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Nathaniel Hawthorn Young Goodman Brown

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Allegorical Reference in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's Young Goodman Brown

The title character in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's short story , Young Goodman Brown ' is himself an allegory . Goodman Brown is at first a symbol of all that young Puritan men of the age aspired to be - pious hopeful , a good husband . It is not until he takes his journey ' into the night that he begins to suspect there is a part of him which could easily be swayed to follow the wrong path as coerced by the

devil himself . Knowing that is he embarking upon a journey with the devil alongside , he resolves to undertake the trip anyway , out of curiosity perhaps , and absolves himself by thinking , after this one night I 'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven (Hawthorne , page . In portraying Goodman Brown this way , Hawthorne is able to show how even such a good Puritan man could easily be hooked by the forces of evil and how the character 's knowledge of this could forever change his life . The presence of evil cohabitating with good in every man is the characteristic of Goodman Brown which he was unable to realize until opening his eyes to the fact that all men are necessarily human and can walk the streets who commits no sin - not even those men of the cloth who preach religion

Goodman Brown 's wife , Faith , is also a symbol . Even her name portrays the characteristic she embodies . She is young and wears pink ribbons in this way Faith is an allegorical reference to innocence . She thrust her own pretty head into the street (Hawthorne , page ) and this act symbolizes a threat to her innocence . In begging her husband not to leave on his journey , she is asking that he resist the forces of evil Goodman Brown realizes that She talks of dreams , too (Hawthorne page ) and because she has faith in her religious beliefs she becomes the symbol for all which is good . Explaining his lateness to the devil he declares Faith kept me back a while (Hawthorne , page in other words he struggled with himself before deciding to go forward on his quest . Along his journey , Goodman Brown sees a pink ribbon in the forest and he thinks this is a sign that Faith has been taken from him , both literally and figuratively . When she appears next to him at the witches ceremony , he is once again restored of his faith . Yet , Goodman Brown can no longer depend upon this trait to see him through life after all that he has witnessed and faith becomes something which is irretrievably lost

Hawthorne very carefully chose the setting of the forest in the darkness of night for their allegorical meanings in the Puritan fashion of the heathen aspect of nature and the darkness of evil . Goodman Brown travels along a path with the gloomiest trees of the forest , which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through...

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