Evil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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The short story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story about a man and his encounter with evil. The story begins with Brown talking with his wife named Faith. After they talk, Brown goes for a walk into a forest with a man who is using a serpent walking stick. On the walk they encounter Goody Cloyse and the deacon & minister moving about at night. Brown then hears noise above him and sees a cloud of witches in the sky. A pink ribbon floats down from the cloud revealing that Faith is part of the witch group. Brown then decides to “fly” with the man with the serpent stick (devil) to the ceremony. He sees all of the highly respected town’s folk at this ceremony and sees his wife being inducted into their “cult.” The next morning…show more content…
Brown, although a specific character, symbolizes a normal, completely average person. He, like many others, gets tempted to go with the devil (599). When he is walking along with the devil he begins to see how evil and corrupt things are beginning to surround his life. He sees Goody Cloyse and the minister & deacon out on the devil’s path at night and later again at the ceremony (599-600). This shows that the people who he would think to trust (priest, deacon, and religion teacher) aren’t actually good people at all. It shows that evil has overtaken even the highest “social class” of people. This also showed me that if the priest, deacon, and religious teacher are corrupt, who is to say others who don’t “live” by a set of morals and values are not corrupt. Brown also sees his wife Faith while he is on the path and at the induction ceremony. He sees the pink ribbon (representing innocence) float down from the cloud of witches and then saw her as the other new member at the devil ceremony. Faith in this story represents not just the average innocent person, but also faith (religion). On page 600 Brown cries out “My Faith is gone.” This can be interpreted literally as his wife being gone with the witch group, but also interpreted as Brown’s religious values crumbling into nothing. Brown’s faith is shattered when he sees all the good people he trusts in an evil state. Brown also realizes that he
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