived.  He has been taught, among other things, that mankind is born in sin and is subject to temptation by Satan in many ways.  He also knows that he is predestined to go to Heaven or Hell and that, for the most part, what he does in this life will not change his final destination after he dies.

After having experiences in the forest in which his Puritan world is turned upside down--he meets Satan; he learns that very upright Puritan leaders in his life are Satan's converts; his own wife, Faith, who represents faith, is also on her way to join Satan's devotees--Young Goodman Brown completely loses his own faith,

'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.'

He hurries to Satan's ceremony in the forest, and, during the ceremony, he tries to save Faith by telling her to "look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one," but he is unable to save himself from the belief that all men and women--no matter how righteous they may appear--are not just sinful but in league with Satan.

Goodman Brown, after this experience, is "a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative" man who died in "gloom."  His puritan belief system, which requires him to believe that he and everyone around him are sinful, blocks out the evidence of his eyes and experience that there are good people all around him (Faith, Goody Cloyse, Deacon Gookin).  Instead, his very strict interpretation of the Puritan belief system leads him to conclude that there is nothing good under the sun.

Is "Young Goodman Brown" an allegory or merely symbolic?

Young Goodman Brown is more allegorical than it is just symbolic. An allegory is a story that represents an ideology or part of the human condition that readers can relate to and apply to their own lives. So, in a way, it could be considered a parable-type story; however, it is filled with many symbols that help to convey the message being sent by the author as he describes the Puritan society in which Brown finds himself. It would seem that the point of the story is to satirize the society for believing in God, but not believing in mercy or forgiveness, too because Brown strays from Faith (Wife and symbol of commitment to religion) out of curiosity that many do. Sadly, he does not invoke the teachings of mercy and forgiveness because he dies a bitter man because of the experience.  The deep, dark secrets that he discovers on that fateful night not only awaken his mind to the realities of "evil" but that no one can escape the temptations of the devil. This is clearly a satirical allegory written in a Christian country to a Christian audience.

How does "Young Goodman Brown" function as a moral allegory?

The story of "Young Goodman Brown," by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a clear moral allegory.

It is felt that the story was written in reaction to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. One of Hawthorne's ancestors was a judge at the trials—where a pious community became slaves to false allegations and superstition. It was an embarrassing heritage for Hawthorne.

Many of his writings deal with themes that delve into "...evil actions of humans and the idea of original sin." Evil actions by humans is central to the allegory. It's important to understand that an allegory in literature is a story of symbolic importance:

...that serves as a disguised representation for meanings other than those indicated on the surface.

In other words, on the surface, the story being read has a plot, characters, conflict and a resolution. It is a story in its own right. However, in an allegory, elements of the tale have a deeper meaning, symbolizing "moral qualities," etc., with the purpose to relay an additional "hidden" message to the reader.

In "Young Goodman Brown," our main character is a member of a devoutly religious society. (Though not named as Puritans, the parallel is clear.) One day the virtuous Brown leaves his newly-wed wife to travel for some unknown reason into the forest. (The Puritans believed the Devil lived in the forest.)

On his trip, Brown meets an old man who is the Devil in disguise, who secretly wants to get Brown to reject his faith. As they walk, Brown senses evil and tries to distance himself. He remembers his ancestors—holy men—whose memory he calls on to help him. The Devil tells him that they were "in league" with him. Strong religious members of his community pass by, going to a Black Mass. Brown is horrified as his eyes are opened to the wickedness lurking within those closest to him—who he has looked to for inspiration. At last, as he looks on, his wife Faith is brought forth and both are called to join the Devil. Brown tries to yell encouragement to his wife, but in an instant, everyone disappears—and Brown is unsure if it was at all real or just a dream. Now believing that he is surrounded by sinners, his awakening drives Brown to believe there is no good in the word. He rejects his faith and dies a lonely, embittered old man.

The situation that Hawthorne presents here is Brown's inability to accept the fragile nature of the human condition, and the truth that all people are sinful, even Brown himself. However, his expectations of those of the past and those in his life now, do not allow Brown to accept sinfulness as a human trait (even though it is biblically presented: all men are sinners); and, too, he has no compassion. Expecting perfection is impossible; this is something Brown does not grasp, and it does not allow him to forgive others for their shortcomings.

Hawthorne reminds us of the lack of compassion found in the Puritan society—that the promise of the smallest sins was punishment, and no forgiveness was offered, though this was the central message of the New Testament in the person of Christ. The allegorical message here is that all of us are in the same "boat." We all make mistakes: we cannot help it.

