Essay/Term paper: Young goodman brown

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The Downfall of Young Goodman Brown "Young Goodman

Brown", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with

allegory. "Young Goodman Brown" is a moral story which is

told through the perversion of a religious leader. In "Young

Goodman Brown", Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister

who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his

relations with the community after he meets with the devil,

and causes him to live the life of an exile in his own

community. "Young Goodman Brown" begins when Faith,

Brown's wife, asks him not to go on an "errand". Goodman

Brown says to his "love and (my) Faith" that "this one night I

must tarry away from thee." When he says his "love" and his

"Faith", he is talking to his wife, but he is also talking to his

"faith" to God. He is venturing into the woods to meet with

the Devil, and by doing so, he leaves his unquestionable faith

in God with his wife. He resolves that he will "cling to her

skirts and follow her to Heaven." This is an example of the

excessive pride because he feels that he can sin and meet

with the Devil because of this promise that he made to

himself. There is a tremendous irony to this promise because

when Goodman Brown comes back at dawn; he can no

longer look at his wife with the same faith he had before.

When Goodman Brown finally meets with the Devil, he

declares that the reason he was late was because "Faith kept

me back awhile." This statement has a double meaning

because his wife physically prevented him from being on

time for his meeting with the devil, but his faith to God i

psychologically delayed his meeting with the devil. The Devil

had with him a staff that "bore the likeness of a great black

snake". The staff which looked like a snake is a reference to

the snake in the story of Adam and Eve. The snake led

Adam and Eve to their destruction by leading them to the

Tree of Knowledge. The Adam and Eve story is similar to

Goodman Brown in that they are both seeking unfathomable

amounts of knowledge. Once Adam and Eve ate from the

Tree of Knowledge they were expelled from their paradise.

The Devil's staff eventually leads Goodman Brown to the

Devil's ceremony which destroys Goodman Brown's faith in

his fellow man, therefore expelling him from his utopia.

Goodman Brown almost immediately declares that he kept

his meeting with the Devil and no longer wishes to continue

on his errand with the Devil. He says that he comes from a

"race of honest men and good Christians" and that his father

had never gone on this errand and nor will he. The Devil is

quick to point out however that he was with his father and

grandfather when they were flogging a woman or burning an

Indian village, respectively. These acts are ironic in that they

were bad deeds done in the name of good, and it shows that

he does not come from "good Christians." When Goodman

Brown's first excuse not to carry on with the errand proves

to be unconvincing, he says he can't go because of his wife,

"Faith". And because of her, he can not carry out the errand

any further. At this point the Devil agrees with him and tells

him to turn back to prevent that "Faith should come to any

harm" like the old woman in front of them on the path.

Ironically, Goodman Brown's faith is harmed because the

woman on the path is the woman who "taught him his

catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual

adviser." The Devil and the woman talk and afterward,

Brown continues to walk on with the Devil in the disbelief of

what he had just witnessed. Ironically, he blames the woman

for consorting with the Devil but his own pride stops him

from realizing that his faults are the same as the woman's.

Brown again decides that he will no longer to continue on his

errand and rationalizes that just because his teacher was not

going to heaven, why should he "quit my dear Faith, and go

after her". At this, the Devil tosses Goodman Brown his staff

(which will lead him out of his Eden) and leaves him.

Goodman Brown begins to think to himself about his

situation and his pride in himself begins to build. He

"applauds himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a

conscience he should meet his minister...And what calm

sleep would be his...in the arms of Faith!" This is ironic

because at the end of the story, he can not even look Faith

in the eye, let alone sleep in her arms. As Goodman Brown

is feeling good about his strength in resisting the Devil, he

hears the voices of the minister and Deacon Gookin. He

overhears their conversation and hears them discuss a

"goodly young woman to be taken in to communion" that

evening at that night's meeting and fears that it may be his

Faith. When Goodman Brown hears this he becomes weak

and falls to the ground. He "begins to doubt whether there

really was a Heaven above him" and this is a key point when

Goodman Brown's faith begins to wain. Goodman Brown in

panic declares that "With Heaven above, and Faith below, I

will yet stand firm against the devil!" Again, Brown makes a

promise to keep his faith unto God. Then "a black mass of

cloud" goes in between Brown and the sky as if to block his

prayer from heaven. Brown then hears what he believed to

be voices that he has before in the community. Once

Goodman Brown begins to doubt whether this is really what

he had heard or not, the sound comes to him again and this

time it is followed by "one voice, of a young woman".

Goodman believes this is Faith and he yells out her name

only to be mimicked by the echoes of the forest, as if his

calls to Faith were falling on deaf ears. A pink ribbon flies

through the air and Goodman grabs it. At this moment, he

has lost all faith in the world and declares that there is "no

good on earth." Young Goodman Brown in this scene is

easily manipulated simply by the power of suggestion. The

suggestion that the woman in question is his Faith, and

because of this, he easily loses his faith. Goodman Brown

then loses all of his inhibitions and begins to laugh insanely.

He takes hold of the staff which causes him to seem to "fly

along the forest-path". This image alludes to that of Adam

and Eve being led out of the Garden of Eden as is Goodman

Brown being led out of his utopia by the Devil's snakelike

staff. Hawthorne at this point remarks about "the instinct that

guides mortal man to evil". This is a direct statement from the

author that he believes that man's natural inclination is to lean

to evil than good. Goodman Brown had at this point lost his

faith in God, therefore there was nothing restraining his

instincts from moving towards evil because he had been lead

out from his utopian image of society. At this point,

Goodman Brown goes mad and challenges evil. He feels

that he will be the downfall of evil and that he is strong

enough to overcome it all. This is another demonstration of

Brown's excessive pride and arrogance. He believes that he

is better than everyone else in that he alone can destroy evil.

