FREE ESSAY ON SYMBOLISM IN YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN

SYMBOLISM IN YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN

Symbolism in Young Goodman Brown
Jared Krupski
English 102
Research 1
7-18-00
Jared Krupski
The short story Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is the story of a man,
Goodman Brown, who comes to find out that the people he surrounds himself with are not
perfect. During a journey testing his faith, a traveler, the devil, is able to use
Brown's naivete against him. After the devil has his way with Goodman Brown's mind, Brown
is never again able to trust even his wife, who is aptly named Faith, let alone anyone
else. Brown's view on humanity thereon is one of deceit. The story is heavy in symbolism;
and the major symbols of this story are Goodman Brown himself, his wife Faith and her
pink ribbons, the traveler he meets, and the journey he takes.
Goodman Brown's name plays as a symbol in the story. His name Goodman means Gentleman
during that time period, and he is symbolic to mankind(Korb 2; Robinson 3). In spite of
his name, there is no proof that Goodman Brown was ever a good person at all(Mathews 2).
Throughout his whole journey into the forest, he never makes the argument that he should
stop because it is morally wrong. Hawthorne provides many suggestions that indicate Brown
has been looking for a way of justifying his participation, rationalizing that everyone
else has done likewise(Matheson 4). Brown most likely only resists during the ceremony
because he realizes that his sins will be exposed.
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Young Goodman Brown's wife's name is Faith, and she has pink ribbons in her hair that are
used as symbols throughout the story. The name Faith is symbolic of Brown's lost
hope(Mathews 2). When the pink ribbon falls from the sky, he cries My Faith is
gone(Hawthorne 38). Brown talks about how much faith he has, but as James Mathews points
out: 
The insubstantiality for Brown's religious faith manifests itself in the pink ribbons of
his wife's cap; their texture is aerie and their color the pastel of infancy.(2)
As Goodman Brown is about to leave for his journey, the exchange between Faith and
himself foreshadows the outcome of the journey. As he travels through the forest he knows
he should go back to his faith and Faith but his fascination with evil compels him to go
on. Brown is bewildered as he comes upon Faith at the ceremony. Sheildon Liebman says, He
calls on Faith to refuse Communion because he is as afraid of revealing his own evil as
he is of seeing hers(7). Finding his wife at the meeting and still believing what is
going on shows that he is capable of believing anything that is thrown his way. If he can
believe that his wife can have this secret presence of evil inside her, there is no hope
for anyone else to gain his 
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trust. Brown tells himself that the Devil will not take hold of his faith although he has
to keep reassuring himself.
The traveler is symbolic of the devil and Goodman Brown's dark side(Walsh 4). As Brown
approaches the traveler he finds him very familiar. It is almost as if he is a relative
or even his own father. He carries a twisted staff that looks like a snake and almost
seems to move in his hand(Liebman 3). All of the branches the traveler touches wilt and
die. It is suggested by the traveler that even Brown's father and grandfather are a part
of the devil's party, and he makes Brown meet people he has seen and knows at the
ceremony. Thomas Walsh says, Doubts about his ancestors spread until Goody Cloyse, Deacon
Gookion, the Parson, and finally Faith herself fall victims to his diseased mind(4).
When the traveler takes Brown on his journey, Brown sees his journey as an errand or
work(Keil 7). He leaves his wife after she asks him not to go, and says thinking out
loud, After this one night, I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to Heaven(Hawthorn
377). Taking the dark dreary road into the forest symbolizes his act of plunging into the
road leading to despair(Walsh 3). The move into darkness gives the feeling of upcoming
danger. 
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The journey begins at dusk continuing on into an increasingly darker and more shadowy
world. The farther he gets away from his wife, the more he loses faith(2). During the
trip Brown must decide for himself whether people are basically good, evil, or both, and
his journey into the wood parallels his journey into his soul(2). As he gets farther into
his ideas of evil, his visions become more substantial. Rena Korb describes his walk into
the forest as, He continues his journey toward the black mass which symbolizes his
descent into Hell(2).
Brown leads himself down his journey through his own curiosity. It destroyed Brown's
ability to trust anyone ever again including his wife. His fear of his own flaws and the
flaws of his wife drive him to his damnation. The devil uses Brown's lack of faith,
especially in his wife, against him, and Brown is so drawn in by the devil he does not
take heed when he sees what is done to the branches of the trees and to the staff the
devil is carrying. Hawthorne uses very strong symbols in Young Goodman Brown to prove
that when Brown lost his faith in his own religion he has lost faith in his ideals of
humanity also.
Bibliography
Works Cited 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. Literature: An
Introduction to Reading and Writing. 5th ed. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs.
Upper Saddle Riva: Prentice Hall, 1988. 376-385.
Keil, James C. Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown': Early
Nineteenth-century and Puritan Constructions of Gender. The new England Quartile,
LXIX.1(March 1996): 33-55. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism, Vol. 29. Literature
Resource Center. The Gale Group. 9 July 2000 
Korb, Rena. An Overview of 'Young Goodman Brown,' Short
Stories for Students, Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group. 9 July 2000 
Liebman, Sheildon W. The Reader in 'Young Goodman Brown,'
in The Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal (1975):156-69. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism,
Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group. 9 July 2000 
Matheson, Terence J. 'Young Goodman Brown': Hawthorne'
Condemnation of Conformity, in The Nathaniel Hawthorne Journal 1978, Edited by C. E.
Frazer Clark, Jr., Gale Research Company, (1984): 137-45. Reprinted in Short Story
Criticism, Vol. 29. Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group. 9 July 2000 
Mathews, James W. Antinomianism in 'Young Goodman Brown',
in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. III.1, (Fall 1965): 73-5. Reprinted in Short Story
Criticism, Vol. 29. Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group. 9 July 2000 
Robinson, E. Arthur, The Vision of Goodman Brown: A Source
and Interpretation, in American Literature, XXXV.2 (May, 1963): 218-25. Reprinted in
Short Story Criticism, Vol. 29. Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group. 9 July 2000 
Walsh, Thomas F. Jr. The Bedeviling of Young Goodman 
Brown, in Modern Language Quarterly XIX.4 (December 1958): 331-36. Excerpted and
reprinted in Short Story Criticism, Vol. 29. Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group.
9 July 2000