Symbolism In Young Goodman Brown By Nathaniel Hawthorne

The story, “Young Goodman Brown”, is a wonderful story that puzzles the mind. Nathanial Hawthorne used symbolism throughout the entire story. Symbolism is using an object to represent an idea or have a deeper meaning. Goodman Brown comes from a good family who stayed out of the evil of the world, so he thought. In other words, Hawthorne uses symbols to represent the loss of innocence, the discovery of evil, and the illusion of a Puritan walk.

In Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’ the main character, Goodman Brown leaves his wife alone for a night to go to a secret meeting in the forest. As it turns out the religious Goodman Brown is actually sneaking off to meet with the Devil. While in the forest with the devil he sees many influential people from town there as well, including his wife. They seem to be about to be taken into the cult when Goodman Brown looks at his wife and begs her to remain with her Faith. Next thing he knows he wakes up like nothing ever happened. Whether this whole experience was a dream or not, it caused young Goodman brown to lose his faith and innocence. Hawthorne expresses this loss of innocence by using setting, symbolism and motifs to build up the story’s theme around Young Goodman Brown’s loss of faith.

In the short story “Young Goodman Brown,” the author Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the fragility of humans when it comes to their morality. Goodman Brown goes on a journey through the forest with the devil to watch the witches’ ritual and observes the evil in the Puritan society. He loses his faith as he sees the people he respects the most participating in the sinful ritual. Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes setting, and symbolism in his short story “Young Goodman Brown,” to show how a person’s perspective can change by showing the hypocritical nature of the Puritan society

Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the short story “Young Goodman Brown”, he was an American writer in the 19th century. He was born in Salem village, and he died at the age of 60. His short story about a man named Young Goodman Brown, who lived in Salem village with his wife Faith. They have been married three months. Mr. Goodman Brown has left his wife for one travel night although his wife does not want him to go. He insists on leaving without telling his wife where he is going nor why he is going at night. Then Faith says, “Then God be with you, and may you find all well, when you are back.” So Brown left; he started his journey at night through the dark forest. Mr. Goodman Brown saw many things that caused him to wonder and to fear: scary trees, witches, and a walking staff look that looked like a snake rising up. His determination to leave and experience the dark side turns Brown from a hero to a coward; he is fearful of what might happen if he does not go in to the forest, because he is not confident in his faith, and he is not trusting God anymore, and he take the devil as his guide.

While Native Americans name each other to repent the persons personality such as an animal like wolf that represents power. Hawthorne took the same route of naming his characters in Young Goodman Brown to represent ideas in the text in form of symbolism. The most symbolic character of the tale is Faith, browns wife. As Mckeithan says “For three months he had been married to a lovely young woman symbolizing religious faith”. She represents exactly what her name says Faith, more exactly browns faith in life and religion. Even his way of speaking of her shows that she represents his faith like when brown says "And what calm sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith!". Her symbolism is also seen in his journey when all the wicked people tried to separate them but he does not allow for that to happen. At the end of the story he finds that she is no longer as comforting as she was before, showing that he has lost some of his faith in his Christian beliefs. Browns name is another of the representatives names that is in the tale. His name is Goodman, exactly what it means is what it represents he is a good man that follows every rule, whether it be morally or a lawfully, to the exact letter. His last name gives a better insight into the story, the fact that his last name is brown represents that he becomes tainted from being a ‘Goodman’. His being tainted comes from his journey and losing faith in his religion, he becomes tainted with the real world and it is

First of all, the tale involves the common motif of a journey in quest of something. The young Goodman Brown, at the beginning of the story, takes leave of his wife, Faith, in order to journey into the woods where he keeps an appointment with the devil: "My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" the use of symbols contributes to the development of the story's plot. Symbolism is used as a means to uncover the truth about the characters. The author, in an attempt to manifest the moral aspects of his society, uses many kinds of symbols to support his points.

