The Ambiguity Of Sin In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Although there were many virtuous characters throughout the story, such as Goody Cloyse, the minister, Faith, and Deacon Gookin, one thing that they all had in common was how they were all susceptible to sin. Starting off with Mrs. Cloyse, Goodman Brown noted how she was the one who taught him his catechism and was still his moral and spiritual adviser. (). Needless to say, he was shocked to see her make her way to the evil communion. This shock is further intensified when the minister as well the clergyman march their way to the witches Sabbath. In fact by seeing those two “holy man… journeying deep into the heathen wilderness,” this causes Goodman Brown to question if “…there really was a heaven above him” (). Mr. Brown lashes onto his wife, Faith, for the last ounce of hope he …show more content…
These holy idols are supposed to set an example on how to live a pure and innocent life, yet even they have trouble following this strict religious code that is enacted in the Puritan’s way of life. For Miller, the author of “Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”: Cynicism or Meliorism?,” he believes that Goodman Brown “…represents those weaker members of a puritanical society who are traumatized, arrested in their spiritual development, and finally destroyed by the discovery that their society is full of “Whited spulchres.”” He further goes on and states that “Others in such a society , with more strength but less moral sensitivity than Brown, recognize the power of hypocrisy to give the appearance of Virtue, and capitalize on this discovery to rise to the highest positions of secular and religious authority” (262). This accentuate the notion that nothing good comes out of a religion that forces strict moral values. Often time it is taken advantage so people can use it as a leverage or in most cases