The Importance Of Setting In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

The setting of Young Goodman Brown helps it become a very successful story. The story would not have the same effect if it is set in a different society. One reason for this is because in the Puritan Society people are raise to follow the faith of Puritanism, a strict religion that worships God. Puritans, who practice witchcraft, meant they made a pack with the devil and if the society found out, the punishment is death. Hawthorne knew a lot about the Puritan society and witch trials because two of his ancestors were the judges during the trials. Hawthorne’s knowledge on the history of the puritan society made, “Young Goodman Brown” a very successful story. The success of this story is based on how well symbolism and theme are shown and the
For instance, the pink ribbon on Faith’s hat is mention a lot because it symbolizes innocence and purity. In other words, the pink ribbon is repressing how Faith is seen as an innocent lady. In Brown’s eyes, she is a symbol of his faith because he saw her as a pure woman that is going to help him make it into heaven. As Brown starts’ finding out that Faith isn’t as innocent as he thought he starts losing his faith in religion. According to Connolly, he believes that Brown did not lose his faith in religion, he just has a different perspective of it, but he did lose his faith in the goodness of people (Connolly375). The reason he thinks that is because Brown still believes in heaven, he just doesn’t believe in the people who preach the word of the lord. Another symbol in the story is the journey into the forest. The forest itself is a symbol of evil, but Brown’s journey through the forest is a symbol of his journey into the deepest, darkest part of his soul. The scholar Thomas Walsh goes more into depth on why he believes Brown is going through a journey in his soul. He states that even though Brown notice that he is sinning he still keeps walking into the forest next to the devil (Walsh333). The devil, who is describe to look like Brown, symbolizes the dark side of Brown, who believes that there is no goodness in men.(Walsh334) That’s why at the end of the story one can see that “in the forest the dark
There are many clues in the story that helps the reader make logical conclusions of what really happen that night. Some reasons why he might have not been dreaming are because the setting of the story is in Salem, which is known for its heavy witch population. So what he saw that night could have been real. Yet, the scholar Hostetler believes that Brown is blinded by his own motivation that causes his imagination to run wild (Hostetler). He points out how Brown never gave anyone the benefit of the doubt. For example, Brown said that the voice of the men on the horses is the voices of the Deacon and Minster. Yet he never saw their faces he just came to the conclusion it’s theirs. This goes back to the fact that he could have just been imagining that it was the Deacon and the Minster. Another thing he claims to see is a pink ribbon, but in the story it states that at first he saw an object flutter onto a branch and then he claims it is Faiths pink ribbon. (Hosteller223) If he is dreaming his mind would have made him see a pink ribbon and think that the voices belong to the Deacon and the Minster. At the end of the day the reader will never know what really happen, but one can conclude that how the way the story is phrase Brown could have been