Pointless Pursuit Of Perfection In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

The Pointless Pursuit of Perfection: Implications of Young Goodman Brown
The story of Young Goodman Brown delivers a core underlying message that perfection is impossible, and those who expect it are doomed to disappointment, as the author repeatedly shows through the presence of the devilish shadow figure and symbolism of the final meeting. The impossibility of perfection is manifested in the dark figure Goodman Brown meets in the forest. This shadowy figure is introduced as an “elder person as simply clad as a younger, [… with] an indescribable air of one who knew the world” (Hawthorne 2208). The author depicts this evil figure as not only similar to Goodman Brown, but also more educated and elder. After establishing the dark figure’s legitimacy,
The first thing Goodman Brown hears when he arrives is “a familiar [tune] in the choir of the village meetinghouse” (Hawthorne 2213). This comparison immediately conjures a setting in which the piety and perfection preached by the church is contrasted by the harsh reality of human imperfection. True to its set up, the dark sable figure presumed to be the devil delivers a conversion speech for the Goodman Brown by lecturing how Puritans “shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward. […] This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds: how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their households” (Hawthorne 2214). By highlighting the “wonton words” and “secret deeds” that Puritans hideaway in fear of being found out, the devil elucidates the hypocrisy that the Puritans center their life upon; indeed, Young Goodman Brown’s world is shattered when he realizes that what appears to be “lives of righteousness” are actually tainted by atrocious sin. Through the shadowy figure and the aura of the final demon meeting, the author repeatedly conveys the message that perfection