In this story, the devil, one of the characters in this story, convinces Goodman Brown to go into the “evil side.” He conveys both ethos and pathos in order to persuade Goodman Brown to follow the devil and join the people who are in the evil side. The devil mentions about Goodman Brown’s grandfather and father, and says that they have connection with him. He tells Goodman Brown that he helped grandfather to hit the Quaker with a whip, and gave father “pitch-pine knot to set fire on the Indian village.” In addition, the devil talks to Goody Cloyse who told Goodman Brown about Christianity and shows Goodman Brown that Goody Cloyse is also his friend. These pathos and ethos represent Puritans place great importance on the tie or link with other…
The character Goodman Brown, from “Young Goodman Brown,” partakes in a journey into the forest during the late evening where he undertakes many obscure paths that transform his attitude with life completely. Goodman Brown starts off as an innocent man until he ventures deeper into the forest and meets with an elderly man that possibly represents the devil. The stranger began to corrupt Goodman Brown’s mind as they proceeded along the journey. For example, “Goodman Brown believes in the Christian nature of Goody Cloyse, the minister,…
The rhetorical technique of the devil, who met young Goodman Brown in the forest used pathos. The devil convinced Goodman Brown by talking with him and also mentioned that he knew Goodman Brown’s grandfather and his father and even helped them for doing wicked things as well. Those of things betrayed the god. In that period, the puritans believed that all of humanity existed in depravity, but the god has destined some to unconditional election through unmentioned grace. For example, “his grandfather lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem.” The devil persuaded Goodman Brown that people, even his grandfather, were evil. And the devil also persuaded Goodman Brown betrayed the…
During his experience in the forest, Goodman Brown begins to understand fully that his community is full of hypocrisy, which leads him to being distrustful to those around him. This is because his search for spiritual enlightenment leads him to lose his faith in God. What’s more, his nighttime journey forces him to question the devil’s existence in the darkness that he finds himself. In addition, he begins to understand that people use religion to hide their evil deeds. Such is the case he associates with his father and grandfather violent atrocities disguised as their moral obligations (388). In fact the scene leaves the reader with questions about the reality Goodman Brown faces as he witnesses a witch, the devil worshippers around the alter and a spooky dark cloud. However, the occurrence the devil shows him becomes the important message and the source of Goodman’s misgivings (Bloom, 42).…
Was this a sort of wickedness that the forest had left upon him or was it a dream that was so evil and seemed so real that Goodman Brown now does not trust anyone worth trusting, including his wife Faith? It states that “Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild of a witch-meeting?” (Hawthorne, 1835, para. 70). Whether that be the case or not, there was a sort of omen upon Goodman Brown that left him untrustworthy of anyone. This shows that his character was pure and in God’s faith and whether the events in the forest were real or not, his faith was with God and not the Devil. Goodman Brown had good morals and his intentions were…
The first thing Goodman Brown hears when he arrives is “a familiar [tune] in the choir of the village meetinghouse” (Hawthorne 2213). This comparison immediately conjures a setting in which the piety and perfection preached by the church is contrasted by the harsh reality of human imperfection. True to its set up, the dark sable figure presumed to be the devil delivers a conversion speech for the Goodman Brown by lecturing how Puritans “shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward. […] This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds: how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their households” (Hawthorne 2214). By highlighting the “wonton words” and “secret deeds” that Puritans hideaway in fear of being found out, the devil elucidates the hypocrisy that the Puritans center their life upon; indeed, Young Goodman Brown’s world is shattered when he realizes that what appears to be “lives of righteousness” are actually tainted by atrocious sin. Through the shadowy figure and the aura of the final demon meeting, the author repeatedly conveys the message that perfection…
The short story “Young Goodman Brown” begins by introducing a woman named faith and a man named Goodman Brown. They have just recently wed and Mr. brown tells his wife he will go on one last trip to meet with the devil to take part in some forms of devilish acts. The name Goodman Brown is the first clear insight on the authors concept of mankind’s, which is that even good men can become brown. Brown in this instant refers to that even men who are good do take part in devilish acts, and commit sinful actions thus causing them to become brown. The story depicts Goodman Brown wife Faith as the embodiment of someone who is holy, and Goodman brown states when he returns he’ll use her to pull himself back into the graces of god. Which also demonstrating…
Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” uses symbolism and allegory to show that people inevitably surrender to the darkness inside of them even if their initial intentions are pure. Hawthorne describes Goodman Brown as a religious man who is drawn towards sin and darkness soon after his marriage. Goodman Brown enters the forest that signifies sin, but resists temptations to join the devil until he finally loses his faith and gives in to evil. Symbolism and allegory are used in the story to help the reader learn about how Brown loses faith in his Puritan society and distrusts the innocence of society.…
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.…
Goodman Brown is a faithful Christian until he begins to go on a journey to find his spiritual path. We are lead to believe that he arranges a meeting with the devil, by the devil later stating that Goodman is late. His wife, Faith, also a metaphor for his relationship with God test him and keeps him back from his journey for a small time.…
Is Young Goodman Brown's encountering with the Devil merely a test of his own faith? Or perhaps, is he simply intrigued by the mystique of evil forces that lie outside the realm of what he considers acceptable behavior in his Puritan times? "With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose" (634). Through his writing Nathaniel Hawthorne is able to develop a distinct set of doctrine that existed within the mind of Goodman Brown. Thus, the reader can assume that one trait of Puritan Society is a lack of tolerance for forgiveness. It is no wonder that Puritanism is known for a somber outlook on life,…
Young Goodman Brown: This story was confusing at first, but after the second read through I found the story of Goodman Brown to be a great revelation that people aren’t always who they seem to be. When Goodman Brown meets up with the older man, he is essentially meeting up with the devil. The devil then weaves Goodman Brown into what is described as a dream, although to me as well as Goodman Brown, it is possible that it was not a dream. In Goodman Brown’s “dream”, Goodman Brown is lead to a sort of “evil ceremony” where he discovers many surprising people attending such as the minister of the church, Deacon Gookin, and his own wife, Faith. Seeing these people who Goodman Brown thought to be pious, Goodman Brown awakens from his “dream” with a new vision of the world. After the devil’s “dream” Goodman Brown is convinced that everyone is evil and loses his trust in the people of Salem. It was when Faith, Goodman Brown’s wife, was revealed to be attending the ceremony did Goodman Brown really start to lose his trust. When Goodman Brown saw his wife, as well as the ribbons falling from her cap, Goodman Brown lost this idea of female purity. Again, at first the story of Goodman Brown was a little confusing, but the second time around the story represented the great illusion that all people are pure due to moral choice and the illusion of female purity.…
A martyr is defined as a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause. To many people back in eighteen fifty-nine, this defined a man named John Brown in many ways. John Brown was a devoted abolitionist who had been important in the conflict of slavery in Kansas. In October of eighteen fifty-nine, Brown led an interracial group of men who took over a federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, hoping to spark a slave revolt. To his dismay, Brown and some of his followers were captured after a gunfight with federal troops. He was later tried and found guilty for murder, treason, and conspiracy. Browns actions and execution led many people to believe he was in fact a “martyr”.…
As children people seem to know nothing about the presence of evil on earth. The only “bad guys” we see or are aware of are on television or in comic books. Eventually everyone experiences certain events in their lives that change their whole perspective on life. We all become aware of evil on earth. This knowledge can either bring us down or we can brush it off and go on with our lives. In “Young Goodman Brown” a young man is confronted with life altering events that change his perspective of the world and the people of Salem village. These events, and the knowledge gained from them, create a miserable life for Brown. Hawthorne uses supernatural events, the uncertainty created by the dark forest setting, and encounters with trusted moral advisors to cause the rest of Brown’s life to become gloomy.…
1. The two main settings in “Young Goodman Brown” are the forest and the colonial village of Salem, Massachusetts. The two different times of the setting are very important to the symbolization of the story. In the beginning of the story, Goodman Brown sets out on his journey at sunset; to set out at sunset it symbolized darkness, which in turn symbolizes evil. This presets the tone of the story. In the end when he is returning home, the time changes and it is daylight, and this symbolized innocence and a sort freedom from the terror he had just experienced.…