The Devil In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” the devil uses ethos to convince Goodman Brown to give into his evil side. The Puritan view of a virtuous member of society is one committed to God by obeying strict moral rules. Goodman Brown (up until his encounter with the devil in the forest) was a model Puritan, believing his lineage was a “race of honest men and good Christians.” Therefore, the devil attempts to lessen Brown’s guilty feelings of submitting to the devil by giving names of those he has been “well acquainted with.” Those individuals included Brown’s father and grandfather, as well as figures Brown had revered as ideal Christians. Giving these names is the devil’s strategy to subtly argue that, if these figures are
submitting to the evil, then you can, too. This strategy has a pathos component as well, because it pulls at Brown’s faith in others. Puritan society valued cooperation of all members of society in striving for the “common good,” meaning they put a strong emphasis on mutual trust. By informing Brown of the evilness of the people he had trusted in, the devil cultures feelings of despair and betrayal, which makes Brown more vulnerable to the devil’s further attempts to lure Brown to the “evil side.”