Young Goodman Brown Essay

The short story Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne has many possible interpretations. One such understanding of the story is as follows: Goodman Brown caused his miserable life after the events in the forest. This interpretation is reached by looking through the lens of Brown’s own culture. Brown was raised in a culture that valued Christianity heavily, raising their children to believe it and basing their laws and morals around the scriptures. It’s quite possible that as a result of the heavy indoctrination, in the sense that no one was allowed to question their faith, Brown had never questioned his faith and assumed that since his family and friends all believed it that it must be true. However, the events in the forest, whether …show more content…
The Puritan culture frowned on doubt. It was looked upon as one of the worst sins one could commit. The sin was seen as a delusion from Satan, trying to turn a person away from the Lord. This was especially bad because it affected where a person would end up in the afterlife – their view was that one could either go to Heaven, the best place to go, or Hell, the worst place to go. With such harsh lines of good and evil, and perfect and nightmare, it left no room for a person to show any sort of hesitance towards God. As a result of what Goodman Brown saw, in a dream or in real life, the lines were blurred. If all his friends and family had really been walking with Satan instead of Christ, was worshipping Christ the good and righteous thing? Or should he keep the same perception of good and evil? In addition, Brown had no one to confide in since his lack of faith would have been seen as egregious. It causes him to be unsure for the rest of his life, even “when the minister spoke from the pulpit” or “when [his] family knelt down at prayer” (Hawthorne 628). In the end, the Puritan culture caused his gloomy life because they had such defined standards of good and evil that it made it impossible for Brown to cope with his