Good Vs. Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown is a very well written short story whose journey unfolds in 1835. As the reader travels the Shadows of a dark sinful and unforgiving forest with the main character, Young Goodman, he explores his identity and its relation to the good pureness of his beliefs and of the cold truths of sin and human nature. The key Theme that strikes me in the story is good versus evil which is represented in the form of heaven, Faith and belief of Christ and the Devil himself and the effects of the lure of sin on Goodman’s Faith and Will to stray away from evil and how, ultimately his innocence is lost in the end. I enjoyed this short story particularly for its use of imagery which is used to unfold abundant use of symbolism and relate the theme of good versus evil along the way. The …show more content…
The wild dark forest symbolizes the fear and unpredictability of life. While one is safe at home or along a path, the way is lost in the forest and is uncertain of the dangers that will arise. Goodman returns back home, however he is now scarred with the darkness of his mistake of straying from his Faith for the rest of his life. He carries what he has been through with him and now sees the world in a new light, the light of innocence lost. He sees evil and sin within every heart. It is unclear to Brown or the reader if the night had been a dream or not but either way what had happened takes a permanent effect of Goodman due to either the reality of the night or to the corruption and personal sin to dream up such a scenario. In conclusion to the theme of good vs. evil I thought Nathaniel Hawthorn presented a very interesting story for the reason being in my experience with the exploration of good and evil, the author usually takes the high road and good wins out always. The fact Goodman lived out the rest of his life with his wife in an untrusting and miserable existence is both eerie and