The Devil In Young Goodman Brown And The Man In The Black Suit

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving are two of the most prolific and successful writers of their era. Hawthorne’s, “Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a man, Goodman Brown who happens to set out on a trip for an evil purpose. On the way he meets a man who offers him his staff, saying that it might help him walk faster, but Goodman Brown refuses and wishes to return back to his village for the sake of his wife, Faith. On the other hand, Irving’s, “The Devil and Tom Walker” is about an individual who lets his greed and selfishness take charge of him. Tom Walker, a greedy man, attempts to make a deal with a devil. Tom seeks wealth and in return the devil asks for his soul. In both stories, the authors express their feelings and views about staying away from indulgence and sin. In spite of all the difference among Hawthorne’s, “Young Goodman Brown” and Irving’s, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” they share salient similarities such as setting, symbolism, and author’s purpose.

In both stories the similarity made between the two works was in the beginning, Tom Walker and Goodman Brown both doubted the Devil’s intuition. In the work of Young Goodman Brown, states, “Having kept covenant by meeting thee here, it is my purpose now to return whence I came. I have scruples touching the matter thou wot’st of”(Hawthorne). Goodman Brown happens to be doubting the Devil and is contemplating on whether he should turn around and go home. In The Devil and Tom Walker, Irving states that “Tom never disclosed them publicly. They must have been very hard, for the required time to think of them, and he was not a man to stick at trifles when money was in view” (Irving 115). Corresponding with Young Goodman Brown, Tom Walker had to think about the negotiation, and what was being offered. However, even though both works portray similarities within their works, they ended up with different results. Tom Walker shows the difference by expressing his thoughts on the offer, “What proof have I that all you have been telling me is true?” said Tom. “There’s my signature.” said the black man, pressing his fingers to Tom’s forehead” (Irving 115) Tom Walker is considering on taking the deal

In the two stories Goodman Brown and The Man in the Black Suit, the writer's Nathaniel Hawthorne and Stephen King portray the features of appearance, language, and behavior about the devils that occur. These features occur throughout the stories to give evidence and detail about characterization and how he tries and pursues the people to be a servant of him. The writers also evoke the effect of evil on innocence. The two stories show the two different outcomes of what path Brown and Gary choose to go down upon. The presence of evil on the innocent can be an experience of being a servant for him or not believing him and still find the good in everyday.

In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” the devil carries pious Tom away on his great black horse, and in “Young Goodman Brown,” all the village’s citizens, including Goody Cloyse, Goodman Brown, and his wife willingly gather at a worship service for the devil, which ruins the remainder of Brown’s life so that “when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave...they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.” The corruptness of man’s sinful nature made it possible for the devil to capture the souls of Tom Walker and Goodman Brown.

During the early 1700s, a traveler met a man in the Massachusetts forest. However, this was no mortal man, but the devil. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Devil and Tom Walker,” two short stories, both start out in this way. Washington Irving wrote the latter in 1824, which tells how Tom Walker profited through working for the devil. In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown,” which describes Goodman Brown’s woodland encounter with the Devil. The two stories share specific ideas regarding the devil, overpowering minor deviations between each other.

The stories analyze the devil’s connection with the fallenness of humankind. Both in “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “Young Goodman Brown,” the devil snatches the protagonists’ soul, though the victim first decides whether to turn to him, because the devil cannot force himself upon the unfortunate. Yet, their depravity causes Tom Walker and Goodman Brown to succumb to the

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

Though Nathaniel Hawthorne is an author of many great works, his short story “Young Goodman Brown” still stays relevant because it has themes and subjects that are relatable in today 's world. In the story “Young Goodman Brown,” Goodman Brown leaves his wife Faith, to go into the woods near Salem to have a meeting with the devil. Appearance vs. reality is shown in “Young Goodman Brown” through the plot, the character of Goody Cloyse, and the symbol of the maple staff.

Conflict and symbolism in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, Hawthorne in this story portrays these two elements that enhance the way the story is written. The story “Young Goodman Brown” first takes place in a small town with brown and his wife faith. Then in the story brown leaves faith to go in an adventure that he would later wish he hadn’t gone in. Brown takes a journey through part of the woods that are really scary and comes across the devil himself to later find out that faith was evil and that many from his town were also evil and had a secret evil organization or cult. Through the use of conflict and symbolism, Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” portrays what Brown’s journey represents.

Hawthorne in essence, portrayed Goodman as proof of the nature of evil in man by showing how easily even a young dedicated Puritan can easily be influenced by a complete stranger. This stranger was symbolically the Devil among men in this text. Hawthorne begins introducing the Devil immediately as trying to sway Goodman to follow him on a long journey. By leaving his wife, Faith to begin the journey, Goodman Brown was symbolically leaving his faith in God and entering a forsaken ground by following the Devil. The fact that Goodman Brown left with no regard for his wife Faith’s warning, symbolized the lack of regard for his own faith in God and his fellow human race. This simple disregard that Goodman Brown showed was evidence of the easily persuaded ability of man to choose sin over good.

In “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author entertains the readers by using suspense and mystery. Hawthorne uses the devil and a witch as the main antagonists to test Young Goodman Brow’s faith, he uses symbolism to foreshadow. The author’s main goal as a puritan was to show that faith man’s most important quality, when is at risk it makes it seem as if everyone was bad, and see the rest of the world without faith.In “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author entertains the readers by using suspense and mystery. Hawthorne uses the devil and a witch as the main antagonists to test Young Goodman Brow’s faith, he uses symbolism to foreshadow. The author’s main goal as a puritan was to show that faith man’s most important quality, when is at risk it makes it seem as if everyone was bad, and see the rest of the world without faith.

In “Young Goodman Brown,” there is a fight between good and evil with one main character being torn between the two sides and every other character seemingly on one side or the other through the reader’s view, although many characters do deceive Goodman Brown about whether they are good or evil. This fight between the two sides and the deception that causes confusion for Goodman Brown is the source of tension throughout the entire story. In “Young Goodman Brown,” every character’s traits and dialogue, the setting, and even colors mentioned have double meanings and are symbolic to the main binary oppositions of either good or evil.

     The main focus of the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the triumph of evil over good. A supposedly good man is tempted by evil and allows himself to be converted into a man of evil. This is much like the situation that arises in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, where two people are tempted to sin and give in thus submitting themselves to the power of the devil. In this novel, the area where the devil resides is strictly parallel to that in “Young Goodman Brown”.

The story of ?Young Goodman Brown? exemplifies the struggle of one man?s internal conflict of good and evil. The main character, Goodman Brown, leaves Salem village and his wife, Faith, to travel into the depths of the dark forest. The Young Goodman Brown will be aged with the knowledge he faces in this one night. Brown keeps his appointment with the devil in the forest, and he must choose to go back to his ?faith,? or explore the evils that the devil has to offer. Next, Brown is confronted with the virtuous people who live in his community, who will be attending the witch?s meeting with the devil. He has to decide if he will follow them along this

In "Young Goodman Brown" Goodman Brown is a Puritan husband who lets his individualistic impulses lead him into a personal encounter with the devil himself. Goodman Brown:  1.  According to Levy, he “is Everyman.  The bargain he has struck with Satan is the universal one . . . . Initially, he is a naive and immature young man who fails to understand the gravity of the step he has taken . . . [which is] succeeded by a presumably adult determination to resist his own evil impulses” (117).  2.  Fogle writes that he is “a naive young man who accepts both society in general and his fellow men as individuals at their own valuation, [who] is in one terrible night confronted with the vision of human evil . . . ” (15).