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). Goodman learns that sin is a certainty for any human being despite
In his case, he ends up losing faith in humanity as well because his expedition along a dark path led to his uncertainty. For Brown loses the good in him too within the darkness he encounters. Once Goodman loses his faith, he becomes a changed man since he recognizes there is no good on earth without this strong, unyielding belief (392). Then again, Goodman gives up on his God afterwards because he ends up treating Faith coldly towards the end. As a result, his experience allows his fears to take over because Brown abandons both his faith (wife, town and religion). Since he allowed his experience to affect his way of thinking, he too joins the hypocrites in his society as he goes against his sermons and begins to judge others. In the process, he also deserts God thus his future life after the forest incident turns him into a hopeless person suggestive of the version he saw in the darkness (Dobie,