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Evil In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

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Evil In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the weakness Goodman Brown has in distinguishing between right and wrong. The main character, Goodman Brown, allows the danger of Puritan beliefs about evil to overtake the faith he has in God. Goodman Brown’s belief in faith and goodness comes into question when he is presented by the devil himself. The story constantly emphasizes the point of faith and purity, so for evil to overpower Goodman Brown is ironic in a society where Puritans base their lives on the fundamentals of goodness and religion. In “Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Goodman Brown’s meeting with the devil, to show when Goodman loses his belief in faith he begins to distrust
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