Naturalism In Young Goodman Brown

‘Young Goodman Brown’ by Nathaniel Hawthorn explores the significance of the cultural society. Nathaniel Hawthorn wanted to distance himself from idea of Puritanism and created his own philosophy. Salem is a common topic for Hawthorns’ works; in Young Goodman Brown leaves his wife Faith to go on a spiritual journey towards self-scrutiny. Faith does not wish for him to leave but he tells her to stay and say her prayers. Brown is left feeling guilty and doubtful, but ventures on into the forest. The forest is in reference to the devil’s territory in the Puritan literature. Also believing that if the devil joins one on the journey later it might lead he/she in the wrong direction. Brown meets an old man (devil maybe) with similar features to his own in the forest sitting by a tree, this action and more leads to the climax. The main idea …show more content…
Both of the discoveries make out to be a hidden evil. Man vs Nature is explored when Brown is curious about the temptation that the devil is offering. He expresses to go back at times, but continues on with sin. Brown thinks that he can see how sin is and then go back to a godly lifestyle, but, he is soon in for a rude awakening. The forest is a place for both fear and possibility. The forest reflects the thoughts of his own mind; full of confusion and terror. Despite the fact that Brown is accepted into the fellowship with the sinners and devil he isolates himself as he deals with the conflicted thoughts of fallen nature. Some critics insist that “Young Goodman Brown enacts a deep-seated guilt-consciousness in his journey to the heart of the wilderness and through those experiences in the forest, he comes to know the duplicity of human nature.”(Tritt 2). This reveals Browns lack of his true consciousness on this side of evil, but Hawthorn wants to present those evil thoughts to make his point that the Puritans actions were not always so