Theme Of Innocence In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

In the village of Salem there is man, Goodman Brown, who is a Christian. He meets a man in the woods, who eerily seems to be expecting Goodman. When the two encounter a woman in the woods, the man is identified by her to be the Devil himself, and her a witch. He also hears the minister and deacon of his church going to the Devil’s ceremony, along with the witch. Goodman thinks that while everyone else is turning to the Devil, he must stay true to God. As the story progresses more, Goodman hears his wife Faith’s voice at the ceremony, which pushes him over the edge and he uses the Devil’s staff to go to the ceremony. Throughout this story, Hawthorne wraps pieces of Romanticism into the plot. There are elements of nature, solitude, and innocence. They help the overall theme of the story emerge because they build up the setting and path for Goodman’s loss of his innocence.
Innocence is a big element within this story. Hawthorne wrote on page one, “... letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap…” and, “...’Then God bless you!’ said Faith, with the pink ribbons…” Faith’s pink ribbons are a symbol
throughout the story. The color itself represents purity or innocence, and in the case of Goodman Brown, it represents how he views his wife - pure or not pure. After Goodman sees the people of the church and the old woman going to the Devil’s ceremony, he begins losing faith in his communities innocence, but still tries to remain innocent himself. After hearing Faith’s voice, Goodman starts yelling for her and then, “...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.” This is where Goodman knows Faith has lost her innocence and has been corrupted by the Devil, and it is here that Goodman, “grasp his staff and set forth again”. In this section, the ribbon represents both Faith’s and Goodman’s purity, because as it leaves her hair and flutters down, Faith is in the ceremony and Goodman takes hold of the Devil’s staff, leaving behind his Puritan ways. This moment is the best example of the theme in this story - and one of the strongest, most prominent Romantic characteristics - because it shows Goodman changing his ways in a matter of seconds from virtuous to sinful. The next important element in this story is solitude.
As Goodman was walking into the woods, Hawthorne wrote, “It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that, with lonely footsteps, he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.” This passage sets the stage for a creepy feeling of seclusion and suspense. Without the isolation within this story, Goodman would not be witnessing everyone passing by without them knowing, rather, he would be engaged with them. This would cause him to be influenced by the other characters within the story, and we would no longer be able to see Goodman inevitably succumb to the temptation of the Devil by himself (the loss of his innocence), which is the overall theme of the
story.
Finally, nature is the third big element of Romanticism in the story. Hawthorne says, “He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind.” This passage makes the reader feel like they are being swallowed by the forest, which has the atmosphere of evil. Later in the story, it says, “The road grew wilder and drearier, and more faintly traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward, with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil. The whole forest was peopled with frightful sounds; the creaking of the trees, the howling of wild beasts, and the yell of Indians; while, sometimes the wind tolled like a distant church-bell, and sometimes gave a broad roar around the traveller, as if all Nature were laughing him to scorn.” Both of these passages can be seen as Goodman’s path towards losing his innocence. The first quote is a milder, less eerie portrayal of the forest, which is when Goodman has complete faith in staying pure. This is before he starts seeing people going off to the Devil’s ceremony. The second quote shows the progression of evil. After Goodman saw everyone who he viewed as the purest go to a ceremony of the Devil, he begins losing faith. That is when the forest is described in a such an intense, malefic, way. Directly after this, Goodman took up the staff and flew into the ceremony. Throughout the story, nature shadows Goodman’s path into the hands of the Devil - his loss of innocence.
Overall, the theme is evident throughout the entire story through characteristics of American Romanticism. It is displayed through the Solitude of the setting, the Innocence of characters, and the portrayal of nature from beginning to end. These three characteristics are intertwined with the plot and theme, which is the inevitable loss of innocence, to elegantly make the story flow perfectly from start to finish with the reader engaged.