Themes In Young Goodman Brown

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    In “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne reveals what he sees as the corruptibility that results from Puritan society’s emphasis on public morality, which often weakens private religious faith. Although Goodman Brown has decided to come into the forest and meet with the devil, he still hides when he sees Goody Cloyse and hears the minister and Deacon Gookin. He seems more concerned with how his faith appears to other people than with the fact that he has decided to meet with the devil. Goodman Brown’s religious convictions are rooted in his belief that those around him are also religious. This kind of faith, which depends so much on other people’s views, is easily weakened. When Goodman Brown discovers that his father, grandfather, Goody Cloyse, the minister, Deacon Gookin, and Faith are all in league with the devil, Goodman Brown quickly decides that he might as well do the same. Hawthorne seems to suggest that the danger of basing a society on moral principles and religious faith lies in the fact that members of the society do not arrive at their own moral decisions. When they copy the beliefs of the people around them, their faith becomes weak and rootless.

    Goodman Brown loses his innocence because of his inherent corruptibility, which suggests that whether the events in the forest were a dream or reality, the loss of his innocence was inevitable. Instead of being corrupted by some outside force, Goodman Brown makes a personal choice to go into the forest and meet with the devil; the choice was the true danger, and the devil only facilitates Goodman Brown’s fall. Goodman Brown is never certain whether the evil events of the night are real, but it does not matter. If they are a dream, then they come completely from Goodman Brown’s head—a clear indication of his inherent dark side. If they are real, then Goodman Brown has truly seen that everyone around him is corrupt, and he brought this realization upon himself through his excessive curiosity. Goodman Brown’s loss of innocence was inevitable, whether the events of the night were real or a dream.

    From the moment he steps into the forest, Goodman Brown voices his fear of the wilderness, seeing the forest as a place where no good is possible. In this he echoes the dominant point of view of seventeenth-century Puritans, who believed that the wild New World was something to fear and then dominate. Goodman Brown, like other Puritans, associates the forest with the wild “Indians” and sees one hiding behind every tree. He believes that the devil could easily be present in such a place—and he eventually sees the devil himself, just as he had expected. He considers it a matter of family honor that his forefathers would never have walked in the forest for pleasure, and he is upset when the devil tells him that this was not the case. He himself is ashamed to be seen walking in the forest and hides when Goody Cloyse, the minister, and Deacon Gookin pass. The forest is characterized as devilish, frightening, and dark, and Goodman Brown is comfortable in it only after he has given in to evil.

    Guilt versus Innocence

    Hawthorne presents Young Goodman Brown’s evening of diabolical revelry as the first and last fling with evil the inexperienced young man ever has. Early in the story, Brown says: “after this one night I’ll cling to [Faith’s] skirts and follow her to heaven.” He believes Faith is an “angel” and one of the Puritan elect who is destined for heaven.

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    Unfortunately, Brown’s experience in the forest makes him reject his previous conviction of the prevailing power of good. He instead embraces the devil’s claim—“Evil is the nature of mankind”—by crying out, “Come, devil: for to thee is this world given.” This acknowledgment, fueled by the discovery of hypocrisy in the catechist, clergy, the magistrates of Salem, and his own wife, destroys Brown’s faith in the Puritan elect. It also sets the tone for the rest of his life. Critics often view this outcome as an attack by Hawthorne on the unredemptive nature of the Puritan belief system, which holds that people are evil by nature because of original sin.

    Since Hawthorne has revealed the forest to be a place full of sin, the presence of a “congregation” in the “heart of the solitary woods” reveals the pervasiveness of evil. A “congregation” typically refers to a group of people who gather for a church service, giving this word religious and moral connotations. While Puritan congregations try to cleave away their evil tendencies by appearing good to one another, this congregation in the dark woods further supports the idea that evil is an indelible part of human nature that will always find its place.

    The devil’s words in this passage serve as a direct statement about the hypocritical nature of the Puritan faith. To paraphrase, he points out that what people claim to be true is not actually the case and that those who appear good and righteous are actually living in sin. The visual display of the congregation gives the devil an opportunity to reveal to Goodman Brown the hypocrisy of his Puritan community. Since Brown’s faith has been modeled on the behavior of others, rather than his own convictions, this provides the devil an easy challenge to Goodman Brown’s worldview.

    The devil’s purpose in telling Goodman Brown all of these “state secrets” is to emphasize the depths of his influence in Goodman Brown’s world. Since Goodman Brown considers certain people and places completely free of sin, the devil makes these claims to undermine his faith. However, the devil’s claims serve another purpose. The devil makes it clear that nothing is free of sinful influence or the potential for it. The Puritan worldview cannot accept such things, which forces them to hypocritically believe themselves and their institutions free from this influence. By maintaining a worldview that is cut and dry, there is no room for moral ambiguity and even less for forgiveness and tolerance.

    When Goodman Brown claims that “There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name,” this statement supports how extreme his beliefs are. For him, the world consists of black and white, good and evil. Since his Faith (and his faith) are “gone,” he states that the world is inherently evil and that sin is the natural state of things. From a non-Puritan perspective, this logic makes little sense, but given the repressed nature of his society, Goodman Brown has no experience dealing with nuance nor understanding his own personal relationship between good and sinful behavior.

    Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” does not end on an uplifting note. Since he never spoke to Faith about his time in the forest, Goodman Brown has failed to recover and learn from his experience. This perpetuates the hypocritical and harmful traditions of Puritanism that led to his fall in the first place. These final words suggest that Goodman Brown’s “goodly” children and grandchildren will all suffer the same fate. This serves as a capstone on the theme of hypocrisy in the tale: those who cannot honestly look at and reflect on their own behaviors or speak realistically about temptation and sin will not be able to find inner peace and happiness.

    FAQ

    What are the themes of Young Goodman Brown?

    The main themes in “Young Goodman Brown” are faith, guilt, and good versus evil. Faith: Brown relies on the faith of others to bolster his own piety.

    What is the moral lesson in Young Goodman Brown?

    The moral of the story Young Goodman Brown is that one should recognize the sinister impulses in oneself rather than to find faults in others. The denial of the inherent evil in the unconscious mind leads to moral depravity. In the story, the Devil voices the moral of the story saying, “Evil is the nature of mankind.”

    What is the hidden message in Young Goodman Brown?

    The whole story is based on Goodman Brown losing his faith in God. “Faith kept me back a while” (Hawthorne 343) has a hidden meaning in that Brown’s faith in God kept him from meeting with the guide. With most Christians, faith is what keeps one from temptation and the Devil.

    What is a good thesis statement for Young Goodman Brown?

    Thesis: This dark Romantics story develops through the clue of Goodman Brown’s gradual giving in to evil from the corruption of his wife and the encounter of the devil, all major characters’ are also set as a symbols to reveal the conflict of good and evil in all people, though in the author’s view, evil usually takes …

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