Indian village." Word choices likelash and set fire definitely solemnize the tone, as does the repeated use of the word serpent or snake to refer to the devil's staff. A description of Goody Cloyse's laugh as being a "cackle"—a word choice very much associated with witches—adds to the ominous tone as well.

When Goodman Brown arrives at the witches' Sabbath, "there could be nothing more frightful than [his] figure [...].  On he flew, among the black pines, brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures, now giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy [...]." Words such as frightful, frenzied, and blasphemy are scary words, words that paint Goodman Brown as a fiend himself, and they lead to the idea that the devil is already "rag[ing]" in his breast: a subject Hawthorne treats most seriously with words such as these.

Finally, Hawthorne's description of Goodman Brown's final years as a "stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, distrustful, if not a desperate man" also confirm the grave tone. There is no happy ending, no resumption of faith, as "he shrank from the bosom of Faith," his wife, for the remainder of his life, and "his dying hour was gloom." Nothing in the story permits even a ray of light. Goodman Brown becomes so hardened by his suspicion of everyone around him that he dies without faith and without hope. Such an ending, with such word choices, is grim indeed.

Since Goodman Brown's name is ironic, it seems that Nathaniel Hawthorne maintains a rather skeptical tone toward his character, especially in the beginning of the narrative.  For instance, as Goodman resolves "after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven," it is evident that he intends to "tarry" not with his wife, but with temptation and may not be so good.  That he is rather sanctimonious is also evinced by his feeling "himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose."

As Goodman proceeds, he expects evil:

"There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree," said Goodman Brown to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him as he added, "What if the devil himself should be at my very elbow?"

Because he suspects evil, Goodman does, indeed, discover it in the second traveller who appears. Yet, he deludes himself, telling the old man with a staff who resembles him that he is the "first of the name of Brown that ever took this path..."

Repeatedly, Hawthorne in his skepticism suggests the hypocrisy of Young Goodman Brown. When, for example, Goodman protests that his father never ventured so far into the woods, the old man (who is the devil) laughs,

"Well said, Goodman Brown!  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 smartly through the streets of Salem...." 

As they continue on their path, the elderly man takes on the appearance of Goodman Brown's grandfather.  But, in his guilt, Goodman resolves to return to Faith.  He applauds himself greatly, and thinks hypocritically how clear a conscience he will have when he meets the minister in the morning.  Goodman, then, turns from his "guilty purpose."  But Deacon Gookin and others arrive for the initiations of a young woman.  Goodman is filled with "uncertainty,"  "doubt," but after the mass, Goodman approaches the congregations with whom he "felt a loathful brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart."

In the end, the tone of the narrative becomes one that is almost tragic:  "it was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown" as a "stern a sad, a darkly meditative, a distruftful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream."  Young Goodman Brown has lost his faith on this night in the primeval forest because he has deceived himself.

According to Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia,Romanticists held that absolute principles lead to personal failure.  Since Hawthorne was certainly a Romanticist, it is consistent with his thinking, then, that his tone regarding Young Goodman Brown would move from skepticism to disapproval.

There are words suggesting the supernatural all through the story.  Here are few examples:

As Goodman Brown enters the forest, there is darkness and gloom everywhere, and it is as though Brown might be "passing through an unseen multitude," suggesting some supernatural and invisible beings are lurking (736).

When Goodman meets the man whom he intends to meet, the man has a staff, "which bore the likeness of a great black snake"(737).

Goodman and his companion encounter a woman from the village a page later, who exclaims, "The devil!" (738).

There are many such passages in the story, and this should be enough to give anyone an idea about the kinds of words Hawthorne uses to make the reader think that the story is a supernatural one.