Young Goodman Brown Faith Analysis

“Young Goodman Brown” is the story of a young man’s adventure through the forest, which, when examined contextually, is actually a disturbing criticism of Puritan morality. In the short story “Young Goodman Brown”, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism with the names of Goodman Brown and his wife Faith to assess the necessity of faith in the lives of religious men and the importance of faith in maintaining one’s trust of God’s goodness. Hawthorne’s use of name symbolism in “Young Goodman Brown” reveals the most important quality of religious piety, which is to have complete faith in one’s God. The main character Goodman Brown and his wife Faith are both symbols to establish the representation of every man’s faith. The …show more content…
His loss of faith is explored when he returns to town. Upon seeing Goody Cloyse catechizing a girl, he “snatches away the child as from the grasp of the fiend himself.” Goodman Brown’s actions towards Goody imply his loss of faith in religious figures and piety towards God. Although Goodman Brown attempts to continue his life previous to the night in the forest, it is clear that he could no longer trust anyone but himself, not even Faith: “Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, he shrank from the bosom of Faith.” This suggests that his wife represents his remaining faith in religion, but even that is suppressed by his apprehension of the evil that exist inside everyone but himself. In the short story “Young Goodman Brown”, Hawthorne uses symbolism of the name Faith to reveal the relationship between man and religious faith. Goodman Brown’s journey through the forest and his sight of covert sinners symbolize his weakening of faith, but losing his faith altogether symbolizes his skepticism of all things good in the world. Hawthorne’ use of name symbolism in his short story reveals that people and their trust in God, symbolized by Goodman Brown and his wife, are connected by faith, the underlying hallmark of every man’s belief in