Young Goodman Brown Hypocrisy Analysis

Young Goodman Brown and Religious Hypocrisy In the short story, Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the theme of religious hypocrisy plays a huge role. The short story is about a man known as Young Goodman Brown who leaves the city of Salem, leaves behind his family to meet an old man. He goes without knowing who he is and what his intentions are. The old man is like any other but in his hand, he holds a staff carved to what seemed to be like a living snake. Goodman Brown notices that this man is evil or even worse the devil and that most the people who were “believers” were not true to what they showed they were – puritans. This short story gives readers the thought that people are not who they portray to be. When he sees that things …show more content…
Goodman Brown believed that good people ran in his family so he should not have had any problems with evil powers. He probably thought that his ancestors had prayed for protection over him and his family. His perspective begins to change after the walk with the ‘old man’. Hawthorne states “I helped your grandfather, the constable when he lashed the Quaker women so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knife, kindled at my own hearth, to set the Indian village…” (381). This statement must have shocked Goodman Brown. He has been living all his life believing that his family was so good and holy but he finds out that they have been completely the opposite of the saints he had them as. Goodman Brown had his father and his grandfather as great people. They did ‘good’. He says “We have been a race of honest men and good Christians…” (Hawthorne 381). Just because people saw them doing good deeds, does not make them good people. If that was the case, then the world would not be corrupt as it is now. Goodman Brown began to see the true colors coming out and he could not control the fact that he was …show more content…
It relates to the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent. Eve was in the garden of Eden. It was established that God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of wisdom. The serpent came along and tempted Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of wisdom. She took a bite and ran to Adam and told him what she had done. Adam was shocked and Eve convinced him to take a bite. He took a bite. When God had noticed, he told them why they had eaten from the tree of wisdom. Adam blamed it on Eve and Eve blamed it on the snake. Like the story of Goodman Brown, they seemed to blame one another for the sin that they had committed themselves. They did not want to take the blame. He feels that everyone has failed