Good And Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne perplexed my mind continuously throughout the story due to its complexity but I slowly began to develop my own interpretation of events as I read the text several times. In the beginning, a young man, Goodman Brown, is with his wife Faith, a character who symbolizes his Christian religion, and they are saying their goodbyes. Brown appears to be saddened by leaving his wife but makes his way to a forest that night to go on an “errand” as he states early in the text. The audience then learns that his intentions are in an evil way for he is having a meeting with someone deemed wicked. I believe this portion can be interpreted as Goodman Brown beginning the path to questioning his religion. He goes into this meeting knowing full well what the other man’s intentions are but without clear provocation goes along with him. This evil man can be interpreted as the devil in terms of symbolism with proof of this …show more content…
One of the examples that brings forth this change is the new-found knowledge that multiple family members have also meet with this sinful man and acquired his help in matters they did in their lives. Knowing this, two men he admired for their convictions seeking aid from the devil, he felt shocked and the doubt from then only grew more with each happening from then on. We are introduced to multiple characters Brown is familiar with practicing hypocrisy and this sways him greatly. It is at one point he wishes to stop to remain faithful but soon abandons his religion by taking the serpent cane and continuing deeper into the forest. He later sees a disturbing site that can be decoded, like the rest of the evening, as a dream but I think its Browns new idea of those around