Essay on "Young Goodman and Brown"

Essay 3 pages (1339 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown is a story about a man who experiences a vivid dream in which he encounters evil as well as the susceptibility of all people to evil beliefs or conduct. The protagonist expresses his profound conflict between good and evil as a desire to embark on an unknown path despite numerous obvious hints that it leads to evil, which conflicts with his desire to remain morally innocent, together with his wife, Faith.

Hawthorne relies heavily on symbolism to represent the principal themes and issues, including his choice of names for his characters, the descriptive details about the setting, the clues as to the meaning of behaviour and dialog, and the fundamental conflicts or dilemmas his protagonist faces in his imaginary journey. Ultimately, the protagonist, Young Goodman Brown, experiences seemingly permanent changes in his outlook and expectations of others as the result of his dream. While he realizes that it was a dream, he is, nevertheless, affected by what he believes his dream revealed to him.

The Significance of Character Names

There can be no doubt as to the symbolic significance of character names in this story. Young Goodman Brown is, in fact, a young man who is a good man according to the definition of goodness in his society. The protagonist's goodness as a person is crucial to understanding the relevance of everything that follows in his dream (Miller, 1991). It is precisely his goodness that establishes the basis of his conflict when confronted with evil in his dream journey through the woods.

Likewise, the author's choice to name Young Goodman Brown's wife Faith was equally deliberate, and probably because of its ambiguity in the dual role of proper name and a common noun that is intimately associated with matters of religious morality and is a synonym for goodness or virtue in human life (Fogle, 1952). In the story, Goodman experiences confusion and conflicting desires when he finds himself having to choose to stay with Faith or to leave Faith and his faith in what he believes is good. Faith also (literally) beckons him during the dream when he is on the verge of embracing evil as it is represented in the dream. Obviously, that is also why Goodman thinks he hears Faith calling to him deep in the woods. On one hand, he is apparently hopeful that Faith might have chosen to join him; on the other hand, he is simultaneously disappointed to realize that Faith might have actually had the capacity or inclination to join him in an evil journey (Fogle, 1952).

Symbolism in Setting and Plot

Young Goodman Brown dreams of leaving his home to embark on a mysterious journey through a long dark path in the woods. On his way out of the house, he returns to stick his head back through the window to kiss his wife, Faith once more before he leaves. This would seem to symbolize that the journey into the woods requires leaving one's faith, such as religious faith. Goodman realizes this and expresses his ambivalence for the first time in his effort to kiss Faith once more.

The setting consists of a dark winding trail through convoluted woods in the forest to an unknown destination in the forest. Furthermore, the forest seems to close up behind Goodman as he enters it further and further. This would symbolize the realization that once a person embraces evil, he is often changed forever and finds it impossible to return to a virtuous or morally good life. Naturally, Faith also represents Goodman's religious faith and her calling to him through the dark dense woods on the trail represents the difficulty Goodman is having relinquishing his religious faith in search of what is probably evil by following the trail.

In his journey, Goodman encounters a mysterious stranger who appears, at first, to be good but who subsequently offers Goodman the opportunity to embrace evil, represented by a staff that changes into a serpent in the exact… READ MORE

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