Hawthorne’s open ending to “Young Goodman Brown” leaves the reader with the question, was Goodman, in fact, having a dream of the devil in Salem? This topic is up for debate although some would like to assume he took the darkened road leading him into the forest; we may never know. Hawthorne never answers this question yet leaves it up to the reader to decide where Goodman’s path leads. In this story, Hawthorne chooses to play on words while broadening their meaning. We find his reasoning in this stems back from his views on faith and the puritan church of Salem. He reveals his frustration and disappointment through these pages as he relates to Goodman Brown and the events he encounters. In the story we see how Hawthorne uses duplicity with
…show more content…
We can also see this through Goodman’s wife “Faith, as the wife was aptly named” (Hawthorne 1835 ) representing Browns faith here on earth. Just as a young girl would wear a pink ribbon in her hair to show her innocence Hawthorne uses Faith’s pink ribbons to represent her own faith. We also see by wearing and “letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap” ( Hawthorne 1835) that Faiths innocence is easily swayed. The truth of her innocence comes out as Goodman sees one of the members in the gathering with the devil is Faith his “blessed angel on earth” ( Hawthorne 1835). “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”(Hebrews) Seeing Faith at this gathering threw even more confusion into Goodman’s understanding of this gathering and why so many people he trusted were here in the middle of this evil. Just as the Forrest darkened Goodman’s soul and blocked his view of god from the heavens, Faith blocked his view from god on earth. We see Hawthorne’s struggle with his faith through the character Faith. Something intended to be good and of God such as the puritan church can also be so corrupt at the same time in acts such as the Salem witch trials. This filling the church and Salem community with lies and evil just as it did Young Goodman …show more content…
Hawthorne does show proof of one thing we do know, that it changed Goodman’s views on his community and others. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night” (Hawthorne 1835 ) These acts enabled Goodman from being able to forgive them. For the rest of his days, he would look at others in the same light as he seen these characters at the gathering, in the light of evil as hypocrites to their very ways. He viewed people this way until the end. For Goodman, “they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom” (Hawthorne 1835) Hawthorne shows a frustration with the puritan community in a lot of his stories, but what makes Goodman brown different is the fact that he seems to place himself in Goodman’s shoes for this story. His darkness in the path his puritan community and church lead, his swaying faith as acts are laid out that Hawthorne fails to understand and the resentment toward his ancestors for being parts of these acts in the Salem witch trail’s. Hawthorne himself couldn’t forgive his ancestors and “it is speculated that he may have eventually added the “W” to his last name to distance himself from his great-great grandfather” (Brooks ). In this story we see how Hawthorne uses duplicity with the Dark forest, Pink Ribbon and his Ancestors to explain his own
We can also see this through Goodman’s wife “Faith, as the wife was aptly named” (Hawthorne 1835 ) representing Browns faith here on earth. Just as a young girl would wear a pink ribbon in her hair to show her innocence Hawthorne uses Faith’s pink ribbons to represent her own faith. We also see by wearing and “letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap” ( Hawthorne 1835) that Faiths innocence is easily swayed. The truth of her innocence comes out as Goodman sees one of the members in the gathering with the devil is Faith his “blessed angel on earth” ( Hawthorne 1835). “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”(Hebrews) Seeing Faith at this gathering threw even more confusion into Goodman’s understanding of this gathering and why so many people he trusted were here in the middle of this evil. Just as the Forrest darkened Goodman’s soul and blocked his view of god from the heavens, Faith blocked his view from god on earth. We see Hawthorne’s struggle with his faith through the character Faith. Something intended to be good and of God such as the puritan church can also be so corrupt at the same time in acts such as the Salem witch trials. This filling the church and Salem community with lies and evil just as it did Young Goodman …show more content…
Hawthorne does show proof of one thing we do know, that it changed Goodman’s views on his community and others. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man, did he become, from the night” (Hawthorne 1835 ) These acts enabled Goodman from being able to forgive them. For the rest of his days, he would look at others in the same light as he seen these characters at the gathering, in the light of evil as hypocrites to their very ways. He viewed people this way until the end. For Goodman, “they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom” (Hawthorne 1835) Hawthorne shows a frustration with the puritan community in a lot of his stories, but what makes Goodman brown different is the fact that he seems to place himself in Goodman’s shoes for this story. His darkness in the path his puritan community and church lead, his swaying faith as acts are laid out that Hawthorne fails to understand and the resentment toward his ancestors for being parts of these acts in the Salem witch trail’s. Hawthorne himself couldn’t forgive his ancestors and “it is speculated that he may have eventually added the “W” to his last name to distance himself from his great-great grandfather” (Brooks ). In this story we see how Hawthorne uses duplicity with the Dark forest, Pink Ribbon and his Ancestors to explain his own