Looking to Goodman Brown's fate, we should see that if we can't allow others to be imperfect, we will be lonely, hypocritical and miserable people. We must be realistic and accepting of others who follow a different path—for even then, we can still hold on to what we believe.

What are some of the symbols present in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Perhaps the most obvious is the forest itself.  It's a dark place, a place without clear paths, a place where you might easily get lost.  In our history, it is often associated with the home of Satan, and the home of the Indians, sometimes seen as Satan's agents. 

There is the symbol of the staff that looks may look like a snake.  The snake is a universal symbol of evil, stemming back from the Bible and the story of The Fall. 

Then there is Faith/faith.  Faith, the person, and faith, the religious belief, are both lost.  Faith is symbolized in the pink ribbon.  Pink is associated with innocence, and the original innocence of Brown's faith is shown in the pink ribbon that Faith wears and that appears falling into the forest just before Brown "wakes up." 

The last word in the story, gloom, mirrors the setting in the forest; instead of leaving the light, travelling through the gloom, and returning to the light (of faith), he never escapes the gloom of the forest.

What is the theme of "Young Goodman Brown"?

One of the motifs in this story is the journey to maturity which all of us must make (this is a common literary technique); you leave your Faith/faith behind, and come to experience life not as a journey in black and white, but one you make in shadow (the forest).  Nothing on this journey is definite; as he often does, Hawthorne makes things ambiguous.  Does Brown really see the staff turn into a snake?  Does he see old Goody Gloyse there?  Are the stories about what his guide has seen, the mixture of the pious with the impious, real?  Does the "Black Mass" ever happen?  Was Faith/faith really there?  Was it her pink ribbon?  Was it a real experience or just a dream?

We'll never know, but in my reading of the story, it is unimportant.  What Brown does realize is that all of us are mixtures of good and evil.  For example, it is an interesting time in each of our lives when we find out that our parents, gods to us in most of our youths, are "real" people with failings.  The people Brown meets in his return from the forest haven't changed; he has.  Nevertheless, he insists that people live up to his ideal of what they should be, and refuses to accept them as they are.   Because of this, he lives a miserable and untrusting life, isolated even from his Faith/faith.

"The enemy of the good is the perfect."

What is the theme of "Young Goodman Brown"?

Early in the story, the protagonist, a young man called Goodman Brown by his Puritan community at the end of the seventeenth century, leaves his home to go into the woods on some evil errand. We never learn precisely what that was, but his intention to do something he isn't supposed to be doing is made clear. For the Puritans, the forest was a dangerous place, where potential evil lurked behind every dark tree. Brown leaves behind his wife, Faith, who seems to be symbolic of the Christian person's faith in God: one's commitment to try to live by God's laws and to honor God in all he does. Faith tries to keep her husband home, telling him that she is fearful for him, but he does not listen and goes anyway. He thinks to himself,

Well; she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night, I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven.

However, this is not the way one's faith is supposed to work. It entails a commitment that one is supposed to at least try to uphold, not one that a person can simply drop when it is inconvenient and pick up again when one feels like it. Goodman Brown's intent to sin is premeditated and purposeful, and he vows to be good, just starting tomorrow. However, this "tomorrow" never comes: he loses his Faith (and his faith) in the forest and lives the rest of his life shrinking from her, miserable and suspicious of others. Thus, we see that faith requires a true commitment, a real effort, and should not be affected by convenience.

What are the symbolic implications of Young Goodman Brown's journey into the forest in Hawthorne's story?

Your word implications is an interesting choice. For, the suggested meanings of the journey into the forest are ambiguous since, as the previous response so aptly states, the reader does not know if Goodman Brown actually has gone into the forest. Perhaps, then, what is implicated, or inferred, is that the forest is the dark region of the heart, the flawed part of everyman's heart that entertains the idea of evil and sin. In order to assure himself of his perceptions of his wife and others, Goodman Brown must face this dark side. When he enters the forest, or darkness of his own heart, he emerges as one who has lost his faith in goodness, since he, like Kurtz in Joseph Conrad''s "Heart of Darkness" has seen "the horror!" as love and sin seek possession of his soul.

How does symbolism contribute to the story in "Young Goodman Brown"?

In the sense that this story can be read allegorically, the use of symbolism contributes quite a bit. An allegory is a text that has at least two layers of meaning: one is the literal plot, taken at face value, and the other is a figurative layer, a meaning that the text acquires as a result of the one-to-one symbolism of characters, objects, and places in the story.

