Preview

Young Goodman Brown Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
407 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Young Goodman Brown Summary
The story of “Young Goodman Brown” is a story about a young man, Goodman Brown, who goes on a journey to meet the Devil. He is guided through the dark forest by the Devil himself, who is disguised as his grandfather. When Brown reaches his destination he discovers that not only the “holy” people who live in his town are devil worshipers, but ironically his wife, Faith, was converting to become a devil worshiper that night. Brown did not give in to the unholy ceremony but was unlucky to stop his from becoming a part of the cult. In the end Brown woke up back in the forest the next morning unaware if his experience was real or just a dream. However, the experience changed him because he now sees that not everyone in Salem is who they say they
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Compare And Contrast Young Goodman Brown And The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Compare And Contrast Young Goodman Brown And The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

    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,…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Hypocrisy In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analysis Of Hypocrisy In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    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).…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    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…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism And Allegory In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Symbolism And Allegory In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    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.…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    young goodman brown
    • 1797 Words
    • 5 Pages

    young goodman brown

    1. I think Brown experienced a real meeting with devil worshippers in the forest. However it seems that as the story progressed it was more likely to be a dream instead of a real experience. I reconsidered the meeting with actual devil worshippers because Goodman wasn’t sure if it was a dream, he even thought that it was a bad omen, and also if it had been real then there would’ve been more meetings throughout his life.…

    • 1797 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Theme Of Innocence In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages

    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.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Destruction Of Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Destruction Of Faith In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    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.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    village of Salem
    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages

    village of Salem

    1. The village of Salem, a community of god-fearing Puritans. The young man named Goodman Brown says goodbye to his wife, leaving his home before the journey into the forest. Faith, wearing pink ribbons in her cap, asks him stay home because she has troubling thoughts. He will not return until next morning. Goodman Brown sets off on a road through a dark forest and the thoughts of the devil in the forest do not leave his head. Man is the figure of the devil. Goodman Brown occasionally wants to turn back and return to the faith, but he continues to go forward. On the way, Brown meets an old woman, whom he knew as a pious and honorable woman, but the outcome is a witch on her way to the ceremony, the devil in the forest. Soon he heard voices drifting from the ceremony and finds in them the voice of faith. Brown finds a crowd of people from the village, he knows people who have come to worship the devil. He experiences a shock upon teach of them his angelic wife Faith. When a Shape of Evil prepares to baptize the newcomers into the mystery of sin, Goodman Brown tells his wife: Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One. But as soon as he uttered the phrase, is one of the forests. He returns to the village and then life goes on. Was it a dream or reality? Brown did not find an answer. In any case, it will never be the same; he becomes suspicious, cautious, reserved. Brown lived my life in fear and despondency.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Weekly Report #1
    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Weekly Report #1

    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.…

    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Young Goodman Brown: Perception Of Witchcraft Then And Now
    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Young Goodman Brown: Perception Of Witchcraft Then And Now

    Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown was set in the seventeenth century when witchcraft was considered a wholly evil practice that would send the practitioner directly to hell. This sets the stage for the story as Young Goodman Brown meets with the devil in a dark forest and attends what is described as a meeting of the damned where fires blaze and people stand around talking and singing. One might wonder what would happen if Young Goodman Brown found himself in our world today. Witchcraft is no longer considered a soul-endangering, ticket to hell, but is now mainstream entertainment for our children.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Young Goodman Brown Ambiguity
    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Young Goodman Brown Ambiguity

    When interpreting Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown", one can decide Hawthorne's intentional ambiguity towards Goodman Brown's encounter with the devil in the forest. Throughout the story, textual evidence influences the reader to discover that the meeting with the Devil did actually occur in reality.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism And Imagery In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Symbolism And Imagery In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    The story begins with Goodman Brown leaving his wife, Faith, for an unknown errand in the forest. Despite Faith begging him not to go, Brown leaves that night. The reader later learns that Goodman Brown had made a decision to meet with the devil in the forest. This expresses that Brown had a strong faith before he entered the forest and even…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Goodman Brown Delusion
    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Goodman Brown Delusion

    When faced with a realization that everything you have known to be good and true is actually an illusion, is the very moment your world begins to fall apart. Goodman Brown begins a spiritual journey with the purist token of evil as a guide. When he slowly discovers that the world he has known is a deception of his traumatized mind. Goodman Brown resides in the perfect God fearing community, until he discovers that the God they fear may not be the Puritan deity he once knew. Faith is a peculiar name for Goodman Brown’s young wife, given the outcome of his situation. Does Faith exist outside of Goodman’s mind, or is she actually a representation of his faith? I believe these are all characteristics of not…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay Comparing Young Goodman Brown And The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow
    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Essay Comparing Young Goodman Brown And The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

    Young Goodman Brown, is a gothic short story written in the setting of Puritan New England, about the struggle a young “Goodman” by the name of Brown and the fight to maintain his innocence’s as he embarks on a journey through the forest with an elder man who symbolizes to be the devil himself. Nathaniel…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lottery
    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Lottery

    Young Goodman Brown is a young man who fits his name. He is innocent and believes the community is as harmless as they appear. However his innocence has blinded him to the reality of the dark world. Brown’s family, his wife, and respected members of the community such as Goody Cloyse and Deacon Gookin, have all submitted to the devil. Brown gives in by going to the ceremony, but is permanently scarred and shaken by the experience. He no longer trusts anyone in the community or fully loves his wife again. The beliefs he thought that everyone had were corrupted when he discovered their alliance with the devil. Each of these people followed one another, disregarding their personal morals. This made all the characters seem spineless and unfaithful. This shows Hawthorne’s themes of not all things are as they seem, standing firm in your beliefs, doing what you know to be right and not following the crowd just because of a popular decision.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics