Symbolism And Religion In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Megan Miller
English 102
Dr. Brewer
Research Paper/Final Draft
March 2, 2014

Symbolism and Religion in “Young Goodman Brown”

Hawthorne starts our setting off by placing Goodman Brown leaving for a journey, even when Faith begs him to stay. You can distinguish the irony is the story from the beginning, a newly wed that isn’t able to keep her husband by her side when that is when two people are usually wrapped up in each other. In this story Maher says, “This story overflows with symbolism, and there is intentionally not a great deal of subtlety in these symbols”. Vaillancourt points out, by the name Hawthorne gives him,” The word Goodman Brown when taken apart, is ‘Good-man’ and brings the thoughts of a moral, responsible person”.
The names chosen in the story, such as Faith also contain a deeper meaning. The symbols Hawthorne presents in “Young Goodman Brown” point out the spiritual battles he must face in his life. Faith’s pink ribbons play a big part in Goodman Brown’s journey; he sees them in various places throughout the woods, and also calls out to Faith herself on many occasions. The color pink used in the story for Faiths’ ribbons, is meant to symbolize her confusion about her faith. They also symbolize Goodman Brown’s faith and his inability to see where his sole lies through everything he experiences. The ribbons for him are almost a calling card in a sense. They are a sign of every monumental challenge, and secret revealed to him throughout the woods. The ribbons make him question his faith, and he becomes unsure of everything he’s believed along with the people he’s known. He is also unsure of whether or not to trust his wife, for he does not know where her sole lies when it comes to religion. In a passage from the story, Hawthorne gives us a sense that Goodman Brown has given up on his faith and now knows his fate with the devil: But something fluttered lightly down through the air and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon. ‘My Faith is gone!’ cried he, after one stupefied moment. ‘There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come devil; for to thee is this world given.’ (96) The old man Brown meets in the forest, is also a very powerful symbol in the story. He is described as looking quite similar to Brown himself. (Maher) Maher goes on to say, “Puritan theology emphasizes that the devil’s natural domain is here in the real world.” The old man, upon first meeting Brown is very inquisitive as to why he is late for their meeting. Goodman Brown answers his questions, by only telling him, “His Faith held him back awhile”. (Maher) The old man is said to carry a serpent staff, Goodman Brown describes the staff to us as “a black serpent snake that it might almost be seen to twist and wiggle”. Goodman Brown does not at first realize what the man symbolizes, until the old man tells him he has known many of his kin throughout time. I have been as well aquainted with your family as with every a one among the Puritans, and that’s no trifle to say.I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an indian village, in King Philip’s war. They were my good friends, both; and many a pleasant walk have we had along this path, and returned merrily after midnight, I would with you for their sake. (92)
Hawthorne leads us to believe that Goodman Brown has a choice on his this journey, which he is able to hear out the devil and see the sins of others, and still return back to his normal life. The devil acts as if he is the good guy, like he is only showing him things he thinks he needs to be aware of. In that act, he displays a sense of remorse almost for Goodman Brown. Even when Goodman Brown wants to go back the old man urges him further into the woods. Maher describes to us that the poor visibility, and the dark, tangled ways represent the loneliness and confusion of the Godless life. When Goodman Brown journeys further into the forest, this is when he has the realization of who these people really are.
He sees Goody, his teacher, along with the deacon of his church. It is at this time that he realizes that everyone he has looked up to, as far as his faith, is not pure at all, but simply a sinner in disguise. He sees how they have befriended the devil over time and have accepted his offers in their lives. When they speak to each other, Goodman Brown describes them as if they know each other’s secrets, and are fine being secret sinners. Brown illustrates this event for us as a “witch meeting”, he hides in the bushes and is very careful not to be seen or heard. He starts to feel extreme guilt, but at the same time sides with the devil. After he’s seen such things, what makes him any better than those townspeople, or fellow church goers that he associates with on a daily
basis. Goodman Brown stepped forth from the shadow of the trees and approached the congregation, with whom he felt a loathful brotherhood by the same sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart. (97)
The next morning when Goodman Brown leaves his home, after the experience he’s had in the forest, he sees things in a whole different light. He is reluctant and very cautious of everyone he’s ever known. He goes as far as to pay no attention to the deacon of the church on a “Sabbath-day”, and to also snatch an innocent child away from the grasp of Goody Cloyse. He turns away from his wife, his Faith, he accepts no affection of her, and acts as if he would prefer not to be in her presence. We can see his relationship has been affected, “he shrank from the bosom of faith”. (Vaillancourt) While he is in the church, he isn’t able to focus on anything the deacon says, and also has no interest in anything coming from his mouth. He knows that the deacon is not a man that lives by Gods’ word and should not be treated as if he does. On the Sabbath day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear and drowned all the blessed strain, When the minister spoke from the pulpit with power and fervid eloquence, and, with his hand on the open bible, of the sacred truths of our religion, and of saint-like lives and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers. (99)
Goodman Brown spends a great deal of time wondering and thinking if he really saw and experienced what he thought he did. He explores the idea that maybe everything he saw has just been a dream and not real at all. For the rest of his days, everything he seen that night plagues his mind. He no longer perceives himself as having a pure sole, and being accepted by god. The last sentence of the story gives us so much on how Goodman Brown felt in his last days, and where he stands with his religion and his feeling towards his wife and the townspeople. And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a goodly procession, besides neighbors not a few, they carves no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom. (99)
Maher paints the idea that, “The devil in the story might be much a more clever fellow that Brown suspects, and by sending him a false vision of many good people he plants the seed of suspicion and doubt in his mind.” The symbols Hawthorne presents to us are unclear the first reading, and can be completely left up to the readers interpretation.
He used many symbols such as, Faiths’ pink ribbons, the devil disguised as an old man, along with the meeting of the people at the witch meeting in the woods. The devil shows these things to Goodman Brown which ultimately destroys his psyche, and makes him give up on his faith. Hawthorne wanted those symbols to represent for his readers how things truly are in religion. He points out clearly how most religious people are “closet sinners”, they live a life only trying to one-up one another. Vaillancourt enforces the symbols Hawthorne used in saying, “The idea that man constantly faces an inner battle between good and evil and that is much easier to stray away from the path of good that it is to stay on it.” Hawthorne depicts things how they really are, that things are never what they seem. He uses these symbols to describe to the reader the spiritual test, and battles all people must face in their
lifetime.

Works Cited

Christophersen, Bill. " 'Young Goodman Brown ' As Historical Allegory: A Lexical Link."
Studies In Short Fiction 23.2 (1986): 202. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.
Maher, Jimmy. "Symbolism and Theme in "The Young Goodman Brown"" The Digital
Antiquarian. N.p.,n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Vaillancourt, L. "Good and Evil in Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne." Yahoo
Contributor Network. N.p., 16 June 2009. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.