Hypocrisy In Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”, you can see the theme of hypocrisy of religious zealotism in overflowing symbolism. Hawthorne was not very subtle with his symbolism. The first symbolism used is Goodman Brown’s wife’s name, Faith. Hawthorne made this her name to show the Brown is departing from his faith for the night. Faith begs for Brown to stay with her, but he is insistent upon leaving. He leaves at sunset, Hawthorne uses sensory language to show that the night gets darker the farth Brown gets from faith. He is using this to symbolize God’s light leaving Brown’s heart and body.
As Goodman Brown gets into the woods, Hawthorne again uses sensory language to describe the dark, chaotic woods and it’s poor visibility. According
However, the Devil says, “We are but a little way in the forest, yet” and urges Brown to continue on, telling him there will be a chance to turn back after he hears the devil out thoroughly. The Devil lists off many people in Brown’s life that the Devil claims are in his power, righteous men and women who carry sin in their hearts. The Devil even says that Brown’s father and grandfather were under his power. He explains to Brown how they carried out brutal acts in the name of God that were actually the Devil’s work. Goodman’s grandfather lashed innocent Quaker women in Salem because they were thought to be witches. His father set fire to an Indian village in King Philip's War, he used a pitch-pine knot that the Devil had brought to him. Goodman tries to deny such rumors about his family, citing that his family are people of prayer and good work, and would not do such wickedness. The Devil replies that he has many acquaintances that are people of prayer and says, "The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wine with me; the selectmen, of divers towns, make me their chairman; and a majority of the Great and General Court are firm supporters of my interest. The governor and I, too- but these are state-secrets." (672) This connects to modern times in an all too real way. It is almost daily on the news that we see how some member of a church has stolen money from the church; or a politician has committed a crime. I have no doubt that 99% of people today commit at least one sin a day. Honestly, I probably couldn't count the amount of times I've already sinned this morning. So I find it completely plausible to imagine such even people such as Governors or Deacons committing sin in the name of the