Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” is set in the Puritan village of Salem, Massachusetts. The setting alone immediately alerts the reader to the existence of numerous events to be revealed in an atmosphere of good and evil, gloom and doom, devils, and witchcraft. The entire story is a series of events taking protagonist Goodman Brown from a religious man of good morals to his inevitable loss of innocence.

From the outset of the story, the protagonist makes a fateful decision to leave his home and his wife to venture into the forest, which clearly symbolizes something supernatural and evil:

“My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?"

With his wife expressing concern, Goodman Brown assures her that all will be fine and exits the home, representing the significant event of embarking on his unholy journey.

In a second important happening in the tale, the protagonist enters the forest and becomes fearful:

"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!"

As he begins to grow more concerned since he knows in his heart that evil lurks nearby, he beholds,

the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire, seated at the foot of an old tree. He arose at Goodman Brown's approach and walked onward side by side with him.

The man is holding a staff shaped like a snake. The reader surmises he has encountered the devil, especially since the staff conjures up the image of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden being tempted by Satan.

The strange man offers to give his staff to the tiring Goodman Brown as they walk through the forest, but Goodman Brown initially refuses. He explains that he comes from a good, holy, Christian family. He claims none of his family members have ever agreed to meet with a mysterious man in the evil woods at night. The man surprises Goodman Brown by telling him he knew his father and grandfather. He reveals they helped him perform some of his evil deeds. Goodman Brown begins to realize that the Puritans in Salem might actually be hypocrites and not as holy as he originally believed. This realization is a third major event in the story as it signifies the start of Goodman Brown’s transformation.

Still another significant occurrence finds Goodman Brown witnessing the figure of a former teacher and close family friend, Goody Cloyse, who has entered the forest to find the devil. Goodman Brown now realizes that he is as hypocritical as everyone else in Salem. He is willing to take the risks entailed by wandering through the evil woods at night, but fears being seen by Goody, afraid that he will be branded a sinner in the community. He tells the devil he wants to continue alone through the forest:

“A marvel, truly, that Goody Cloyse should be so far in the wilderness at nightfall," said he. "But with your leave, friend, I shall take a cut through the woods until we have left this Christian woman behind. Being a stranger to you, she might ask whom I was consorting with and whither I was going.”

A crucial episode in Hawthorne’s short story demonstrates the climax of the morality tale the author spins when Goodman Brown loses his faith. Both his wife, Faith, and his faith in his Christian religion are gone. He sees his wife in the company of the devil:

"Faith! Faith!" cried the husband, "look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one."

Whether Faith obeyed he knew not. Hardly had he spoken when he found himself amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt it chill and damp; while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew.

From that moment on, Goodman Brown has lost all hope. He trusts nobody and sees all humans as sinning hypocrites.