Truth Exposed In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story published in 1835 “Young Goodman Brown” demonstrates how the writer uses his imagination and background history of his ancestor. According to Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, Hawthorne was an “American novelist and short-story writer who was a master of the allegorical and symbolic tale. One of the greatest fiction writers in American literature, he is best known for THE SCARLET LETTER (1850) and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES (1851). Hawthorne grew up in Salem and in Raymond, Maine, on the shores of Sebago Lake.”
John Hathorne, was one of his ancestors and one of the three judges at the seventeenth-century in where witchcraft trials where common. During the seventeenth and eighteen century dozens of people were accused of and later executed for being "witches". Most of his stories were based on Hawthorne's modern themes and Hawthorne’s own religious beliefs. The puritanical atmosphere of the colonies was oppressive, and with its legacy of witch hunts and permanent obsession with the evil his reminiscences of pagan Indian presence and shamanic cults where a tradition. Nathaniel Hawthorne stories, for example, are quite
different from Emely Dickinson. According to the 1830s New England Living History Museum, “Dickinson's language was too spare and unsentimental, her rhymes and punctuation too unusual, and her perceptions too startling for conventional nineteenth-century taste. The literary men to whom she turned for advice were simply unable to understand her work;” in addition, they found it difficult to take any ‘female poet’ seriously.” She died in 1886 when she was only fifty-six and ironically fourteen years after she died her first volume of poems were published. By the 1920’s she had been discovered by a different generation of readers and acclaimed as a great artist According to the 1830’s New England Living History Museum “Hawthorne used his novels and stories to probe the recurring mysteries of sin, guilt, and moral choice, but his works were also saturated with New England's history.” In addition to that, his writing style blend realism, romanticism and Gothicism’s stories. The fascination that he had for the Puritanical influence in New England, was what made his work more famous than Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Hawthorne’s story contains a background of the witch trials that were part of his ancestors and the recognition of depravity and evil in people. Hawthorne explored human psychology through his study of the dark side of human consciousness. Also, he deeply examined every aspect of human nature. In Young Goodman Brown, the main character in the story illustrates how he sees the outside of the people. He thought that they were real Christians. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story reveals the evil when Young Goodman Brown visited the forest and finds out how there is hidden corruption in Puritan society of New England.
How can the life of an ordinary character may change from one day to another? The reality of Young Goodman Brown was living by the customs that had been taught from the implementation of the catechism to the wise and good advice from those who had admired since childhood. Brown’s convictions were based on bad people that would receive their just punishment and good would be rewarded with eternal life.
Brown was married to a woman that he considered to be a symbol of an “angel on earth.” She was his source of inspiration and support. Moreover, she has worn Pink Ribbon. Which was the proof of her kindness and innocence. Brown’s innocence as well and curiosity lead him to the forest during the night even though his heart hit him for leaving his “Poor little Faith.” The name of his wife, Faith, and the thought that he lived in this peaceful village where the good customs of the church had permeated over the people he admired and loved justified him of making more quickness on his evil purpose. Brown could feel guilty about taking a trip, but would clear his doubts about encountering an old man with long mysterious stick, yet Brown knew this forest represented evil. But unfortunately, one of the thing that Brown did not realized that the devil would not show his traditional image with horns and long tail “He beheld the figure of a man, in grave and decent attire." When Goodman Brown crosses the threshold, leaves home and leaves his wife, it marks the beginning of the search of an evil experience. The forest was already surrounded in shadows. Suddenly, Goodman Brown sees one after another, well-known people, religious and authorities, all in apparent harmony with his mysterious companion with which it will participate in a ceremony to which he is the protagonist invited.
The surprises did not allow his panic; this was not possible all these people were a farce. Certainly, Brown did not know who was using the long stick, but without debut it was the representative of the devil, who was in charge of telling and show that things were not as they seemed before his eyes in the village. The devil knew that there in the woods and a huge fire, there was a reunion with all people who Goodman considered good, his friend Closey, the clergy and many more who used to admire. All of them were undesirable persons, those did not matter to him anymore. But, the turning point came when he heard a voice were gathered he had to admit, his beloved Faith was among them, the one who was all his life. She was surrounded by bad people, only his love would prevent it from falling into panic, however, he cried “My Faith is gone” he complemented his phrase saying “There is no good on earth” (paragraph 50 page 453) The pain did not drown in the forest the noise was too much. He had to go see his beloved Faith and fight the devil. Goodman Brown cries imploring his wife to look to Heaven and turn from evil interrupting the initiation rite. Because his purpose was to find those who had considered a holy and pure life not his beloved Faith. The darkness of the forest, the scenic, the evil represented so natural and all these people that he thought they were good, leads us to think that Hawthorn’s story is full of Gothicism. The human connection and evil was well represented in his story. The darkness of the forest and all these people gathering for a ritual would make us think of a gothic story. Brown wakes up the next morning, in the woods, not knowing if he lived what he thinks he lived or if everything was just a dream.
Neither the narrator says. The only certainty is that Goodman has lost faith. From that awful night he became an uncompromising, sad, and distrustful man. Often, awaking suddenly at midnight, departed from the lap of Faith. And in the morning or late afternoon when the family knelt in prayer, scowling and muttering to himself, looked sternly at his wife and turned the head. And when he had lived long years and his white body was carried to the grave, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grandchildren, a large procession of neighbors, who were not a few, not carved on his tombstone no verse of hope since the time of his death he was
somber. The Bible says “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12) In truth this is what happened to Brown. He went to the forest knowing that evil were there and trusted in his faith and he fell. Nathaniel Hawthorne used this fiction story to remark how evil can be hidden in good people. Also, as the Young Goodman Brown risk his faith which at the end results vain; We can clearly see that because he never became the same person after that night he spent in the darkness of the forest.