Decisions are what separate one’s life from another life. In this case, metaphors have different meanings to them, which can make them have different interpretations. Therefore, one has to make a decision on how they interpret a metaphor. This is proven to be true in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, Young Goodman Brown. It is very crucial to look for metaphors as an individual reads. It helps foreshadow what is going to occur in the story. In addition, looking deeper into the meaning behind metaphors may give the reader a better understanding. Using metaphors may give the story much deeper meaning than just the text itself. Using the story Young Goodman Brown, the metaphors that Hawthorne used that enhances the story is the fire in Salem, names that are involved within the story, and the darkness that surrounds the character. During the time of interpreting metaphors, one will also see how Brown will be faced with several challenges that he is going to encounter. Also, Brown will be faced with the temptation in everything he will do. Contributing to this is using the five senses: smell, taste, feel, see and hear that actually deals with metaphors as well.

Symbolism is a literary technique that is used to clarify the author's intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader.

Symbolism in “young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorn was an American writer born in the early 18th century. He became a well-known author in writing about the dark side of human nature by using allegory and symbolism. Nathaniel Hawthorn published a short story called “Young Goodman Brown” in 1835, where he tries to expose the hypocrisy in the puritanism religion and show how everyone can be tempted by the devil. In “Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorn uses different types of literary techniques, such as imagery, metaphor, and repetition to represent symbolism. For that reason, the function of symbolism varies throughout the story, which in this essay will be discussed.

Nathaniel Hawthorne continues his trend of examining the role of sin in the lives of men in his work Young Goodman Brown. He uses the actions of the characters in his work to describe indirectly the tendency of man to desire sin, yet at the same time seek to not let it consume one’s life. In this short story Mr. Brown sets off to meet the devil, that he can live a dual life, one of purity and evil. However due to his immense pride in himself, Brown is blinded to the truth that he cannot resist the embodiment of evil. When he finally does come to the realization of this however it is too late, and Brown comes away from this incident a bitter man, who now knows the truth of the human existence as it relates to sin.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” is an excellent example of the use of allegories and symbolism as a form of satire on Puritan faith. According to Frank Preston Stearns, author of The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Hawthorne may have intended this story as an exposure of the inconsistency, and consequent hypocrisy, of Puritanism” (Stearns 181). Throughout the story of “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne tries to infuse as many symbols and allegories as he can to enhance the overall meaning of his story. He uses the village, Goodman Brown, Faith, the man in the forest, and the time spent in the forest as either a symbol or an allegory to get his point across that Puritans are not always what they seem to be.

Goodman Brown represents anyone; he is basically any and every man. When the symbolism started at the beginning of the story Brown was first described as young and newly married. His wife Faith, whose name and character bears much significance, represented many different ideas. Goodman Brown can symbolically be viewed as a believer and a follower of God. Brown and “Faith’s” relationship is still being established, he does not completely cling to faith.

Young Goodman Brown's wife, Faith, is also an important symbol in this story. Her name alone implies that she is a symbol for goodness and the Christian life that Young Goodman Brown leaves behind when he departs on his journey. In the story, it says that she calls out to him and he turns his back on her, which can either be taken literally or in the sense of one turning his back on God and Christian life, because he heads for the woods, an implication of sin and witchcraft. In her hair, Faith wears pink ribbons, which are a sign of her innocence and playfulness. When Goodman Brown sees her pink ribbons in her hair, he is aware of her innocence, so when he finds a pink ribbon belonging to her clinging to a tree branch in the woods, he doubts the faith of her and of all those around him.

“Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835, is a short story about a man named young Goodman Brown who leaves his wife, Faith, to go on an errand into the woods with the devil. Faith begs Goodman Brown to not leave her alone, but he chooses to go anyways. This short story shows many signs of symbolism, such as the forest, the devil, the staff, the pink ribbons, Faith, sin, and guilt. These symbols help in understanding the story of young Goodman Brown and his unconscious struggle with his religion. The trip not only takes Brown onto a journey of sadness, but also into the deepest parts of his soul. Goodman Brown wishes to enter the dark forest of sin, to satisfy his