Young Goodman Brown Symbolism Essay

487 Words2 Pages
Symbolism is defined as an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. Symbolism is oftenly used to help readers connect with a story on a deeper level and used to add layers of meaning to it as well. Nathaniel Hawthorne used this literary device in his short story “Young Goodman Brown” to help express themes in the story without bluntly putting it out there. He found himself able to pass on different complex thoughts with a couple of words. The main characters in the story, Young Goodman Brown and his wife Faith, are major symbols in the short story. Both of the characters' names are typical and illustrative of their identities. Goodman Brown is a very religious and pure man while his wife Faith persists to keep her husband out of the way of sin. Faith symbolizes Goodman Brown’s religious faith and his faith within others. Hawthorne makes an incredible showing of transforming the primary characters into images that are conspicuous all through the story.…show more content…
One of them is the pink ribbons found in Faith’s hair. The pink ribbons symbolizes the immaculateness and purity included in Faith’s character. The ribbons are later included in the story when they were seen falling from the sky, “But something fluttered lightly down through the air, and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon.” This symbolized Brown’s loss of hope and faith within his wife and all of mankind. Another object was the devil’s staff. This image demonstrates the peruser the shrewdness that is included with the fiend character in light of the fact that the serpent is a model of a demonic being. The staff lets the reader know that the mysterious man is the devil, despite his resemblance to Brown
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