Brown then comes upon the ceremony which is setup like a

perverted Puritan temple. The altar was a rock in the middle

of the congregation and there were four trees surrounding

the congregation with their tops ablaze, like candles. A red

light rose and fell over the congregation which cast a veil of

evil over the congregation over the devil worshippers.

Brown starts to take notice of the faces that he sees in the

service and he recognizes them all, but he then realizes that

he does not see Faith and "hope came into his heart". This is

the first time that the word "hope" ever comes into the story

and it is because this is the true turning point for Goodman

Brown. If Faith was not there, as he had hoped, he would

not have to live alone in his community of heathens, which he

does not realize that he is already apart of. Another way that

the hope could be looked at is that it is all one of "the

Christian triptych". (Capps 25) The third part of the triptych

which is never mentioned throughout the story is charity. If

Brown had had "charity" it would have been the "antidote

that would have allowed him to survive without despair the

informed state in which he returned to Salem." (Camps 25)

The ceremony then begins with a a cry to "Bring forth the

converts!" Surprisingly Goodman Brown steps forward. "He

had no power to retreat one step, nor to resist, even in

thought...". Goodman Brown at this point seems to be in a

trance and he loses control of his body as he is

unconsciously entering this service of converts to the devil.

The leader of the service than addresses the crowd of

converts in a disturbing manner. He informs them that all the

members of the congregation are the righteous, honest, and

incorruptible of the community. The sermon leader then

informs the crowd of their leader's evil deeds such as

attempted murder of the spouse and wife, adultery, and

obvious blasphemy. After his sermon, the leader informs

them to look upon each other and Goodman Brown finds

himself face to face with Faith. The leader begins up again

declaring that "Evil is the nature of mankind" and he

welcomes the converts to "communion of your race". (The

"communion of your race" statement reflects to the irony of

Brown's earlier statement that he comes from "a race of

honest men and good Christians.") The leader than dips his

hand in the rock to draw a liquid from it and "to lay the mark

of baptism upon their foreheads". Brown than snaps out

from his trance and yells "Faith! Faith! Look up to Heaven

and resist the wicked one!" At this, the ceremony ends and

Brown finds himself alone. He does not know whether Faith,

his wife, had kept her faith, but he finds himself alone which

leads him to believe that he is also alone in his faith.

Throughout the story, Brown lacks emotion as a normal

person would have had. The closest Brown comes to

showing an emotion is when "a hanging twig, that had been

all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew." The

dew on his cheek represents a tear that Brown is unable to

produce because of his lack of emotion. Hawthorne shows

that Brown has "no compassion for the weaknesses he sees

in others, no remorse for his own sin, and no sorrow for his

loss of faith." (Easterly 339) His lack of remorse and

compassion "condemns him to an anguished life that is

spiritually and emotionally dissociated." (Easterly 341) This

scene is an example of how Goodman Brown chose to

follow his head rather than his heart. Had Brown followed

his heart, he may have still lived a good life. If he followed

with his heart, he would have been able to sympathize with

the community's weaknesses, but instead, he listened to his

head and excommunicated himself from the community

because he only thought of them as heathens.. "Young

Goodman Brown" ends with Brown returning to Salem at

early dawn and looking around like a "bewildered man." He

cannot believe that he is in the same place that he just the

night before; because to him, Salem was no longer home.

He felt like an outsider in a world of Devil worshippers and

because his "basic means of order, his religious system, is

absent, the society he was familiar with becomes

nightmarish." (Shear 545) He comes back to the town

"projecting his guilt onto those around him." (Tritt 114)

Brown expresses his discomfort with his new surroundings

and his excessive pride when he takes a child away from a

blessing given by Goody Cloyse, his former Catechism

teacher, as if he were taking the child "from the grasp of the

fiend himself." His anger towards the community is

exemplified when he sees Faith who is overwhelmed with

excitement to see him and he looks "sternly and sadly into

her face, and passed on without a greeting." Brown cannot

even stand to look at his wife with whom he was at the

convert service with. He feels that even though he was at the

Devil's service, he is still better than everyone else because

of his excessive pride. Brown feels he can push his own

faults on to others and look down at them rather than look at

himself and resolve his own faults with himself. Goodman

Brown was devastated by the discovery that the potential

for evil resides in everybody. The rest of his life is destroyed

because of his inability to face this truth and live with it. The

story, which may have been a dream, and not a real life

event, planted the seed of doubt in Brown's mind which

consequently cut him off from his fellow man and leaves him

alone and depressed. His life ends alone and miserable

because he was never able to look at himself and realize that

what he believed were everyone else's faults were his as

well. His excessive pride in himself led to his isolation from

the community. Brown was buried with "no hopeful verse

upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom." Works

Cited Capps, Jack L. "Hawthorne's Young Goodman

Brown", Explicator, Washington D.C., 1982 Spring, 40:3,

25. Easterly, Joan Elizabeth. "Lachrymal Imagery in

Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown", Studies in Short

Fiction, Newberry, S.C., 1991 Summer, 28:3, 339-43.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodmam Brown", The

Story and Its Writer, 4th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston:

Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1995, 595-604.

Shear, Walter. "Cultural Fate and Social Freedom in Three

American Short Stories", Studies in Short Fiction,

Newberry, S.C., 1992 Fall, 29:4, 543-549. Tritt, Michael.

"Young Goodman Brown and the Psychology of

Projection", Studies in Short Fiction, Newberry, S.C., 1986

Winter, 23:1, 113-117.