Faith is Goodman Brown’s young wife; they have been married for three months. She is believed to symbolize his spiritual faith, and her pink ribbons are mentioned by the author as a symbol of her innocence. At the end of the story, when Goodman comes back to the village, he sees that his wife’s ribbons are intact, which makes the reader wondering whether it was all a dream and Faith is still pure.
It is hard to say whether Goodman Brown knew that he was meeting the Devil. On the one hand, he says that if his wife knew what he was going to do, she would kill him (Hawthorne 11), so, to some extent, he is aware of his actions. But up until the end, he does not realize the full extent of the danger and thinks that he can handle it.
“Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory of the fall of man, with Goodman Brown being tempted by the Devil and succumbing to him because of his curiosity and the weakness of his faith. He is not fully aware of the danger and cannot help himself from wanting to know what lies behind the forest. Like Eve in the books of Genesis, he is punished for his curiosity by being deprived of the joy in his life. It is not a model to follow, but it is a model that all people go through over the course of their lives.
It can be said that the Devil does not force Goodman Brown into temptation but rather slowly lures him into it, playing on his curiosity. Throughout their encounter, Goodman battles his yearning for evil but slowly succumbs to it, as he is engaged to take a walk through the woods to take part in some unspecified evil. The goal of the Devil’s temptation is to draw Goodman Brown away from his faith, and he succeeds in it by taking away his belief in the inherent goodness and righteousness of people.
“Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory of the fall of man, who turns away from faith out of curiosity. The story suggests that evil is in the very nature of man, and, just as Eve was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit, no one since that time is able to resist its lure. Despite being good and righteous, Goodman Brown is drawn away from his wife into the night to take a walk along the forest to participate in some unknown evil. He is unable to resist the temptation, and, at the same time, believes that he is strong and can handle it: “Think not to frighten me with your deviltry!… You may as well fear me as he fear you!” (Hawthorne 12). His curiosity makes him pursue the path to the end, and although he is not converted to evil himself, he gains the knowledge that ruins his happiness forever.
In the course of his journey, Goodman Brown learns that all people, whom he believed to be faithful and righteous, have long been worshipping the Devil and living in sin. He comes to a painful realization that all people are inherently evil, and that the religion that they practice in their everyday lives is merely a disguise for their true nature. This knowledge transforms him and makes him withdraw himself from the world and turn away from faith. He does not accept his place among other sinners, but, being used to put faith in the others’ goodness as a source of his own beliefs and morality, he loses his will to live.
Work Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Independently Published, 2020.