An allegory is often a literal representation of something that we ordinarily think of as intangible. Goodman Brown, for instance, is a literal character, and we might interpret him symbolically as a kind of "everyman" Christian: his common last name as well as the typical-for-the-1600s appellation of "Goodman" (which was like "Mister") seem appropriate.

As a Christian, he thinks of himself as a good man, but we are, evidently, meant to interrogate this assumption. His abandonment of his wife, Faith, at home hints at her symbolism: she can be interpreted as a representative of his Christian faith, which he first neglects and later intends to exploit after this "one night" of sin, and he eventually loses her altogether in the end (never able to enjoy the peace she once brought him). Her pink ribbons can be read as symbolic of the innocence and purity associated with Faith/faith initially, and they are lost when Brown goes into the woods (when he has lost his faith). The forest, the snake staff carried by the devil, and so on, can all be interpreted as symbols in this way, adding a whole other layer of meaning to Hawthorne's story: when a Christian intentionally abandons his or her faith, even for a short while, he or she may lose the gift of God's grace forever.

What is the significance of key characters in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Hawthorne introduces so many of the townspeople on the way to the orgy or in attendance there because he wants to create the impression that everybody is secretly evil and in league with the Devil. They include the leading citizens, those who are noted for their piety and integrity and even instruct others in the observance of traditional religion. Young Goodman Brown and his wife Faith are novices. They are there as "converts" to be initiated into the established body of secret sinners and  "fiend worshippers."

What is the significance of key characters in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Young Goodman Brown is not necessarily as "good" a man as his name entails. His trip into the forest is never clarified, but he joins others in attending what might be a witch's coven, and although he renounces it, the fact remains that he went; his heart, which may have been flawed, becomes fully broken by the experience, but he did not seek to leave until his revelation.

What is the significance of key characters in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Put yourself in Brown's shoes as he is shocked at how many people he sees on the same trail that he knows and has looked up to during his life.  He went into the woods out of curiosity, but finds that there are so many other people whom he respected and loved. This is quite traumatizing to him to the point that he is bitter for the rest of his life. Each character that he meets from his own life drives his disappointment deeper, even though he himself is there! The devil will be evil no matter what; that's not a surprise, but finding people that you thought were better than that doing the same thing or worse is just dishearetening!

What is the significance of key characters in "Young Goodman Brown"?

You might want to consider how characters help to identify the allegorical significance of the story. The names for example of the characters indicate the way in which their importance relates to the kind of concepts or qualities that they stand for. Faith is an obvious example, and it is key that it is when Goodman Brown (another important name) deserts Faith, literally leaving her behind, that he encounters the Devil and sees what he sees.

What is the significance of key characters in "Young Goodman Brown"?

The Devil is an intriguing character in this story.  You may want to ask yourself to what extent the devil is present as a tempter and to what extent Brown is responsible for his own problems. You may also want to ask yourself to what extent (if at all) the devil may only be a figment of Brown's own imagination. Finally, you may want to ask yourself in what ways Brown himself becomes a kinde of evil figure by the end of the story. The devil may only have been a dream, but Brown's malevolent behavior at the end of the tale seems all too real.

What is the significance of key characters in "Young Goodman Brown"?

Faith and Young Goodman Brown are the key characters in the story, as it is the story of Brown's travels into the woods one night on a mysterious "mission" that changes, forever, his understanding of everyone around him. Brown's wife's name is Faith, and each time it is used in the story it is used as a pun on having religious faith. Brown leaves Faith and his faith at home one night as he heads out to a meeting with the devil who promises insight into the "secret heart of men." Brown is all but determined to turn away from the Devil when he sees what he perceives to be Faith's pink hair ribbons. Once he sees that even his sweet wife is a sinful follower of evil, he goes forward to give in, but at the last minute saves his soul and walks away. The problem is, even though he saves his soul, he is forever changed in his views of everyone else he thinks he saw at the witch's meeting that fateful evening. He ends up a bitter man.

What underlying theme is the author trying to convey in "Young Goodman Brown"?

One major theme of this text is that one must make a consistent effort to keep their faith, or else they might lose it. Goodman Brown feels that he can put down and pick up his faith whenever it suits him, and the story's events show that this is not true. As he leaves home and his wife, Faith, behind, he feels somewhat guilty, knowing that she'd be horrified by what he is going to do. Then he thinks, "after this one night, I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven." Faith, his wife, represents Christian faith in general, and he chooses to leave both her and it behind, planning to return to her arms (and God's fold) the next day. However, faith is not meant to be convenient, and Goodman Brown's inconsistent commitment to his faith (and his Faith, who he knows would be upset by his errand) results in his total loss of it (and of her, as she no longer brings him any joy after this night).